In April we installed a new lifetime Steel Metal Shingles roof on a house in Attleboro, Massachusetts. The house is located on a beautiful quiet street not far from Attleboro Center, as well as Mass / RI border. The new metal roof replace and old, failing asphalt shingles roof, with some shingle blown off by the wind.

The Metal Roof we installed was a Tamko Steel Shingles with real slate looks, in the beautiful Sequoya Red color. Steel metal shingles are an interlocking metal roof system, where each shingle is locked on all four sides and is held in place by clips and roofing nails and other six shingles around it.

Steel shingles metal roofs offer great flexibility in terms of installation, excellent water-tightness, and prevent Ice Dams formation as metal roofs shed Ice and Snow. On top of being an excellent solution to roof leaks and Ice Dams, metal roofs last in the range of 50 years or more!

Metal Roof installation.

The old roof was two layers of asphalt shingles, which by building code, must be removed before the new roof is installed. Removing the old roof is also beneficial in terms of removing extra weight off the house. Although metal roofs are VERY light, weighting 40 lbs per 100 sq. ft. in aluminum, and about 65 lbs. in steel shingles, they won’t add nearly as much weight as 1 layer of asphalt shingles (about 275 lbs per 100 sq. ft.), and can be safely installed as a second layer, it is a good idea to do a full tear off, to allow the repair of any rotten wood, and to improve roof ventilation.

Once the old roofing was tripped off the roof, we installed GAF Deck Armor breathable synthetic underlayment, and sealed all roof penetrations, such as chimney flashing, vent pipes, etc. GAF deck Armor is an excellent underlayment product that work like human skin – it allows the condensation to escape from the underside, while keeping the water from penetrating inside the house. Deck Armor can be installed without the metal roof on it for up to six month, and will keep the roof water-tight. After six month the UV radiation will begin to wear down the underlayment, but the roof will still hold of the water.

After tear-off was complete and underlayment installed, it was time to start installing the metal roof. First we installed all trim along roof edges. The trim was custom made with the vented bottom, to allow the soffit – ridge vent system to work properly. Since the house had no overhangs (soffits), the vented drip edge was the only way to allow adequate air intake into the attic space.

After the starter trim was installed we started installing the metal shingles, working our way from left to right, and up the roof slope. We also had to maintain the correct stagger pattern for vertical impressions in the steel shingles to maintain straight line and system integrity. We also had to work our way up the hip, so each next course of shingles shifted right by about a foot.

Flashing the chimney on a metal roof:

As we were installing new courses of shingles, we flashed all roof penetrations along the way. Pipe flashings are rather simple to install, and does not take a long time. The real time-consuming flashings, are those around the chimneys and skylights. The amount of preparation work and actual flashing time can be will over 5 hours per chimney or skylight. First the old flashing must be completely removed and the chimney must we wrapped with the underlayment, and be completely water-tight. It is also better to cut the channel for counter flashing before the underlayment is installed, as brick dust on the underlayment is difficult to clean off. Sometimes due to time constrains, this is difficult to do however.

Once chimney is properly wrapped with underlayment, you don’t have to worry about rains (it will not leak) and can install the metal roof at a comfortable pace. Once the shingles reach the chimney, we begin installing custom fabricated chimney flashings, starting with the bottom side of the chimney, we first install the head-wall flashing, that overlaps the course of shingles bellow. After the head-wall flashing, we install side-wall flashing that overlaps the head-wall flashing and channels all the water down, away from the chimney.

Once the bottom and side flashings are installed, we can continue running shingles past the chimney, all the way to the top of the roof. The chimney flashing is no longer holding us, as the back-pan flashing can be installed at any time now. We do however install the back pan flashing right away, so that w do not need to com back to it.

Once all the chimney flashings are installed, it is time for counter-flashing or “chimney-collar” which is an “L” shaped flashing inserted in the channels that we previously cut in the brick. Counter flashing will divert all water that is running down the chimney and prevent it from going behind chimney flashing. We once again start at the bottom, so that all counter flashing is overlapped in the right direction as to not let the water penetrate inside and behind the flashing. We pre-measure and cut / bend all four sides, and mark all bends, before the final installation. After we know everything fits, we remove all flashing, insert a thick bead of Solar Seal 900 caulking / adhesive into the channels in the brick, and then insert the counter-flashings, starting at the bottom.

