Errol Bull of Momentive highlights silicone coatings’ role in sustainable construction
The construction industry across the Middle East is under increasing pressure to prioritise sustainability, and contractors must deliver on durability, energy efficiency, and waste reduction. Fluid-applied silicone air barriers and roof coatings can be integral to meeting those demands, offering innovative solutions that help to extend building lifespans, improve performance and increase energy efficiency.
Errol Bull, Technical Expert at Momentive, explains how silicone coatings can drive sustainable construction and restoration.
Improving Building Performance and Reducing Landfill Waste
The built environment is responsible for around 39% of energy-related global carbon emissions and a third of the world’s waste.
Reducing this impact and achieving sustainability standards such as LEED, BREEAM, and GSAS is becoming an increasingly important priority. Silicone coatings can be a big part of this solution, helping to improve buildings’ energy efficiency and extend their lifespan.
Roof restoration is a great example. Replacing a damaged roof is a resource-intensive process. It involves a lot of labour, heavy machinery, emissions, and a huge amount of landfill waste. Then, there is the carbon footprint of manufacturing and installing a new roof.
The alternative is restoration using a silicone roof coating system. This isn’t just a quicker and more cost-effective long-term solution than replacement—it can also be significantly less carbon-intensive while delaying and reducing the amount of landfill waste produced.
White, highly reflective silicone roof coatings can also be used to create cool roofs on new construction and restoration projects, especially in hot climates across the Middle East. Cool roofs lower internal building temperatures, reducing A/C demands to cut energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions.
The impact can be significant. Cool roofs have been found to lower temperatures by as much as 31°C (87.8°F) and internal building temperatures by 1.2–3.3°C (2.2 to 5.9°F). This translates into improved interior comfort and can cut air conditioning use by up to 50%, reducing energy use, maintenance requirements and carbon emissions.
These sustainability benefits go beyond individual buildings to the wider urban environment.
Cool roofs can also help to reduce the urban heat island effect. A 2024 UCL study showed that widespread adoption of cool roofs can lower peak air temperatures in cities by up to 3.6°F (2.1°C), reducing energy demand and improving public health outcomes. Again, this is an important consideration across the Middle East, where temperatures can regularly exceed 120°F (49°C) during the summer months.
Enhancing Energy Efficiency – Preventing Air and Water Leaks
Silicone air and water barrier (AWB) coatings can also help drive sustainability benefits, especially for low-carbon/net-zero-emissions builds.
Air leakage can account for up to 40% of a building’s energy loss, especially when a big difference between internal and external temperatures leads to increased A/C requirements. Controlling airflow in a building with the right AWB coating can mitigate this.
Silicone AWB coatings contribute to better insulation and temperature regulation by forming a seamless, flexible protective membrane that adheres tightly to the building exterior. In the real world, the impact of using the right silicone AWB coatings can cut energy use by up to 35% by reducing air conditioning use.
At Momentive, our Elemax™ AWB coating system has been successfully used on projects worldwide. It is designed to perform in high-temperature, high-UV environments. It was used on the flagship SoFi Stadium and entertainment complex in California, the world’s most expensive sports venue.
Elemax coating was chosen because its 100% silicone formula can permanently withstand high levels of UV, even in areas without cladding, while maintaining its elasticity and performance over the long term.
Another reason it was chosen was that Elemax AWB offers a primerless application and only requires a single coat. This can help the contractor save significant amounts of time, labour, and materials, delivering benefits in cost, timescales, and carbon compared to coatings requiring a primer and multiple coats.
Choosing Silicone Coatings – Chemistry Matters
There are two main types of silicone formulations for construction coatings: alkoxy-based silicones and oxime-based silicones. The names refer to the curing technologies used, and there are some notable differences between them regarding safety and performance.
From an ESG perspective, alkoxy has some safety benefits for contractors. Oxime silicones release MEK / MEKO (Methyl Ethyl Ketoxime) as they cure a suspected carcinogen that carries health risks. MEKO is acknowledged as a chemical of concern in certain regions worldwide, with restrictions, regulations and guidelines around its use already in place in Europe and Canada. Other regions look likely to follow.
Alkoxy-based silicones also offer performance benefits. They provide superior adhesion to various substrates and don’t need a primer, reducing application time and costs. These coatings are more flexible than Oxime-based silicone, allowing them to move with the building and remain water and airtight over the long term.
Alkoxy-based solutions can also be used to recoat buildings that already have silicone coatings applied, whereas oxime silicones can struggle to adhere to other chemistries and aged coatings.
The Future of Sustainable Construction
As the construction industry evolves to address climate change and resource scarcity, silicone AWBs and roof coatings have an important role in extending building lifespans, reducing waste, improving energy efficiency, and reducing urban heat effects.
