Come in if you know anything about metal roofs!

[jmc325]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for some help... my husband and I are building our first home (yay) and have to decide if we want a traditional shingled roof or metal. There isn't a cost difference, so it's totally preference. I've been researching online, but it's overwhelming. If you have a metal roof do you love or hate it? 

Any information would be much appreciated

[Que?]

We have to have them for insurance purposes (we live in a heavy snowfall area). If you're replacing your existing roof, you have to account for how/where the snow will suddenly slide off of your roof, if that's a thing for you. (How close other structures are, the security of your foundation etc).

They are loud in the rain, like not in a romantic way, more of a makes you hear shit that isn't there kind of way. The top floor of my house is hot as balls in the summer and cold in the winter (maybe due to old house and could be solved with modern insulation lol)
Basically if I wasn't mandated to have one, I would shingle this roof.

[brandy0331]

We don’t have one currently, But would love to have a metal roof. No replacing shingles down the road.

[Deleted]

I have a traditional shingle roof now, but when it comes time to replace we will be going to a metal roof. Two reasons. 1) I simply prefer the look of the metal roof. 2) the warranty for asphalt shingles is typically 20-25 years while metal is 50-60 years with little to no maintenance. If this ends up being my forever house, the roof will likely last longer than I do.

[Que?]

Ooh I thought of one good thing. It's copper, and it's really pretty. People here match them to their houses, there seems to be an endless array of colour options.

[trissie18]

We love our metal roof because we never have to worry about clearing off the snow since it slides on it's own (we live in the snow belt in upstate NY and our roof pitches are very tall and steep so clearing them off manually is near impossible). The one thing I recommend if you live in a snowy area and your roof pitch faces your driveway/cars is to put IceBlox (heavy duty plastic stoppers that are staggered along the edge) on the roof to slow down the slide so it kind of breaks over the edge instead of becoming trajectories.

[compassrose]

If you're not in a really cold area, I wouldn't. They are LOUD when it's raining.

[shauni27]

I grew up with a middle roof and now that I own my own home wish we had one. 1) you need to replace a shingle roof every 20-25 years. 2) I live where there is a metric shit ton of snow. I hate having to rake the snow off our roof. I want to see what we can do about a metal roof when our current shingled roof needs replacing. I think it won't work based on the structure of the house and where snow would fall (right in front of the garage).

[pegasuskat]

We have a metal roof and it’s not noisy at all. The one on my great grandparents house when I grew up was loud though. We replaced over a tile roof so maybe that’s why, but it’s never been an issue. It has also lowered our utility bills.

[jmc325]

Thanks everyone for your replies.

I live in Houston so snow isn't an issue, but rain is another story. Y'all are making me nervous by saying it's loud. I really want a metal roof because of looks and for how long they last. We're building a new home, so this wouldn't be replacing an older shingled roof.

I'm so torn!

[imojoebunny]

We do not have one, but our mountain house is in an area that has a lot of them. I wish I had gone with metal, which was more expensive, when we replaced it a few years ago. I like the way they look, and newer ones have better insulation, which saves heat/cooling cost, especially if you have ceilings that do not have attic space over them. My aunt also has one. It is not loud.

[Pibs]

We put on a metal roof that looks like shake (our HOA wouldn't have been OK with standing seam) couple of years ago and really like it. We live in PDX, which is super rainy in the winter and I don't think it's any louder than our previous cedar shake roof. Now if you have a leaky gutter that drips onto metal instead of cedar you'll come close to losing your mind, but just rain doesn't bother us. We chose it because we wanted a roof that's eco-friendly. Ours is aluminum (so no rusting here in the PNW) which can be recycled at the end of its very long life, and is EnergyStar certified. I'm not actually sure if it made a difference in our electric bills -- I don't think I ever bothered to look and we had really weird winter and summer weather lately so I'm not sure it would correspond well with previous bills.

It is super cool when the snow/ice we get slides off, but I can see where that would be a concern if you lived somewhere that gets a lot of winter weather. Ours is just plain aluminum, but they make stone coated to look more like a traditional roof though I'm wondering now how that would stand up to snow and ice sliding off.

The cost was about the same as the fancy asphalt shingles we would have had to put on per our HOA, and the company warranties it against leaks for life. They screwed up flashing around a skylight and had to come back 3 times in the first winter to fix it but we haven't had any other issues. They'll also come out and undo/redo it if we want to add or replace a skylight, and came out to put in tie out points for people to latch in to (the gutter people required it). If we want to do solar panels, they'll come out and put in the brackets and supposedly it won't void the warranty as long as they're the ones doing the work.

[Deleted]

Jan 8, 2018 12:37:38 GMT -5 jmc325 said:

Thanks everyone for your replies.

I live in Houston so snow isn't an issue, but rain is another story. Y'all are making me nervous by saying it's loud. I really want a metal roof because of looks and for how long they last. We're building a new home, so this wouldn't be replacing an older shingled roof.

I'm so torn!

With appropriate insulation/sound proofing, you won't notice a difference in my experience. Plus, if you ever sell, it definitely increases your resale value.

[sonrisa]

I taught in a classroom with a metal roof. It was loud during the rains - 'you can't hear yourself think, the kids can't hear you unless you are yelling, and you can't hear them' loud.

[chimera]

My parents put on a metal roof that looks like shingles with stone coating. It actually really quiet compared to the cedar shake they had before and they got an insurance discount.

[isabel]

Jan 8, 2018 13:16:16 GMT -5 @sameoldstory said:

Jan 8, 2018 12:37:38 GMT -5 jmc325 said:

Thanks everyone for your replies.

