Fire-resistant roof system and membrane composite

Abstract

A roof assembly comprising: a roof deck; a thermoplastic membrane covering the deck; and a fabric having disposed thereon expandable graphite.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of producing a roofing composite, the method comprising:
 (i) providing a fabric having first and second planar surfaces, a coating layer disposed on said first planar surface, said coating layer including expandable graphite dispersed within a binder, and where the amount of coating disposed on the first planar surface of the fabric is substantially greater than any amount of coating disposed on the second planar surface of the fabric;   (ii) providing a membrane sheet having first and second planar surfaces; and   (iii) attaching the second planar surface of the fabric to the first planar surface of the membrane sheet.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , where the membrane sheet is a thermoplastic membrane sheet. 
     
     
         3 . The method of any of the preceding claims, where said thermoplastic membrane sheet is prepared by extruding the thermoplastic sheet. 
     
     
         4 . The method of any of the preceding claims, where the fabric is a glass fabric. 
     
     
         5 . The method of any of the preceding claims, where the coating layer derives from a polymer latex. 
     
     
         6 . The method of any of the preceding claims, where the coating layer is characterized by a weight ratio of polymer to solids of from about 0.1:1 to about 3:1. 
     
     
         7 . The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein the coating layer includes from at least 2 wt % expandable graphite. 
     
     
         8 . The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein the coating layer includes at least 8 wt % expandable graphite. 
     
     
         9 . The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein the second planar surface of the fabric is attached to the membrane sheet while the membrane sheet has a degree of tack resulting from heating the membrane. 
     
     
         10 . A membrane composite comprising:
 (i) a membrane having first and second planar surfaces; and   (ii) a fabric secured to at least a portion of the second planar surface of the membrane, where the fabric includes first and second planar surfaces, where the first planar surface of the fabric is attached to the second planar surface of the membrane, where the second planar surface of the fabric has expandable graphite disposed thereon, where the amount of expandable graphite disposed on the second planar surface of the fabric is substantially greater than any amount of expandable graphite disposed on the first planar surface of the fabric.