[Spencer]

Thanks guys for the good suggestions and advice! On my house I just replaced a poor quality steel roof that was poorly installed with I believe better quality steel panels and installed much better. On the apartments I'm leaning shingle but will have a second price tomorrow.

 

[2mtrucks]

I had my house and gambrel roof barn done in spring 2021. My house was built in 1997 and had the original shingles. There were no leaks or cracking, but they were becoming discolored and thin looking. I replaced them with a 50 yr dimensional shingle. The gambrel roof barn is 36x48 so it was almost like doing 2 homes. I looked into and I would have preferred a metal roof but could find one that looked right on an all brick house. I’ve seen some gorgeous metal roofs but they were integrated into the style of the house and complemented the look. I’ve also seen some that look plain trashy. It’s a matter of opinion I guess. I would be afraid to install any roof without a complete tear off. We never had any leaks but the roofers did end up replacing a few OSB sheets that had deteriorated.

 

[Hoyks]

We get cyclones where I live and some baseball sized hail, it never snows.
Just about everyone has metal roof, it used to be galvanised iron (steel), but new houses are going with colorbond. The steel is more resistant to the high winds, provided the roof structure is fastened adequately to the foundations.

A big hail storm went through the city suburbs where a lot of the houses have ceramic or concrete tile roofs. The tiles shattered and the houses filled with rain, basically destroying the houses. The ones with the iron roofs, they got a couple of dents and a broken solar panel or two.

'Not again': Storm-weary residents weather more damage as thunderstorms whip through South East Queensland

Just days after last Saturday's catastrophic thunderstorms delivered tennis ball-sized hail through South East Queensland, residents at Springfield Lakes, south-west of Brisbane, were on high alert for more storms on Thursday afternoon.

www.abc.net.au

I'll always have an iron roof. They can be loud in the rain though, which some people don't like, but I find the sound of rain on a tin roof comforting.

 

[Bad Ronald]

Search "oil canning" to view photographs of the appearance of some standing seam installations done over existing shingles. It's probably not so much of a concern on an apartment building, but since I've been made aware of the condition I've noticed it on two neighbors houses with ss installations and it ain't attractive. Looks better or worse at different times of the day (angle of the sun? surface temp?).

Last June I had our 25+ year old asphalt roof replaced and standing seam was priced just a bit out of reach with the old courses removed. Pretty sure I would be kicking myself if I had hired the guy who saw no problem with putting standing seam over existing asphalt. He's the same roofer that did the neighbors houses.

 

[SeniorSitizen]

Is this a standing seam roof ?
This metal has been on this house for approx. 110 years . It's still dry inside because it's used to store small alfalfa bales .

 

[Spencer]

Today's thin gauge metal roofing is nothing like what was used 100 years ago. If that product was available now I would use it own a heartbeat! Not only was the metal much thicker it was a different alloy incorporating lead and tin, often with the panels soldered together. Even if it wasn't maintained at all after the paint eventually wore off it'd take another 50 years to rust through.

 

[Gizmo2]

Today's thin gauge metal roofing is nothing like what was used 100 years ago. If that product was available now I would use it own a heartbeat! Not only was the metal much thicker it was a different alloy incorporating lead and tin, often with the panels soldered together. Even if it wasn't maintained at all after the paint eventually wore off it'd take another 50 years to rust through.

100% true, IMO.

 

[Fuzzy]

50 year shingle warranty’s. Who do you collect from 15 years down the road? And how would the manufacturers know how long it will last anyway? Call me skeptical.

My Wisconsin roof is 3/4” cement tile on the main roof and raised ridge 1/16” thick copper on the front porch. All of the gutters are 1/16” thick hand bent copper. This winter, an avalanche of 24” deep wet snow on top of ice sheared all the cross brace solder joints and crushed the edge of about 10’ of gutter. I’m presently waiting on an estimate to replace the damaged section. Hopefully my homeowner’s policy will cover it. The guy that designed and built our home was the previous owner and is a custom roofer. He’ll be doing the repair. From now on, any deep snow on the porch roof gets raked off right away. The cement tiles have been problem free for 15 years.

 

[SeniorSitizen]

I'm waiting for someone to build a remote track vehicle that pushes a 16" blade . That would be a blast to clear snow from a roof .

 

[Mill Branch Farm]

I have an apartment building that's 22 years old with asphalt shingles that are starting to fail. What are your thoughts on the 3 options a roofing contractor gave me? The decking is 1/2" OSB on 24" centers. It requires approx 100 squares.

1) Remove existing single layer of shingles and replace with new shingles.

2) Cover existing shingles with 3/4" furring strips then Galvalume ribbed metal.
Styles – Panels | Metal Roofing | Deep Creek Metal Sales

3) Cover existing shingles with a roll out barrier then standing seam metal. "

Option 1 and 2 are the most cost effective with shingles being about 10% more. The roofer just re-roofed my house, removing metal that was screwed directly to osb, installing 3/4" furring, then surface fasten metal.

Option 3 is not quite double but about 80% more.

One concern I have is laying standing seam over the shingles irregular surface (roofer say's it's not a problem). Another is will the fasteners or clips fasten securely enough into 1/2" osb?

Thoughts?

I’m a metal guy 100%. My barns are are roofed with Galvalume metal sheets, fastened with metal roofing screws with the neoprene and metal washers.

 

[Spencer]

What about your house, Mill?
On my old metal roof the screws had neoprene washers with metal washers on top but some of the screws began to rust after 10-12 years. This time we used a newer, different and better screw which is aluminized so as not to rust and rather than a flat metal washer it's cup shaped so it surrounds the neoprene. And they'll hold better since they're screwed into wood rather than OSB.

 

[rrbattani]

Have you had any hail in the last year or so? the insurance co might pony up and replace it for you.

 

[SeniorSitizen]

The last time i had a hail damage, the roofer inspecting counted the damaging hail strikes in a 10ft X 10ft area for damage . Your mileage may vary .

 

[Spencer]

No hail damage to my roof, just faded paint, rust starting, and rusted screws backing out. Here's a couple pieces of the old.

The new.

 

[Krackle_959]

I don’t hold much hope for warranties of roofing materials, read and reread the fine print. When we bought our first house it had the roof redone 4 yrs before we bought it with a 30 yr warranty, it was a selling point and listed on the documents.

It was showing signs of cracking shingles 3 yrs after we bought it. Had the same roofer who did the roof come look at it, and it’ll be covered under warranty talk. Talked to the lumber company who sold him the shingles, and then called the manufacturer and sure enough only the original owner can claim the warranty. Didn’t matter that we had the documentation of the warranty and the receipts from having the work done. Left a bad taste in my mouth kinda experience. It was also a huge name brand company.

 

[RayLagrange]

My understanding of the shingle warranty is that you have to have a licensed contractor inspect it every year. That’s their loophole. We put standing seam on top of single layer of shingles. The only drawback is our cell phone signal is almost non existent. It wasn’t great b4 but worked in certain parts of the house. Now we use call over WiFi and it is fine. Also the fasteners they use today are way better if you go with regular metal roof instead of standing seam. Personally, I don’t mind the regular metal roof look and if you do have any damage, is much easier to repair. SS starts at one side and latches on to cover the previous strip and not sure how you get to the end where it started to repair a couple sheets (tree damage, etc) without tearing up the whole thing? Can where it’s latched be pealed apart?

 

[rtgt]

Common theme through out the thread: Warranties ain't worth the price of admission.

Duly noted and filed for future reference.

 

[ironpony]

IMO SS would be overkill for this application. Metal would be my choice, asphalt there are too many outs for the company on warranty issues. It is always and installation error. 50-50 on whether or not to remove shingles I have seen both successfully, comes down to who installed it. The Amish guys that did mine took a lot of time to install the sleepers to make them "flat".
On the front porch roof which has no sheeting they actually snapped chalk lines and trimmed the bows out of the rafters to make them flat.

 

[Spencer]

I never count on warranties that are on batteries, roofs, and tires for replacement. In my experience a longer warranty will likely (but not always) indicate a longer lasting product. For instance a 72,000 mile tire won't last 72,000 miles, but it will likely wear longer than a 40,000 mile one. 50 year shingles won't last 50 years but they'll likely last longer than 30 year shingles.

A newer offering (at least around here) for surface fastened steel is the slightly wider "Wave" profile. Standard ribbed roofing has 4 flats in a 3' panel while Wave has 3. This is the wave profile in textured finish.

 

[Gizmo2]

50 year shingles won't last 50 years but they'll likely last longer than 30 year shingles.

I have 50 year shingles on our house I also figured 30 years. We had the roof done in 2011, if the roof leaks in 30 years I won't be here to see it.