Anyone Have Experience With Metal Roofs?

[Mac Attack]

Need a new roof, and the aluminum slate or shingle styles seem attractive.

While the "Lifetime" warranty and energy savings sounds nice, I am mostly concerned with how these have held up over the years. The Prime group is a pretty good resource, but I was surprised that a search didn't turn up any previous discussions on these.

I'm looking at the Interlock brand, but like anything else, I imagine the key is how good a job the installers did.

Is the cost difference between these and the "Lifetime" fiberglass shingles still too much to take a risk?

Thanks,

Dave

 

[The King]

A buddy of mine put a metal roof on his house last year. We had a ton of snow last winter and when it came off his roof, it all came at once. Caused a few problems compared to normal shingles I guess. I expect certain precautions may avoid this issue.

 

[Mac Attack]

That almost sounds funny - I hadn't thought of that!

Yeah, one of the selling points is that these are Teflon-coated and resist snow accumulation.

 

[Tom239]

I got a metal roof (ASC Skyline standing seam steel roofing; see http://www.ascbp.com) about ten years ago.
The color has faded some on the south side of my house, but bear in mind this is the high desert: most days are sunny and UV is strong at 4500' elevation.
The faded color doesn't bother me much because the south side doesn't show to the road or to neighbors.

In heavy rainfall, water comes off so fast that it overshoots the gutter.
This also doesn't much bother me because it rains so seldom here.
But when it does rain, it sounds great on metal.

Knowing all that I know now, I'd still have chosen metal.
We get high winds and I was tired of composition shingles coming off.
Tile would be nice but it's more expensive.

Snow slides off and does fall in chunks, not that we had snow to speak of this past winter. This pic is from 2009.

 

[davidf]

I love the sound of a hard rain on a metal roof.

 

[sahtt]

Some of the new homes I've been looking at are 'modern' and have metal roofs. One thing my realtor and I both agreed on is that cell reception is sometimes hugely impacted. I have Verizon (best in the area) and my realtor has another provider and neither of us could get usable signal in about 2/3 of the last house I looked at. He says it is directly related to the metal room and sometimes the siding. Speculation but it seems related.

 

[Kyras]

I have a ramada over my 5th wheel trailer in the Sierra Nevadas of California. The shingle roof on it was worn out so I had a metal roof installed last summer. It's my "escape from the world" place so I don't spend more than 30 days per year there but I like the new roof and was told that I'll never have to worry about replacing it in my lifetime. I'm 57 so that's what, 30 years? The temps there are up to the high 90s in the summer and just below 0 F in the winter.


^Old shingle roof. Twenty years old.



^New metal roof.



^New metal roof.


^New metal roof.

 

[Mac Attack]

Thanks all for the feedback.

Sahtt: I hadn't considered that either - Thanks!

Kyras: Nice escape!

 

[Kyras]

Thanks all for the feedback.

Sahtt: I hadn't considered that either - Thanks!

Kyras: Nice escape!

It works for me, Mac Attack. :smile:

 

[clarkm]

I've had a metal roof for about 10 years. Happy with it, despite mediocre installer. It has faded some. It gets visibly dirty. I wash it periodically, where it shows from street.. You can hear the rain hitting it, but it's not unpleasant. If the paint ever starts going away, I will probably paint it. You can put bubble wrap under it for additional R value. I think the roof does degrade my cell service. Some tree limbs have fallen on it, and dented it, in places, but it not easy to see.

 

[Mac Attack]

Interesting. Thanks.

We decided to take a gamble and go with the Interlock brand. There was a class-action lawsuit against the parent company about 14-18 years ago, but it looks like they've made a lot of improvements in their design and installation practices. Time will tell, but reviews over the past 10+ years have been very favorable.

It's a slate roof design that will match our old home but made out of steel, not aluminum. G-90 galvanized steel, a Kynar 500 coating for color, then covered with DuPont Teflon. Installed with a synthetic vapor barrier over my existing shingles.

Weather has been terrible the past month with rain forecast almost every day. Ours is scheduled in the next 6-8 weeks while they work through the backlog....

Dave

 

[docjohn]

how is the new roof secured over the old shingles?^^^^^

 

[Mac Attack]

how is the new roof secured over the old shingles?^^^^^

It depends on the metal roof design. For the shingle-type I am getting, IF your existing single layer of asphalt shingles is OK (not curling, laying down flush), AND the sheathing is OK (no leaks or soft spots and it is flat), then they screw right through the old shingles and into the sheathing.

Again, this is only IF your existing roof is in relatively good shape. It saves a lot of money in removal and disposal fees. I guess it adds a negligible amount of insulating factor too.

The steel shingles are ~1/4 the weight of the asphalt shingles. The aluminum are even lighter, so the added weight on the roof is negligible if you go over one layer of existing asphalt shingles.

I've browsed a lot of contractor forums and they describe the same process for the various metal roof shingle manufacturers. I just hope it lasts....

Dave