Metal Roof ?

We Got a roofing Estimate On Our Country Church For Shingle Roof. He Also gave estimate for Metal Roof Which was only about $300 More, But That was Leaving old Shingles On. The Tear off and Disposal of old shingles is Pricey. What's the opinion of you guys here on Metal Roofs For Houses? I Suppose Its Standing Rib with no Screws showing. I didn't get to talk to the roofer yet. He Said 40 Years on metal roof.

Metal roof will last 40 years, asphalt will last 10 - 15. Price difference of $300. Easy choice!

Be sure the metal has the screws hidden, or you"ll be patching the leaks in a few years.

I had metal put over the top of my shingles about a year ago. I like it alot. Was only about $500 for me to put 40 year metal over the top of 3 or 4 layers of asfault shingles, over the top of the old wood'n shingles. Was an easy choice for me and I realy like the look of the red metal, it matches my pole barn. When what was left of Ike came through a month ago almost every one I know lost a few shingles, mine was fine.

Good luck,

Dave

Up here in the North we cannot put that many layers on. If we get a snow load on top of it the roof will be in the living quarters.

About 2 layers is all we can have. Then we have to tear off down to the sheeting and start over.

That tear off is not fun.

We built an addition on to the old farm house for my daughters day care and put steel on it 2 years ago. There is steel going over the top of the old part in a year or two when it needs it.

I am done putting on shingles only to replace them in 10 or 15 years down the road.

My new house built in 2000 will get steel also when needed.

Gary

I put metal on this house five years ago and I have been happy with it so far. It's plain old barn steel but the highest grade I could get. The chocolate color has faded very little. I put it on over three layers of shingles on part of the roof but its short and steep so it's strong enough to take the weight. The flatter parts of the roof either have one layer of shingles or no shingles.

When I did the job, steel was about comparable in price to shingles. Putting shingles on would have involved stripping the old ones and re-sheeting the roof. I don't know what the cost comparison would be today.

When we have a heavy rain we can hear a slight rumble but we have to be paying attention to even notice it. Jim

I wouldn't use anything but metal anymore, here in the northeast. One big plus is that it sheds snow so well. As soon as the sun hits it, the snow slides off - assuming you've got some pitch. If you don't, you shouldn't have metal anyway.

In regard to the 40 year guarantee? The roof can last virtually forever if you keep it painted/coated. Aslphalt won't no matter what you do. I've got several barns and one house here with metal roofs put on late 1880s and they are still fine. They are a little different since they have soldered seams. I've coated them once in the past 30 years. The only time I've seen any of the metal roofs actually fail - is when wind peels them off. That is usually caused by rotted wood underneath and bad fasteners, not the steel roof itself.
One funny thing though. The building supply yard near me has half their red roofs with the paint already gone. Peeled right off like birch-bark. They are 15 years old. Not very good advertising for their roof products.
In your case, I'd want it stripped - for several reasons. Here, three old roof coverings are the most allowed. In your case, you've got the old shingles, plus "nailers" that will have to be added that will run the width of the roof and probably spaced every 24". That adds some weight. Those nailers are necessary unless you've got very thick and hard roof sheathing at present - which I doubt. If plywood, older 5/8" is barely enough to trust to hold screws. And, if 1" boards, still barely enough if in perfect condition with no rot-spots. To be sure, the nailers are usually run sideways and they are fastened directly to the rafters.

Any good contractor will not put one roof on top of anouther and it is the law that only two layers of roof can be on a building here.

Dug, Educate me here, How do you hide the screw on metal roofing. to prevent leaks? Iam considering roofing my garage with metal Thanks Dave F.

We had metal roof put on our church a few years ago. Due to design of building (exterior walls exposed, roof butts up against the wall, bad design) there were leak issues which have been fixed, but there were leaks with old roof. Would get old shingles removed because screws for new roof would have to be driven through old shingles and possibly not hold as well, in addition to other issues others mentioned.

