Recently we finished installing an aluminum standing seam metal on a residential home in Wayland, Massachusetts. The roof is made of .032 Aluminum, coated with grey finish Kynar 500 coating. It is a 1.5″ snap-lock standing seam, attached with stainless steel clips and wood screws. Also, as you can see, there is a rail snow retention system which I will describe in detail bellow. It consists of cast-aluminum mounts attached to ribs of the standing seams roof and two rows stainless steel cross bars (rails) to hold snow and ice from sliding off the roof.
Originally, the homeowner was having bad problems with Ice dams and roof leaks. Originally roof had “ice belt” made of copper, but it only covered the bottom 2 feet of the roof and as we discovered later, during a roof tear-off, it was tucked under the shingles above it by only 2-3 inches. Needles to say, this copper ice-belt did not work as it was intended to and the ice dams were still creating leaks. After a while, to solve the Ice Dams, home owner installed large sheets of aluminum.
These were new and improved ice belt sheets, and Ice dams were no longer as bad of a problem. But now, after each winter storm, snow would accumulate on the roof, and as the heat from the attic (which was the original cause of Ice dams) heated and melded snow, which then re-froze, large pieces of Ice and Snow would avalanche off the roof, taking down the gutters with them. This was also a serious safety hazard for people living in the house and those visiting it in the winter. Home owner – Glenn – attempted to solve this problem by attaching improvised snow guards to the sheets of aluminum, but those came down after the next snow storm, together with Ice and Snow that accumulated on the roof.
After a few winters of cleaning snow off the roof, after each snow storm and fixing gutters after each winter season, Glenn was ready for a new roof. He was looking for a permanent, maintenance free roof that would be water tight, would not be affected by ice dams and a snow retention system that would prevent all the ice and snow from sliding off the upper portion of this gambler roof, and taking down the gutter system with it.
The roof:
As mentioned before, the new roof had to be maintenance free, resistance to ice dams, last a very long time and to prevent snow and ice from falling off. Basically, functionality was the main concern for Glenn, yet a good curb appeal was also important. A standing seam metal roofing system system with energy efficient Cool Roof coating was chosen. Standing seam has no horizontal seams, thus a there would be no water back ups (which are a common problem related to ice dams on asphalt shingle roofs), and would would just run off the roof panels.
Stifening ribs were added to roof panels for additional rigidity and to minimize oil-canning that is common to to long standing seam panels.
Obstacles and challenges:
Although the roof is considered walkable and may seem easy from at first, there were numerous challenges we had to overcome during the installation and it is best to foresee these challenge beforehand, so they don’t pop-up unexpectedly during, and cause installation delays, and possible change orders (those unexpected charges that many contractors bring to the homeowner in the middle of the job). Despite predicting most of those obstacles during the initial roof inspection, I still missed a few minor things, which we took care of without having to have the uncomfortable “change order” conversation.
Main thing that came up during initial roof inspection was the fact that we could not install properly install roof to wall flashing around dormers, unless we pulled off the aluminum siding. At the same time we could not pull off the siding without damaging it, therefore it was decided to install new vinyl siding instead of old aluminum.
Another challenge would be the actual roof-to-wall flashing around dormers. Because of very steep slope on the lower part of the gambler roof, the angle bottom angle of roof to wall flashing was almost 140 degrees, and because of added height of 1.5″ ribs, these flashings would take a very long time to be done.
Installation of standing seam metal roof:
While we were waiting for the metal roof panels to be produced by our supplier, we had to remove old roofing shingles down to the deck. Installing a standing seam metal roof over asphalt shingles is just wrong, although some roofing contractors up in NH, ME and VT do it all the time and with steel panel too. Problem with doing that is such that shingles will punch horizontal lines in the metal roof panels, making it look ver unattractive. Second, and more serious problem is that granules in the asphalts shingles will rub against the underside of the metal panel, eventually scratching off the galvanic coating and causing the metal to rust in multiple places. This would not be a problem for aluminum standing seam panels, but roofer that would install standing seam over shingles just don’t use aluminum as it is considerably more expensive for them and extra inventory would just sit unneeded.
Additionally, after removing the old roof down to the deck, we were able to replace any rotten wood that would otherwise be covered over with a lifetime metal roof.
Once the old asphalt shingles were removed and all rotten rood replaced, it was time for the underlayment. Underlayment is an essential part of a metal roof and also it will protect the roof, until metal roofng panels are installed. Because those are not always available to you right away – as was the case for us and we had to wait 2 weeks for panels to be made – the underlayment must keep the roof completely watertight until the metal roof installation is complete.
Because of such high requirements for the underlayment, we use exclusively and religiously the only underlayment that we find to work for us – GAF DeckArmor. It is a breathable synthetic underlayment ate is very strong, slip resistant, light-weight and make working with it a pleasure (unlike tar paper and other synthetic underlayments). Also, a very important factor for us is the breath-ability. It allows the moisture trapped between roof deck and underlayment to pass through and to run off the upper site of Deck-Armor, instead of creating rot and mold in the attic. This extends the life of wooden roof deck considerably, and is an integral component of the metal roofs we install.
Once all the prep war is done, the actual roof installation goes somewhat fast. There is a common confusion that I find among people contacting us about a metal roof. For some reason, most people thing standing seam roof is easy to install. This is actually very far from being true. Unless the roof is a straight run without any penetrations or obstacles, the standing seam roof take the longest to install with considerable waste if there are valleys and hips involved.
Because any penetration or flashing requires cutting the panel and using a z-bar, details take double the time that it would take if we were installing and aluminum metal shingles roof. Also, unless roof is relatively low pitch (3 or 4) it is nearly impossible to walk on panels and putting up staging such as roof jacks is out of the question. Fortunately this roof was low slope at the top, and bottom we were able to install off ladders – just like siding.
As I mentioned in the beginning, that falling snow and ice was on of the main issues we had to address and we had to get a heavy-duty snow retention system – the E-Rail for Berger Roofing Accessories.
Once the snow guards were in place, we could finish installing the chimney flashing, remove the fall protection systems and install ridge caps. Roof installation was complete and now the Ice Dams, rain and falling snow are not a problem any more for this residential home in the beautiful Wayland, Massachusetts.
If you need a metal or low slope roof installed anywhere in Massachusetts, Rhode Island or Connecticut, feel free to call us – 888-635-2876 or fill out the free roofing quote online form, to get schedule a roof inspection and estimate.
You can also use our interactive roofing calculator to estimate the cost of aluminum shingles ar standing seam metal roofing and compare it to asphalt shingles, cedar shakes, slate and tile roofs.
Related Posts
- Massachusetts Roofing – recent flat and metal roofs which we installed in MA.
- Metal roofing installation – our unique approach.
- Pros and cons of roofing in the winter
- Flat roof installation in Andover, CT
- Flat roof deck installation in Wellesley, MA
Category: Metal Roofing, Roof installation & repair Comment (1)July 13th, 2009
July 20th, 2009 - 4:27 pm
[...] The photographs in this article were taken during the installation of standing seam metal roofing system in Wayland, Massachusetts, which was completed in June 2009.[...]