Metal Roof

Finished the roof on the house today. Sure glad this project is done.

Hey that looks nice. Have you ever seen the tin roof that looks like a shingle roof? Rolled metal.

That looks good. I put metal on mine several years ago. After 15 years shingles were shot. I figures if I lived another 15 it would be same thing again. Hoping the metal will outlast me.

Every last one of my barns has got a metal roof. About 7 years or so ago my house asphalt roof got replaced with a 30 year asphalt roof, and they did a great job. Every Fall and Spring when I get up there to remove the oak leaves and then rinse the gutters out, there's always the colored gravely asphalt that wore off the shingles, little by little in the gutters. You don't know how many times I've told myself...should have gone metal. Decades ago when I lived in Romeoville, IL, there were and still are plenty of homes that had the same galvanized steel roofs that they had on them when they were built in the late '50's, not even discovered. A bit noisy during hard rains, but other than that...I should have gone industrial grade galvanized steel roof on my house. I'd be dead 300 years and it'd still be there.

Good for you.

Mark

Now you are going to get George all bent out of shape on what all is wrong with metal roofs.

Every building here has a metal roof. Put steel on the house 16 years ago and all the out buildings got a steel roof over the existing shingles. Friend put 20 year shingles on 4 years ago and they are all curled already.

Curling shingles is a sign of poor ventilation, metal won't fix trapped moisture in attic.

Have metal on my house and 2 rental houses,love it.Never did like shingles anyway.

looks great no more shingle problem

Just a few questions for Massey,
Will an insurance company or the manufacture cover hail damage on a metal roofs?
A guy I worked with his insurance companies wouldn't. Will the manufacture cover them against hail damage for 50 years?

Will a home burn faster with a metal roof? A house about 2 miles away burnt like a book of matches. I first thought it was a double wide trailer the way it went up, it wasn't. Good news, after the fire, the metal roof looked good. Metal trapped the heat inside, house was a total loss. All the fire department could do is spray water through the widows.

Another neighbor has tarps over his metal roof. Guess his fasteners came loose or better yet someone didn't know how to install it properly, used the wrong fasteners. My youngest sister and husband owns a very large pole barn used as boat storage near a lake in northern Indiana. They replaced all the fasteners, still had a problem. Finally put new purlins over old metal and installed a new metal roof over the old one. The longer the metal, the more it contracts and expands, the more you will have fastener failure.

Does it sound like you are inside a steel drum when it raining? My sister's house did. I couldn't sleep.


There are many barns in the country, rusty looks good on the roofs. Some old barns have missing metal.

If you ever add on to your place, good luck getting the new metal to match your 20 year old metal.

Do HMO's ban the use of metal? I know a guy who put a pole barn in his backyard. HMO took him to court. He had to tear it down. Not everyone is a fan of metal.
geo.

If you used good steel and put it on right you won't have to touch that roof again unless a tornado comes through. Every roof on my farm is steel and I have no regrets about the steel itself. A couple of the early ones I put on could have been done better because I was young and inexperienced at the time. I have had steel like yours on the house for 13 years and it still looks great. All of the steel on my roofs is the higher quality, higher dollar steel and so far I have no hail dents. The oldest roof is all of forty years old and I might have to go up there soon to replace the nails with screws because I used one inch thick nailers instead of 2x4's. Just plain poor installation, not the fault of the steel itself.

George You just do not like metal roofs!!! It is kind of funny. Until about 60 years ago ALL roofs where metal or slate. Then those materials got to be expensive so asphalt shingles came about.

The main house here has standing seam steel roofing on it. It has lasted 106 years so far. I have the receipts from when it was installed with a fifty year warranty. It has been through many hail storms in that time and survived fine.

If your putting on 27 gauge "cheap" steel roofing then your going to have trouble. Install a good product and it will last you the rest of your life.

Are metal roofs on homes a regional thing? Live in Florida now and see a few. More across Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, etc. But, the midwest, Southern Minnesota in particular where I grew up, metal sheds, an occasional barn, but rarely on a home.

He has roof vents so circulation should be good. Shingles are curled on sun exposed sides only. Old 20 year shingles on my garage curled after only 8 years.....not insulated, no sheet rock, just bare studs, not a circulation issue. Shingle manufacture companies have a license to print money.

He is right most shingle roofs that have trouble don't have enough insulation and not enough attic ventilation . That means a lot of eve vents plus ridge vents . I have two peck vents with motors that turn on when it gets 100 degrees in attic. You also can't push insulation up between rafters at eves of roof. You have to use proper vent between rafters so air can travel up under roof ( I have 20" of insulation in attic). My first roof lasted 31 years and I just put on a new 30 year roof

Every building on my farm has a metal roof and even my house. It is hard to find a roof in this area that does not have a metal roof.

Not sure what you are looking at, but there were no "curling shingles" on any of the roofs I just finished. Everything is heavily vented and 0 moisture in any attic. Also, since I installed the steel on the house, we've had 2 very heavy (1/2" in 15 minutes) rains. If anything, this roof is quieter than just the shingles. Man does the water come flying off though.

What Seller says.

I not only have eve vents, I have vents in roof about every ten feet and a 1500 cfm power vent. My shingles are 18years old. No curdling. If you have curdling, metal will trap the moisture. Then you will have mold issues like at the Sullivan CO jail
35 years later rust under metal. $20000 to fix roof, mold and electrical damage caused by the roof.

Next time I am in Sullivan, I'm going to see if they put shingles or metal back on.

