Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Cedar log homes?

Steel costs spiked upward like a bandit last year, then dropped like a rock beginning in September/October '08. Earlier this year, prices were dead-flat at the bottom. This past spring would have been the ideal time to buy. Right now, pricing is moving back up at a pretty good pace. It is very difficult to see what's gonna happen in the future due to the whacky economy (and the whackier steel mills, who operate like an iron based OPEC). The point tho, is that it appears that if you are going to make a metal roof purchase within the next 6 months or so, do it sooner than later.

We recently bought metal roofing for a pavilion we are building. This was the Galvalume (not colored) and R panel (exposed screws). It was fairly heavy duty 26 Gauge thickness. They cut it to our specified lengths. The cost was about 60¢ per square foot.

Some of the suppliers we checked would not provide it to our specified lengths, which would have caused waste, and increased the effective cost per sq. ft.

I re-roofed my house with the same type metal roofing 3 years ago. Shortly after that we had a major hail storm and I did not find any signs of damage, while many shingled houses had roofs replaced. Our next house will definitely have the metal roof.

Product sources, Lucky?

The "G" rating is important. It describes the amount of galvanized or galvalume coating on the metal. A G-90 is normally the min (meets specific ASTM spec). It means .9 ounces of the coating per sq ft of the steel (total top & bottom). Galvalume (55% aluminum and 45% zinc) is the superior for a residential roof, but is lousy for ag. buildings due to adverse interactions with animal waste (and other reasons that I cannot recall). It is also typically more expensive than the galvanized roof. That's not to say that a galvanized roof is garbage. There are claims that the galvalume roof will last many times longer than a galvanized roof. A good galvanized roof should last 40+ years. For me, that time frame is plenty. Besides....the paint will likely begin to fail on either product before the steel integrity does.
I am right now researching and planning to purchase a metal roof for our garage/apartment project. We are opting to the painted galvanized roof that Menards offers. The coating is G100 (heavy duty coating) and carries a great warranty. I also expect that Menards will be around down the road....in the (hopefully) unlikely event. It is about $1400 cheaper than the comparable galvalume product and is an installation that I am already familiar with so I can handle it.
Thickness of the metal is another story. When they start talking about gauge of the steel, always refer to the actual metal thickness before the coatings are applied. .016" - .018" is normal and acceptable for residential applications.
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This is all info that I have recently found during research. If I am off the mark on anything, I encourage a tune-up from any of the forum members.

Brettski knows his heavy metal.

That's the difference. The builder was using a standing seam roof in his rough numbers. My only point of reference is an exposed screw roof I had put on my tractor barn.

Rob check out this link it will explain a lot. Not sure who sales metal roofing in your area but this company is big around these parts. http://www.muellerinc.com/roofing/index.php

There are many more as well. As for your question standing seam is designed so that no hardware is seen or exposed. Each sheet interlocks with the next and covers the screws holding it. Standing seam material is generally sold in rolls and is brought on site and cut and formed on the job site with a special machine. The other metal roofing systems have various cross sections you can go with. The sheets can be purchased pre cut to specific lengths. As Bski noted you can get the metal in galvalume or painted. Painted is almost double the cost of galvalume I belief haven't purchased any in several years. Mueller’s has a product called AP panel it emulates standing seam but like all the others it uses screws with rubber washers which are exposed. It is what is on my house & my relatives house you can see it in the pic's I posted. Ap panel and standing seam all have to be placed on a solid deck were as the other types H and R panel can be placed on lath strips because of the way it is formed it can support it’s self across a given span.

Man, these cabin pictures are awesome!

Question for the experienced metal roofers out there. I have a metal roof on one of my outbuildings. The building was an old chicken coop, that was turned into a hog barn, then into a stable. Currently I use it to store wood for the fireplace insert, and to store machinery. The roof is galvanized steel, and is a constant "wave" up and down, each "wave about 1 1/4" tall x 1 1/4" wide. It is starting to leak in spots where the rubber washer nails were used to attach it to the building. The roof of the building is lathe strips. I'm guessing that the roof is 30+ years old. What can I do to seal the roof other than tear it off and start over?

If it's only leaking around the fastners I'd say change the nails to the new screws and just replace them as reqd.

I'm 99% sure that's where it's leaking. Thanks, I'll do that.

After checking various sources, we bought our metal roofing from Mueller, Inc.

Rockytopper pegged them, on-line at http://www.muellerinc.com/roofing/index.php.

Some 12 years ago we bought some lighter weight roofing tin from Home Depot for a small guest house and it has shown its age already. It must have been 28 or 30 Gauge and it showed dents from the hail storm plus the galvanizing has not held up well. I won't go less than 26 Gauge now.