Tips for Installing a Metal Roof

LESLIE: Taking a call now from Utah. Letha is on the line. What can we do for you?

LETHA: I have this wonderful old home [1] that’s on the historical registry.

LESLIE: OK.

TOM: Oh, congratulations.

LETHA: It’s 107 years old and it has four layers of roofing materials [2]. It has two of cedar shakes and then it has two that are asphalt.

TOM: OK.

LETHA: And I’d like to go to a metal roof [3]. My husband and I have differing opinions on how this should be done. I want to take everything off and he thinks that you could put it over it.

TOM: Well, you can put it over it. That’s one of the beauties of working with metal roofs. You can put it over.

LESLIE: But four layers?

TOM: Well, yeah. You can. I mean there’s nothing wrong with putting it over it but I kind of tend to agree with your husband that I’d rather take some of that mass off the roof with four layers.

LESLIE: No, I think that’s Letha’s opinion?

TOM: Oh, it’s Letha’s opinion? You want to take it off and he wants …

LETHA: Yes, that’s my opinion.

TOM: Yeah. I agree with you. Well then I don’t agree with you. No. (chuckling) No, I do agree with you.

LESLIE: (chuckling) The ladies win this time.

TOM: I would prefer to take it off but I will say that technically your husband is right.

LETHA: So we could put it all over all those – well, I want to take it down and put decking on it.

TOM: Oh, well that’s a whole different …

LETHA: You know, and start over with the whole roof. Because …

TOM: Well, now wait a minute. You don’t have to …

LETHA: It has areas that don’t (INAUDIBLE). In the winter time it gets that snow and ice build-up (ph).

TOM: OK, well that’s a different story. If you have areas that are sagged, that are not working right then certainly you could sheathe it and because you have a cedar shake roof you don’t have any sheathing on there. Those cedar shingles were then put on strips.

LESLIE: Mm-hmm.

TOM: On firring strips across that roof. So if you want to go that route that is absolutely fine.

By the way, the underlayments on metal roofs [4] are special so make sure you use the proper underlayments, too.

LETHA: Is that the – what is that?

TOM: That’s the material that goes under the metal roof. Because they do get hot there’s a special underlayment for it.

LETHA: Oh, OK. And …

TOM: A good website to check is GraceAtHome.com. They have the underlayments there for metal roofs.

Yeah, another good website is the Metal Roofing Alliance. It’s simply MetalRoofing.com [5]. It’ll give you some tips. And that metal roofing is pretty energy efficient today, by the way. It has a coating on it that helps reflect heat.

LETHA: Alright. I’ll look those places up. I thank you for your help. I really appreciate it.

TOM: You’re welcome, Letha. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.