Put a metal roof on correctly and it will outlast you. Ignorance in putting the roof on does not mean the roofing is bad.

JD,
I no secret, I don't share many like for metal. I've seen too many things happen with metal. You are right, get the right stuff and roofs can last a long time. I'm now using 35 year shingles. There are 50 year ones now. Law of averages, hail replaces my shingles.

I've seen too many things that I don't like about metal.

Sorry if I upset people by listings the cons of metal.

No chance you will put metal on my roofs and I have many roofs with my rentals.
Geo

We love metal. Will never put asphalt type shingles on anything again. My Grandparent's house has metal shingles that replaced wood shingles almost 100 years ago. One of my shops has metal shingles that were probably nearly 100 years old when I put them on in 1987.
Richard in NW SC

Up here in the winter you can tell the houses that have poor insulation and ventilation in the winter by all the ice on bottom edge of roof and large icicles hanging from eves.

It looks very nice.

When our asphalt shingles need replacing, we will likely go to a steel roof. Around southern MN, we are seeing them more frequently.

The old organic shingles would curl on the corners and when hail or wind came the corners would break off. The fiberglas shingles are thinner and won't curl but will loose the granules and are subject to thermal cracking. As an insurance adjuster I worked roof claims for over 40 years.

I hear people talking about roofs with shingles being "shot" after 10-15 years and can only conclude they put the cheapest shingles they could find on the roof. In my youth my brothers and I helped my dad shingle every roof on the old farmstead (renovations he did after a few decent years farming) - about 40-43 years ago. Basic 3 tab Shasta white shingles on everything from the house to the barn to several smaller sheds. The roofs have outlasted the sheds they covered in some cases, only one had to stripped and reshingled a few years ago. The one my brothers did without my dad supervising while getting into his beer - that one was missing a lot of nails. Granted they are all ready to be reshingled now - but my brother has collected hail insurance on every one of them at least once so you can't beat free.

The problem I had with singles was the singles pulling right thru the nails.

Every wind storm I would loose a few and yes they were nailed properly.

No more shingles for me.

Sounds like cheap shingles or not put on right and tabs didn't seal down.

Congratulations George I knew you would come thru on reasons not to do metal.Your HAIL Phobia is one of the poorest excuses there is,a good Metal roof will survive almost any hail storm without damage,where NO Shingle roof will even begin to,thus INSURANCE pays,which is one of the worst excuses for SHINGLE roofing.

Also a sign of poor made shingles ! My roof had IKO shingles and those were known to of had bad batches around the time my house was built.

Not necessarily the case. Shingles have been forced to go the way of eco friendly green. Similar to paint and brake shoes they have been forced to take all the good stuff that made the old shingle perform out of the new shingles. The old roofs were likely steeper and breathed. Today in the energy efficiency effort old breathing houses have been wrapped and sealed and the weak link is the shingle. The house I live in is 108 years old and heats like a corn crib. The previous owner had updated the windows and wrapped the exterior with a 1" foam faced board before siding over. Now the air that was exchanged is forced to go through the attic to vent.

On an old story and half that hasn't been gutted and the attic reinsulated all of the moisture created in the space goes out the attic. The old 2x4 rafter space isn't enough to evacuate the moisture and the moisture condensates and freezes in the roofing layers hence promoting the deterioration of the shingle.

We had a hail storm pass through 5 years ago and junkshow caught heck. The older buildings with steep roofs faired better than the low pitch newer building on both steel and shingle. The two old gas stations with steep shingled roofs suffered only spot damage. The depot with the lower flatter roof faired worse. The old barns and school house with steep roof/ cedar shingle fair surprisingly well. Even the old 22 ga. corrugated steel performed better than the 26 ga. 8" ag steel. These cases were both on 3 or 4/ 12 pitch roofs and the corrugated suffered no claimable damage.

About 20 years ago CertainTeed came out with a new line of 25 and 35 year Shangle. What we thought of at the time a good heavy solution to the 3 tabs of the day. Within 5 years we were re-shingling those roofs because it was a poor product. Today we are directed to put high performance barriers on the roofs to minimize water leakage and promote better performance from the roofing product. Unfortunately that doesn't always translate to high performance on old assemblies. A co worker of mine has a 80 year house and fights the battle of shingling a part of his house about every 2 years. He's fed up and is going to put steel on the roof when he feels his shingles have outstayed their welcome. I myself am faced with the same plan.

The manufacturers used to do more profiles with their products. I would love to find some patterned steel that resembled the old shake/ shingle. Every so often I come across a small shed that still has it. As well I know where there are sheds with the formed 4" siding sheets and some with the brick pattern sheets. St. Nicholas just lost it's old house with the asphalt brick patterned siding. Not many of those left.

I agree with you. Today insurance companies are getting smart. Some won't cover hail damage if shingles are more than 15 years old. Indiana Farmers will, so talk to your agent. All I pay is the deductible. After a hail claim and FB insurance gave me a check for $850 on a $4200 claim, I switched to Ind Farmers. Two years, wind blew trees on 5 roofs. I collected on the 5 roofs that were put on in 1998, curtsey of hail damage.

The law of averages, hail replaces most of my roofs, just need to have the right insurance. So ask your agent and get the good insurance. geo.

(quoted from post at 21:42:35 05/17/16) I agree with you. Today insurance companies are getting smart. Some won't cover hail damage if shingles are more than 15 years old.

Click to expand...

Many companies won't cover cosmetic damage to the roof... dents and dings caused by hail or falling objects. It would have to have damage that would cause a leak to be replaced.