However while the face of both membranes and their installation are virtually identical they are very different systems on the inside.
Tpo and pvc roof.
Thermoplastic polyolefin tpo and polyvinyl chloride pvc are two of the most common roof membranes.
Consider what you need for your commercial building s roofing.
If you are up for a more chemical resistant roofing and are looking for a cost friendly option pvc roofing is the way to go.
Membrane roofing is designed to move water off the roof and poses a unique advantage to previous methods of flat roofing which usually consists of asphalt or gravel.
Tpo in a nutshell a tpo membrane is made from ethylene propylene rubber.
Restaurants or buildings with grease traps on the roof would be better served by a pvc roofing system.
Two of the hardest flat roof systems to tell apart is the pvc roof and the tpo roof.
Unlike tpo and pvc roofs that are often mechanically attached an epdm roof is most often fully adhered.
The seams are either glued with the rest of the roof different process same result or they are taped.
Petroleum or natural gas is processed to produce ethylene and chlorine is derived from salt.
Initially tpo roofing was designed to be an improved version of both pvc and epdm rubber membranes combing the benefits of both but without the disadvantages.
Tpo membrane can provide combined benefits of both epdm rubber and pvc roofs but at a more economical cost than pvc.
But the point is that glues used to fully adhere an epdm roof are.
Pvc has over 50 years of proven performance.
Both membranes are heat weldable which makes them more resistant to leaks than epdm because of a reduced number of instances of seam failures.
The most obvious similarity is that tpo thermoplastic olefin and pvc poly vinyl chloride are both thermoplastic materials.
Pvc tpo and epdm are all very resistant to uv breakdown.
Both tpo and pvc look similar but pvc has been used as a roofing material since the 1960s while tpo roofs started to be used in the 1990s.
This means that it requires glues to adhere it to what s underneath.
A pvc versus tpo comparison chart is below.
It s therefore not surprising that tpo roofing systems are quickly growing in popularity and demand in both residential and commercial flat roof markets.
For example epdm is flexible and easy to work with but it relies on adhesive seams.
Tpo and pvc both have welded seams which are very strong.
But they each have different pros and cons for use as low slope roofing membranes.
Tpo presents superior results for tear and break strengths while pvc outperforms in chemical resistance fire resistance and overall cost.