Chimney and skylight flashing are among the most common leak spots on any roof, along with valleys. Improper flashing around the chimney is what causes most leaks, and this is especially true for the metal roofing. Installing shingles on a straight run roof is easy, and it’s almost impossible for such roof to leak, even if the roofing installed never installed the metal roof before.

Proper detail flashing such as the chimney above, is what determines whether the roof will leak or not, and inexperience metal roof installer will not be able to properly flash the chimney. That is why most roofing contractors do not install metal roofs – after one VERY expensive roof failure, they give up. But you as a home owner should always make sure that your metal roofing contractor knows what he’s doing. Otherwise you will have very sorry experience with your metal roof. It is a fact that almost 99%
of metal roof failures and leaks, are caused by improper installation – not the material failure.

After flashing two chimneys, we finished installing shingles on all four sides of this hip roof. Now the roof needed to be finished off with Ridge Vent and Ridge / Hip Caps. We marked a straight line using a chalk line tool, so that the hip caps would lay in a straight line and look beautiful from the ground. We started installing ridge caps from bottom up, and finished it when the reached the ridge line. Then we installed the ridge caps and main roof was complete. Now it was time to install the metal roof on the additions bellow as well as on the shed and a garage.

Installing metal roof on addition, a shed and a garage:

With the main roof out of the way, we could tear of the shingles on the addition bellow it, without worrying that debris will fall on new metal roof. We also removed the vinyl siding along the roof to wall connection so that we could install the underlayment and metal roof side wall flashing. Once the underlayment, drip edge and side-wall flashing was installed, we started putting up shingle and ridge / hip caps – basically repeating the upper roof installation, on a smaller scale.

We also installed metal shingles on another bump-out in the back of the house, a awning in front and a bay window, as well as shed and garage in the back.

Now this house in Attleboro, MA with the new lifetime metal roof looks amazing and the roof will not only protect the home from leaks and ice dams, but will also reduce the energy use during hot summer months, because it is a Cool Roof and qualifies for $1500 federal tax credit for cool roofs!

Check out other metal roof installations that we installed recently – check out our Massachusetts roofing projects. Also check out our metal roofing prices guide to learn how much a metal roof will cost, and compare metal roof prices for different materials – aluminum, steel and copper, as well as different metal roofing systems – metal roof shingles, standing seam roofs and tiles / shakes. We also recommend that you check out what type of metal roofing materials we install in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

Last week, Boston was a host to hordes of roofing sales people, roof manufacturers’ reps and local roofing contractor from all aver Massachusetts and New England. It was the NERCA (North East Roofing Contractors Association) annual roofing convention, where most roofing materials, tools and equipment manufacturers were present, promoting their new products and services.

After being to a few of these shows already, the don’t get any more exciting, but it’s always nice that NERCA sets up up open bars with semi-decent wine, and cheese / crackers / fresh veggies & berries tables. I think for roof sales professionals, these roofing conventions have become a boring necessity as all they do is schmooze with each other and talk about competition. As for me and other roofing contractors, we can always find some new and exciting roofing materials and roofing tools, equipment and services, such as infra-red roof scanners, roof lifts, hydraulic-powered dumpster which can be lifted to the roof level to speed up roof tear-oof and clean up process.
As an Flat Roofs contractor we were there supporting IB Roofs which had a booth there, and I got to meet IB’s new Regional Manager Dana Spurgeon, as well as IB’s local reps in Massachusetts – Jerry Lang and Kevin Laprte (whom I already know of course).

Roofing Equipment presented at Boston Roofing Show:

Besides the obvious and now ritualistic visit to the IB Roofs stand, I wanted to find as many cool, interesting and innovative roofing products at this show, and quickly wondered off, to explore the unknown. My first find was an excellent new automatic hot-air welder by Leister – the new Varimat V2.