I live in Houston so snow isn't an issue, but rain is another story. Y'all are making me nervous by saying it's loud. I really want a metal roof because of looks and for how long they last. We're building a new home, so this wouldn't be replacing an older shingled roof.

I'm so torn!

With appropriate insulation/sound proofing, you won't notice a difference in my experience. Plus, if you ever sell, it definitely increases your resale value.

I was going to say, surely there's a way to soundproof or insulate against the noise.

[jmc325]

Jan 8, 2018 13:39:18 GMT -5 leviosa said:

I used to work for a roofing company.

What kind of metal are you looking at? If you're thinking corrugated, go with shingles. Corrugated metal is not meant for a house, and it needs the bolts replaced every few years to avoid leaking.

The benefits of Standing Seam and Shingles are pretty much the same now. Architectural Asphalt Shingles can come with a 50 year non prorated warranty if you get someone who is certified in installing them. They have 140 mph wind warranty as well. Where we live, Standing Seam is almost double the cost of an Asphalt Shingle roof. People tend to go with the Architectural shingles because they are getting similar life expediencies for less cost. Some choose the metal because they think it looks better.

leviosa I need to get all the information from the builder, honestly I haven't asked for any details. Is there a type of metal that you'd recommend over another?

Pibs I've been reading that metal roofs don't have gutters?! Is this inaccurate? 

[georgeglass]

We have a standing seam metal roof over an addition on the back of our house. I don't even notice when it's raining. My son hears it because his window is next to the roof (he's on the second floor, looks out over the roof) and he says he loves it. It sounds soft in his room (like a white noise machine rain). I love it.

[InBetweenDays]

Not all metal roofs are considered eco-friendly. And as someone who works in the stormwater industry, I'd try and steer you away from copper roofs. Or galvanized or zinc roofs. All add serious concentrations of heavy metals to the stormwater runoff. Depending on the size of your roof (I think it's if it's >750 sf), our city actually requires on-site stormwater treatment for buildings with uncoated metal roofs.

[cleo29]

I did a gif search for Tin Roof and for some reason I got the sexy image of a young Paul Newman. lol

[lessel]

Our neighborhood has a mix of rolled, metal and shingled roof types. We have rolled. Many of the 'loud' complaints are the same for metal and rolled. Ours is louder, but it's more because we don't have an attic. (Roof is basically tongue-and-groove pine, plywood, insulation, rolled roof.) The insulation is a 2.5in-thick piece of hard insulation that does more for temperature than sound, but it does help some. I imagine if you have a well-insulated attic, the sound problem can be minimized a lot.

Personally I love the sound of the rain and it's really only annoying if it suddenly starts pouring down rain in the middle of the night.

[runwny]

I think they are UGLY (at least the ones I’ve seen around here) so I wouldn’t go with one if I wasn’t required.

[kooshball]

Metal was load but zero issues with moss is a HUGE benefit.

[Pibs]

Jan 8, 2018 13:55:58 GMT -5 jmc325 said:

Jan 8, 2018 13:39:18 GMT -5 leviosa said:

I used to work for a roofing company.

What kind of metal are you looking at? If you're thinking corrugated, go with shingles. Corrugated metal is not meant for a house, and it needs the bolts replaced every few years to avoid leaking.

The benefits of Standing Seam and Shingles are pretty much the same now. Architectural Asphalt Shingles can come with a 50 year non prorated warranty if you get someone who is certified in installing them. They have 140 mph wind warranty as well. Where we live, Standing Seam is almost double the cost of an Asphalt Shingle roof. People tend to go with the Architectural shingles because they are getting similar life expediencies for less cost. Some choose the metal because they think it looks better.

leviosa I need to get all the information from the builder, honestly I haven't asked for any details. Is there a type of metal that you'd recommend over another?

Pibs I've been reading that metal roofs don't have gutters?! Is this inaccurate? 

Ours has gutters!  I'm not sure why a metal roof would negate the need for gutters?

[2hmama]

I live in the Seattle area, we put one on our house almost 2 years ago. My biggest concern was the rain, we barely notice it at all. I am so happy that we went this route, we were replacing shingles any time the wind blew and there is very little maintenance.

[jennysmitten]

We did standing seam earlier this year and are happy so far. I can't even hear the rain, but we haven't had a big thunder storm, just regular rain showers.

[pierogigirl]

Jan 8, 2018 14:34:07 GMT -5 cleo29 said:

I did a gif search for Tin Roof and for some reason I got the sexy image of a young Paul Newman. lol

It's from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.  Both he and Elizabeth Taylor were hot af in that movie.

[chickadee77]

We have one and live in South FL (so lots of rain and hurricane threat). It was a little loud (but I like that sound ) until we added insulation, now it's no big deal at all. We also get an insurance break because of it - I guess it holds up in wind and rain better than the tile roofs that are common around here. We took a direct hit from Irma this year and had no roof damage at all, and no leaking.

ETA: We love ours, in case I didn't make that clear. We were not the original home builders, so we had to do a few things (add roof vents and insulation) to make it work the way it needed to, but it's been fantastic to us so far.

[cleo29]

Jan 8, 2018 18:11:31 GMT -5 pierogigirl said:

Jan 8, 2018 14:34:07 GMT -5 cleo29 said:

I did a gif search for Tin Roof and for some reason I got the sexy image of a young Paul Newman. lol

It's from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.  Both he and Elizabeth Taylor were hot af in that movie.

Yes. Have you seen the wedding picture of him and Joanne Woodward? Holy smokes, is it HOT.

Scroll down to their wedding photos, although I pretty much love all of them together. What a couple.

The golden couple