OT metal roofs
 

It's getting to be time for us to replace the roof on our house and we're looking at options. Has anyone replaced their asphalt shingle roof with a metal roof? For metal roof owners what did/do you like or don't like about them? TIA.

We replaced asphalt with a standing seam steel roof.

Pros:
- snow slides off, no more ice dams. This was a big one for us, maybe not for you, depending on where you live.
- 50 year warranty. Hopefully we never need it, but, even if it doesn't last 50 years, it should last much longer than asphalt shingles.
- Easy to mount solar panels on. No holes in the roof to mount panels, they clamp to the standing seams.

Cons:
- It's noisy. when it rains, the reverberates a bit. When it gets hot, it will expand and buckle a little, and make a loud noise. The shape of the sheets accounts for the expansion, so it's not damaging, but, the noise is there.
- Walking on the roof is not easy, and can damage it. It has a max pressure rating, which is higher than the typical pressure for a persons shoe, so it can be walked on, but you do need to be careful. Also, it's much more slippery than a shingled roof. No one really needs to be on our roof very often, so it's not a big deal to us.
- It was more expensive. We did the roof as a part of a bigger project, so I'm not sure exactly the cost difference from shingles, but, it was more.

I think that's it, let me know if you have specific questions. Bottom line, we're happy with it, and would do it again.

Chris

+1 on cp43's points. It's a good list.

I'll add one more thing about snow. Depending on the roof pitch, snow can slide off slowly. Little hard to describe, but the snow on our roof slides off without falling off for awhile. Meaning it will slide as a sheet and overhang the lip of the roof for a time (and distance) before breaking off and falling. There's no issue except for two possible ones: it can look odd to have this sheet of snow suspended beyond your roof waiting to break off. And depending what's under that overhang of snow (cars? people? pets?) the moment it breaks off can be, um, interesting. My solution was to take a kayak paddle and push up from underneath (carefully!) to slice the overhang off. And be careful if there are plants and/or exterior AC compressor units under where snow will slide off the roof. The snow can be heavy. Ask me how I know.;)

But all in all, big fan of raised seam metal roofs. Love how they look.

We never had any problem with ours other than caring for it. We lived in the woods so lots of fall leaves. Ours had horizontal ridges above the gutter to prevent sheets of ice sliding off. The spaces between the ridge and the standing seams got clogged with sticks and leaf debris. It was hard to clear those and the leaves without getting up there. Walking on a metal roof with a leaf blower requires more caution—need grippy soles and dry conditions. Ours was laid over foam which helps insulate and dampens sound. Several years after installation a section was damaged by a fallen tree, and repair was fairly simple. If I had a choice of roof types, I’d go for metal. Not sure if there are energy tax rebates any longer, but I think we got some sort of credit when we installed ours.

A standing seam metal roof will cost 3x (sometimes/often more) than dimensional asphalt shingles. If it's installed on top of decking like you would a shingle roof then there are obviously no issues with walking between the seams. This drastically reduces any noise (the sound is desirable to some people). 22ga can be installed on lathing, but most builders would prefer decking for good reason.

cp43's analysis great. I cannot stress enough, if you are a light sleeper, as I am, I could not stand the metal roof on a house that I bought. so much so that I finally had to move.

Asphalt
 

Roofers just started a very-premature replacement for us.
We bought into the architectural grade organic shingles in 2003. Changed home insurance and the agent pointed out that our shingles looked like $#&@ in places and suggested we contact the roofer.
All sorts of class-action suits out there, but each of the 4 companies pointed a finger to the other 3, confidently declaring that (1) our shingles were DEFINITELY organic, (2) our shingles had clearly failed catastrophically and prematurely, and (3) they were NOT produced by them and it must be one of the other 3 options.
SUPER-frustrating, but they would have only covered about $2k of a $16k job.

With this bitter taste, I DID inquire about standing seam and, as suggested, the price was about 3x the price for fiberglass shingles. In many ways I like the standing seam, but they are a strong statement from an architectural point of view and may/may-not suit the home.

We're planning on down-sizing in a few years, so it's Owens-Corning for us.

I installed metal roofs for ~10 years. (not a fun job)

Power bill should be lower in the summer with metal, shingles soak up a lot of heat during the day and hold it long after sunset.

Everyone is talking standing seam which is very expensive, a standard 26 ga. metal roof that is screwed down, is only slightly higher than shingles, at least in my area.

As a kid growing up in a rural area on a farm in SW NC.....have fond memories of going to sleep to the sound of rain on the tin roof.

Where we currently live....My HOA will not approve a metal roof in our subdivision. Something to check out in you live in a community with HOA.

I lived in an old farm house built in 1920 and I loved when it poured rain outside. I've been thinking about getting metal for when we need to replace the roof on the new house. Our outbuildings have metal roofs and they are great and last forever. The problem with the new house is that the roof is so steep we have had painters tell us they would not even consider painting if we had metal roofs.

We had standing seam metal roofing installed on additions to our house in Maryland. The first was for our outdoor room and the metal roofing kept the much used outdoor room cooler in the summer.

The second install was for our rather large front portico addition. This time we went with a pencil rib design so the panels were thicker 24 gauge. This helped reduce the amount of waviness in the panels.

my neighbor had a metal roof put in last year. It's the cheap kind. Looks okay. As far as snow sheets, I though most places would require you to have something to keep them from sliding, because that can be deadly.

I put a metal roof on my shed. Still haven't quite finished the center cover on top because it's too slippery to walk on. My neighbor said it should be no problem, but I don't want him to come over to show me, because I'm pretty sure he would fall off.

Clean roof (rinse the pollen/dust off the night before with a hose) + warm day + athletic shoes

I think metal roofs are like marble or soapstone countertops. The aesthetics make the argument, not the economics. And that’s so personal. I’d do a metal roof again in a heartbeat but never again soapstone countertops.:no: