s/o of house maintenance. . . tin/metal roofs

[4everHis]

We will need to reroof in the next few years and dh likes the looks of the tin/metal roofs. Our house is an old farmhouse so I think it would look good but I would love to hear from people who've had one for awhile or knows of the pros/cons.

[Dory]

We have a tin roof. The first year we had a few spots that hadn't been sealed properly around the screws but once those were taken care of, we haven't done a single thing to it in 8 years and we aren't expecting to have to do anything to it for another 20 or so.

[dbmamaz]

ours was older, we had no idea how old. we did have to get a few repairs done once iir. i sold that house over 10 years ago. i loved the sound of the rain, but we could only hear it on the bathroom - apparently the rest of the house had plywood from a shingle rood it had had before the metal. Oh, painting? did it need painting occasionally, maybe?

[kalanamak]

I bought a house with a 5 year old metal roof and sold it a decade later. The only problem I had was poor installation around a chimney, which let water in to age the chimney. I bit of new piping and a proper trough to move the stream of water away from the chimney fixed it.

 

It was hunter green and beautiful. I also loved how it sounded in the rain.

[Nestof3]

Hubby says green standing seam metal roof looks great on a white farmhouse.

[DianeW88]

You don't want to be inside one during a severe hailstorm. :lol:

 

My grandma lived in a home with a tin roof and I swore the world was ending when we had golfball size hail one summer. It sounded like a million machine guns going off at the same time.

[Renee in NC]

My only complaint is that it killed our cell phone signal. We don't have a landline, so having to go outside to talk on the phone is annoying!:tongue_smilie:

[Melissa in Australia]

nearly all the houses in Australia have a zincalume/colorbond roof. there is no way that we could have those funny tar tile things that people in Canada and I suspect parts of America have. They would melt in the sun here.

Basically there is no maintenance. We have had our roof for 20 years. the only thing that needs doing is clean out the gutters (eavestroughs)

[4everHis]

Thanks so much for the 'real people' feedback. I never heard that you'd have to re-paint them. Our house is 'Behr Skipper Blue' and I don't forsee repainting it white, though I do think that would look awesome. I used to love sitting in my dad's old barn when there was a rain storm. The tin roof was great. . . but it did rust and discolor. Now that I think about it it's probably 50 years old or more. Any suggestions for a color to go with blue?

[4everHis]

nearly all the houses in Australia have a zincalume/colorbond roof. there is no way that we could have those funny tar tile things that people in Canada and I suspect parts of America have. They would melt in the sun here.

Basically there is no maintenance. We have had our roof for 20 years. the only thing that needs doing is clean out the gutters (eavestroughs)

 

Shingles? Is it hotter in Australia than in Texas? That's where I grew up and everyone had shingles. . . .

[Soror]

Dh and I regretted that we didn't go with metal roofing when we rebuilt. Sad to say it was just a question of aesthetics. It seems however that we don't care anymore and they have come a long way in the various designs. When our shingle roof gives out we are going to put on a metal roof.

[Amy in NH]

We have an old farmhouse with an old metal roof. We are in a snowy area, and the snow slides off the roof. If it gets too deep before it slides off, it can take wires off the house. It is nice to not have to climb up onto the 3rd story roof to clean it off when it gets very deep, though. We also get chunks of ice along the eaves where the insulation is bad, and when it falls it is very destructive. We've had to replace legs on the picnic table, and it also smashed the back porch railing to smithereens. I don't know if this is more an issue of a metal roof, or bad insulation, though.

[Denisemomof4]

My only complaint is that it killed our cell phone signal. We don't have a landline, so having to go outside to talk on the phone is annoying!:tongue_smilie:

 

Oh SHOOT!!!!! we will need to replace our roof in the next 3 - 5 years and I want a metal roof. I did not know this!

 

Dh has sensory issues. He recently had his hearing checked and he could hear sounds at a near zero decible level. Do you think a metal roof would drive him crazy? He also wants one.

[Denisemomof4]

Thanks so much for the 'real people' feedback. I never heard that you'd have to re-paint them. Our house is 'Behr Skipper Blue' and I don't forsee repainting it white, though I do think that would look awesome. I used to love sitting in my dad's old barn when there was a rain storm. The tin roof was great. . . but it did rust and discolor. Now that I think about it it's probably 50 years old or more. Any suggestions for a color to go with blue?

 

We would never paint a roof on out house and I would be nervous to hire people to do it because of the pitch. When we had ours reshingled, the roofer nearly fell off the roof. FREAKED ME OUT.

 

There are beautiful metal options which look like shingles.

[Pawz4me]

My mother has a metal roof and there is no problem with cell phone reception inside her house. The entire family uses Verizon.

[Pegasus]

If you get a dark color, I'd want a guarantee that it wouldn't fade. My dad put on a dark green metal roof when he had his house built almost 20 years ago. No maintenance or repairs have been needed to this day but the color has faded. No problems using cell phones in the house either.

[Renee in NC]

My mother has a metal roof and there is no problem with cell phone reception inside her house. The entire family uses Verizon.

 

I have Verizon, too. It's probably because the signal isn't really strong way out here anyway. It definitely went away almost entirely with the installation of the roof.

[4everHis]

If you get a dark color, I'd want a guarantee that it wouldn't fade. My dad put on a dark green metal roof when he had his house built almost 20 years ago. No maintenance or repairs have been needed to this day but the color has faded. No problems using cell phones in the house either.

 

This is one of the main things I wondered about. Fading. Also, is there a substantial cost difference between shingles and metal? I think we would have Amish men do the work.

[4everHis]

Our house and all our rentals, the barn, sheds, bunkhouse, shop, pumphouse, garage and horse barn all have metal roofs. We usually get 25 years out of them and then repaint, getting another 10 years before replacing. Actually, the back porch roof here is at 45 years and has been repainted twice. We need to paint the roof on the upper lot. No problems with cell phones. Someone mentioned the plywood--yes, they have plywood, then tarpaper and THEN you put down the metal. Everyone here uses metal so the snow will slide. We often have 6 feet a winter and only have one roof with too flat a pitch that has to be shoveled. If you have a shake roof and there's a forest fire, the fire department will pass by your house. They can't make a stand at it--the house is doomed. My sister is having her shake roof (few miles from the High Park fire) replaced next month. And we're replacing the shake roof on my bil's next month too. My understanding that you can't even buy shakes any more.

 

Was your metal 'colored' all the way through or was it painted to begin with?

[athena1277]

We have an old farmhouse with an old metal roof. We are in a snowy area, and the snow slides off the roof. If it gets too deep before it slides off, it can take wires off the house. It is nice to not have to climb up onto the 3rd story roof to clean it off when it gets very deep, though. We also get chunks of ice along the eaves where the insulation is bad, and when it falls it is very destructive. We've had to replace legs on the picnic table, and it also smashed the back porch railing to smithereens. I don't know if this is more an issue of a metal roof, or bad insulation, though.

 

When we had a very snowy winter a year or 2 ago, many of our neighbors with metal roofs had their gutters bent or tore off when the snow fell off in huge chunks. We saw it happen to the house behind us.

[Katy]

Make sure you go with one that has covered fasteners. The roof may last 50 years, but the washers around the screws degrade after about 8 years, and if you go with an initially cheaper option with exposed fasteners, after 7-8 years you will have leaks from the cracked washers.

[Melissa in Australia]

Shingles? Is it hotter in Australia than in Texas? That's where I grew up and everyone had shingles. . . .

 

No idea how hot it gets in Texas, but I do know that the tar in the bitumen on the road melts in summer.

Plus quite a lot of Australians collect the water off their roof, and who would want to collect water off a tar roof?

Plus Australia is the most bushfire prone place in the world, a tar roof would burn beautifully whereas a metal roof can help in ember attack.

[Melissa in Australia]

Thanks so much for the 'real people' feedback. I never heard that you'd have to re-paint them. Our house is 'Behr Skipper Blue' and I don't forsee repainting it white, though I do think that would look awesome. I used to love sitting in my dad's old barn when there was a rain storm. The tin roof was great. . . but it did rust and discolor. Now that I think about it it's probably 50 years old or more. Any suggestions for a color to go with blue?

 

A zincalume or colorbond roof doesn't need painting at all. They come in a range of colours.

[The Girls' Mom]

We just priced metal vs shingle here for our new build, and metal was going to be more expensive. They DO last longer though.

 

We've had two houses with metal roofs and neither had problems with cell phone reception.

[BrookValley.]

When we had a very snowy winter a year or 2 ago, many of our neighbors with metal roofs had their gutters bent or tore off when the snow fell off in huge chunks. We saw it happen to the house behind us.

 

We have a metal roof, and this happened to gutters on one side of our house (probably that same winter--we're in MD). The solution are those little do-hickies (I think that's the technical term? :tongue_smilie:) that are placed toward the bottom of the roof at alternating distances from the bottom edge. It slows down the runoff. We chose not to put them on when we installed our metal roof because they were insanely expensive compared to the total cost of the roof ($1,000, and we only paid $3,200 for the whole roof) and we don't get a lot of snow in our area. It cost us $200 to get the gutter re-installed, so we'll probably continue to take our chances with that one.

 

Overall, I love our metal roof. It is much more energy-efficient. We routinely have $250-$300 electric bills in the summer for our 3-story, 3,500-sq ft, multi-generational house, when we know folks who have have literally double those amounts for houses a third the size of ours. It should last 50 years, though we can expect up to 75--it will most likely outlive the house itself! And because we enlisted a local Mennonite businessman, the metal roof actually cost less than what we were quoted for a new shingle roof. We think it looks great. We didn't get a colored roof, but our house is yellow and the silver/gray colored roof looks fine. And yes, the sound of the rain is pretty awesome. :D

 

ETA: our cell phone reception is no worse than before.

Edited August 27, 2012 by BrookValley

[Lolly]

We have one. No problem with cell phone reception. no problems with noise, no problems with hail (storm) damage. The new metal roofs are not like the old ones. Ours looks like a shake roof. It should last about 60 yrs. The metal has a solid sheath that keeps it from being noisy when it rains and protects it from hail damage. I would definitely go with metal again, but I shouldn't have to make that choice in my lifetime (unless we move)!!!:D

[FaithManor]

We had a new metal roof put on last summer. If we do routine maintenance at 10 and 20 years, the roof is likely to outlive us! We are very thankful for that. It was $2000.00 less than a shingle roof and we had it done by an Amish crew. You talk about work ethic! I was so pleased and they were the most polite, sweetest work crew I've ever had the pleasure to be around. I've never seen a group of guys more grateful for brownies or fresh bread and lemonade or iced tea. Very, very easy to please.

 

Faith