KEH

The bad thing with metal roofing is condensation on the underside dripping down on the underside on cold frosty mornings after the sun warms the roof.

Other problem is leaking over time when overlaps in the lenght are screwed down trough both sheets,creating slotted holes by shrink and expansion where they join.

Dave, the good metal roofing is held down by clips on the left edge. then the ridge on the next piece locks down over the left edge on the previous piece. No screws penetrate the actual roof. I helped put on a screw down roof a few years ago. I couldn't help putting scratches in the paint which of course will rust.

We call it standing seam in this part of the country. The seams are crimped together with a special tool. The standard is to crimp it once. Good roofs that will withstand some tornadoes are crimped twice. Its not the kind of roof you put on yourself. It takes some special tools and know-how. We only have a couple guys that do it in our area, and they are good at it and quite busy.

I have a metal roof on my house. Been there about 3 years. the installer put over 1 layer of shingle and installed a vapor barrier on top of the shingles.

It is great.

My son has one also.

As long as you only have one layer of shingles there isn't a problem. The metal roof is not nearly as heavy as the shingle roof.

More than 2 layers is not recomended here as well. The reason I did it was I had alot of people look at mine and said it would be ok. I had a local outfit that only does roofing do and the guy said mine was one of the steepest roofs he had ever done. Even with the shingles the snow never got very deep on the roof before slide'n off. Also, my house is not made like they are today. It is made with 3X4 hand hewed oak that have had 105 years to dry on 12" centers. I was not going to put it on top of the old with out several consultations.

Dave

Check with your homeowner's ins carrier first. I bought a house with a metal roof over 2 layers of shingles and couldn't get fire ins until I pulled it off, stripped, and reinstalled.

Reasoning was, "too much flammable stuff under a fire hose proof" 'umbrella'.

Other than that, as a sheetmetal man, I can't see ANY reason to ever put on a 15 year roof.

Been metal roofing and shingling since about 1964. I have yet to have any complaint on a metal roof and only once with shingles.

That being said I shingled my house roof last time because the ex wife wanted shingles. And that by the way was when shingles were still good quality. There is no way On this green earth I would ever shingle my house roof. If anyone is interested in 40-50 year shingles I sure got some other good deals for them if they are stupid enough to get the check book out. I will metal roof regardless of the cost, and that is up about 44% from Jan first.

The ONLY way we will metal roof is it has to be stripped out with 2" lumber. We can't find a company that will guarentee if you go over shingles and not fur it out. Besides you have a 99% chance of denting the metal by drawing the screw down into a dip part of a shingle or finding a soft spot. Anyone that has wood shingles below the metal roof (without furing) can assume that no one knows where the spaces are between the sheathing boards except superman and his exray vision. Never met anyone else personaly.

Metal roofs do get alot of bum raps, and so do shingles. Ever hear...they sure did a good job! My question is do you realy know what a good job is even if you actualy did get up on the roof?

Fixing metal roofs is like fixing a window that has the glass busted out---often time to start over, and this time your laid off brother in law can just go fishing if he realy wants to help you instead of putting your metal roof on.

We will not metal any roof without ICE STOPS.

We also on one roof for a farmers hog house (lean to on barn) used calking instead of our double adhesive tape. He wanted to make sure that the seams did not leak. Tornado took the barn down and left the lean to pretty much in order. He tore the roof off and found that the calk had ruined the metal, and caused a cancer of it. It would have leaked in a few years no doubt.

It needs to be said that either you like steel roofing or you doun't---there seems to be no in between ground. Most metal roofs leak because of the contractor---not the metal roofing.

We stopped even trying to use standing seam as I have seen many that the wind has lifted and played with them. I have been more that lucky, and knock on wood. But I think shingles are on their way out around here anyway.

We haven't had good luck with metal ceilings in hog houses regardless of the quality or ventalation claims by the salesmen that make their comission on the ventalation ---(magic word) SYSTEM. I know anytime you hear the word system, you can guess you are buying into a retirment plan for the salesman.