This new auto welder, unlike the original Varimat V, has increased and elongated nozzle, and much more powerful fan built into its heat gun, which allows siginificant increas in welding speed from 15 feet per minute for the Varimat V to a maximum 39 feet per minute and realistic 30 feet per minute for the new Varimat V2!

The new Varimat also has new computer controller which lets you save your setting into profiles of various welding speeds and temperature, which can be used for winter and summer roof installation and different roofing membranes, such as TPO roofs and IB single-ply PVC roofing. This new Leister automatic welder is the most advanced tool in its class, and can dramatically speed up roof installation time on large commercial roofing projects. However it comes at a premium price-tag of about $8000 before taxes, requires a more powerful, 6800 watts generator, and of course heavy gauge 240V extension cords, which can easily make the total price for this unit to be over $11000-12000.

Another interesting piece of equipment I found is the hydraulic-powered dumpster lift, which can be driven right up to the roof line and will let roofing contractor to dump old shingles or other roofing materials right off the roof, eliminating clean up, using tarps to cover the exterior walls of the hows and the grass, as well as roofing nails all over your yard, at the end of the day.

Another really interesting piece of roofing equipment is the automatic plates and fastener driver from OMG Roofing. Last year, at the roofing show held at Foxwoods in Connecticut, OMG Roofing demonstrated such unit for flat insulation plates, but did not have one that would quickly fasten the barbed plates used to hold down single ply roofing membranes.

Bellow you can see a video of this plates and fasteners driver in action, attaching a piece of PVC roofing membrane to an ISO insulation over wooden deck roof assembly: Once again, this unit uses barbed plates that are 2 3/8″ in diameter and are made to mechanically attach single ply roofing systems to the roof deck.

Solar Roofing products presented at Boston roofing convention:

Soprema Roofing also had a pretty nice stand where they displayed new Modified Bitumen roofing systems with cool roof reflective layer on the top and SopraSolar roof integrated solar systems. This solar systems, just like the IB’s Solar Wise solar roofing system, uses the UniSolar thing film Solar PV panels, adhered to the roofing membrane.

This new SopraSolar system is a much cleaner installation than Soprema’s original roof-integrated solar systems. The roof integrated solar PV systems are more expensive than regular solar systems, but they offer completely water-tight installation of the roof and solar panels and virtually eliminate roof leaks – calculate solar system cost using Solar Calculator – a free tool that allows you to estimate solar system size, number of kW and how many solar panels you will need as well as solar payback period.

Solar Roofing Tiles:

One more cool roofing product, also using UniSolar thin-film solar panels, which is made in Pennsylvania, is a Spanish roofing tile product, made to easily be installed with clay tiles and provide roof integrated solr panes without any roof penetration or solar mounting racks:

Other interesting roofing materials and products:

Soprema also had a demonstration stand showcasing its PVC roofing systems coated with natural copper, which would actually turn green and the patina process begins. This PVC roof systems also comes with PVC made ribs, so the complete roof system imitates Copper Standing Seam metal roof at a fraction of the cost.

Another interesting product, this time for the sloped roof is a roof vent, which can be installed along th roof eaves, when your roof does not have soffit vents, and improve ventilation of your roof, which will increase the time that your roof will last, make your roof deck last longer and help prevent Ice Dams on your roof.

Ultimate car for the roofing industry:

There was also a rather unconventional vendor present at this year’s roofing convention, who designed a vehicle specially for the roofing sales professionals. This new hybrid concept car features high gas mileage, wide wheel base and extra cargo space for all your roofing samples, brochures and equipment. Unfortunately there is no roof rack on this car, so you won’t be able to take a normal ladder with you, but you can always use a folding telescopic ladder, or as most roofing sales people do – measure the roof off the ground

This new hybrid car is rumored to be a replacement for Toyota Prius, which recently has had a lot of problems with it’s brakes systems and sudden acceleration. This new “bucket” car is supposed to eliminate most problems of a Prius and provide many additional benefits, together with great gas mileage.

