Reucing glare of galvanised roof

[henlan77]

I have just had new a Klip-Lok galvanised roof installed. It looks great, but is EXTREMELY bright in the sun. One poor neighbour is copping the glare at certain times of the day.

I know gal will darken with age eventually, but does anyone know if I can accelerate the ageing process without damaging the roof? Access is good and the roof is flat enough to walk on, in case I need to work on it.

Thanks in advance.

[echnidna]

paint it

[BobL]

We had a similar problem and didn't like any of the proposed solutions so we tied some 2nd hand shade cloth over the worst areas.

One proposed solution we nearly used was to spray dilute vinegar over the surface and then wash it off but apparently that leads to problems at the joints in the future.

Cheers

[henlan77]

Thanks Echidna, but I don't want to paint a brand new roof.

I was hoping there might be an easier home remedy like vinegar or something that would dull the finish without damaging the galvanising.

[henlan77]

Thanks Bob, I was wondering about Vinegar. I might do some tests on offcuts.

Any idea what the problems are with vinegar on joints? I assume by joints you mean where the sheets were cut and therefore the raw steel is exposed?

Cheers,
Henry.

[echnidna]

vinegar is ascetic acid it will break down the galvanising

[Big Shed]

Yes vinegar is acetic acid, however it can be used for this as long as it is washed off thoroughly after the metal has been etched.

I would use a phosphoric acid based metal pretreatment sold for this purpose, it is normally used on galvanised surfaces prior to painting and leaves a phosphate conversion coating on the surface.

Dulux is one company that sells this phosphoric acid based pretreatment solution, name escapes me at the moment (suffering from age onset CRAFT disease!)

This site has some useful info.

[BobL]

The vinegar solution gets into the joints and you can never really wash it away so it dries in place. Then when it rains it reactivates and keeps eating away at the join. Before long rust is initiated and . . . .

The phosphoric acid is definitely better because if it does contact the raw iron it makes insoluble iron-phosphate which binds very well to iron and prevents rust from forming.