With 3x4 oak on 12" centers you should be able to drive a tank over it.

What seams do you use if you quit the standing seams?

I honestly think you could not take this house down with a D9. You could push it down the hill and it might roll but I don't think you could push it in. There ain't many like it.

Dave

In Kansas, we never get to the life of a shingle roof because of hail damage. Insurance buys a new roof on average every 10 to 15 years. I've been through 2 in 20 years.

Metal is becoming more prevalent but I don't know how they stand up to hail. I'd like to hear from others on this.

One of the easy indicators insurance adjusters use is the number of hail dents found in the metal vents along with the black marks on the shingles and the amount of rock knocked loose and in the gutter. If the tin on the vents gets dinged up easy, I'm wary of metal roofs.

I don't know what type of metal has the best seam.

We had a bad hail storm come through here in '07 and finally got the new roof on the house this past June. We went with steel shingles and for the whole job, (just the upper portion of the house, the porches are still asphalt) was about $2500 more than asphalt, so we went that way. For these shingles, they want to leave the old ones on as there was only one layer of asphalt, as I shingled it myself back in the early 70's and had put plywood down first. The screws are all hidden and it took the 3 fellows a full 5 days to do the job. We had Schmidts out of Mankato, Mn. do it, as they have a great reputation for doing steel shingled roofs.

These shingles are warranted for life, take winds up to 150 mph, and 2.5 in. hail, so will see.

Schmidt's Siding and Roofing

Sorry I just about overlooked this. We simply use regular metal roofing--like ag buildings etc. Ribs are 9" On center 38 inches wide and covers 36". Another trick of the trade is this steel is sold per square. Every 18 sheets as a general rule you pay for a sheet you don't get because it is sold by sq ft. Not actual sq ft of coverage. Some places sell it per sheet...so long, then you know the up front price. Many times estamates in home owners head do not reflect the actual cost. You pay for two inches on each sheet that is lapped under...

Often guage is the salemans selling point, however that is like saying a screwdriver from china that is 1/2" in diameter is stronger than a snap on that is 1/4" in diameter. Tensile strength is important as well as the rib configuration. If you know a I beam on edge is 100 times stronger than if you lay it on its side, or at a 45% angle.

It is almost impossible to hire elves to walk on the roofs while installing them.

When you say Mankato you must live in a cold spot on this earth. I can't help but to notice your enterance is under the valley where large chunks of ice are likley to tear them off. Sometimes pictures make things look different.

The entrance isn't below the valley. Anyway, I've lived here for 60 years and no tearing off of asphalt shingles let alone these steel shingles.

Have metal roof about 5 years now. Only worry is that screws and washers will loosen up and leak. Think you can hear expansion and contraction of layers when sun hits it. In MI cost was almost double and that was after many estimates, some as high as 25K compared to 5K for shingles(tearoff included) Email if any questions. We have unique situation of being right under high voltage lines. Hoped that metal would shield occupants from magnetic fields. I can park camper under lines and read 200 volts from camper to ground. If we live to 100, we know that it was a good idea. Experts were no help at all. Utility says never a problem. They increased high voltage wire size 30 percent and told me that meant reduced magnetic fields, bull doodoo. Never get electrician to believe that. I are one.

Have metal roof about 5 years now. Only worry is that screws and washers will loosen up and leak. Think you can hear expansion and contraction of layers when sun hits it. In MI cost was almost double and that was after many estimates, some as high as 25K compared to 5K for shingles(tearoff included) Email if any questions. We have unique situation of being right under high voltage lines. Hoped that metal would shield occupants from magnetic fields. I can park camper under lines and read 200 volts from camper to ground. If we live to 100, we know that it was a good idea. Experts were no help at all. Utility says never a problem. They increased high voltage wire size 30 percent and told me that meant reduced magnetic fields, bull doodoo. Never get electrician to believe that. I are one.