Term “green” has become very popular during last decade and consequently overused, misused and abused. Anything and everything can be called green today, and to make money and to attract environmentally-conscious customers, people will call themselves and their products green, even when it is just a blatant lie to confuse uneducated consumers. Being a roofing contractor, I will concentrate on roofing products and services. For example, many asphalt shingles manufacturers now offer “cool” and “green”  shingle products – to me it’s just a shameless tactics to sell same NOT-green crap  that is painted different color (usually some shade of white). Excuse me, but asphalts shingles are not green, period! The are made with asphalt, can’t be recycled and end up in landfills in 10-15 years.

Since term green is very vague and can be interpreted in many ways, I’ll offer my vision of “green” – green roofing contractor to be exact, which describes the way I think and try to operate our roofing business. I want to mention that when I say “green roofing contractor”, it has nothing to do with with a roofing contractor installing green roofs or roof-top gardens. To me a contractor installing roof-top vegetation is a highly-specialize landscaping company, but not a roofing contractor (unless they also install the actual flat roofing membrane to waterproof the building).


Quick navigation in this article:
What is a “green” roofing contractor and how one is different from regular roofing companies.
Learn about green benefits of Metal Roofing and IB Flat Roof

What is a “green” roofing contractor?

In my mind a green roofing contractor is a company that work hard to help protect environment and reduce its energy consumption and green-house gas production or carbon footprint. Sure, almost any company will have a carbon-footprint as it’s nearly impossible to be carbon-neutral, but here are many ways to achieve a much lower carbon footprint.

Here are some thing we do to make our overall operation as green as we can, all-the-while saving you, our customers, money on roof installation services, by cutting our internal costs:

First of all, we install cool roofing products, such as IB Cool Flat roofs and Metal roofing systems (usually made from about 90% recycled metal).We also try to do this in the most efficient manner possible to reduce waste, conserve resources and reduce our clients’ energy use for cooling of their home or place of business, as a result if installing our cool roofs.

What makes us a green roofing company?

Besides installing  cool and green roofing products, we strive to be green in operating our business. When it comes to estimating a roof, most roofing contractors will go to numerous roofing estimates, many of which they will not sell. Keep in mind that many home owners get as many as 5-10 estimates before they make up their mind and some roofers need to make two trips if they forgot to measure something.

We work differently: to save our time and most importantly, the energy (gasoline) it takes to drive around to hundreds, and the associated pollution, we created a system of making our estimating process as efficient as possible. This benefits everyone, and you – our customers in the first place.

Here is how our “green” roofing estimate process works:

1. When client you (homeowner or small business), contact us by email or on the phone, we collect as much information about your roof as possible. The information which we collect includes:




• Type of your roof including all roof penetrations and other specific details.
• Dimensions of your home.
• Photographs of your house and/or roof. (If pictures are unavailable for some reason, we will use Google Maps’ “street view” and Bing Maps’ “birds view” to get an idea of what your roof is like)
• Number of layers of the existing roofing materials.
• Roof age.
• Whether your roof leaks or not.
• When you plan to replace the roof.
• Any other roof related information, as well as answer as many of your questions as we can.
2. Based on the information we get from you, we assess your roof’s condition, estimate approximate cost of replacement, as well as suggest the most cost-effective solution for you, as well as address ventilation, insulation, ponding water, drainage and other roof-related issues.
3. Once we complete our analysis, we provide you with a “preliminary roofing price quote” which in our experience is about 95% accurate and may/will usually change if A) roof dimensions were provided incorrectly or B) there are more roofing layers that we were informed of and C) any other unforeseen situations, which actually rarely happen (One such situation happened when we were replacing a rubber roof in Boston, MA – there we removed old parapet cap, and found that 4 layers of brick parapet wall were sitting in completely washed out mortar. Therefore we had to rebuild the parapet wall completely, so that we could actually complete the roof installation properly).
4. Once you get our roofing price quote, you decide whether it is within your budget, and whether you want to proceed with the roof replacement and work with us. At this point many customers will ask us about our references, which we will email to you.
5. If you like our products / company / price, and want to proceed, we schedule a mutually convenient time for a Roof Inspection / Estimate, during which we actually measure your roof to make sure our quote was correct, check how many layers your roof has, make sure there will be now unforeseen situations. We also show you the product, and how it works as well as answer any questions you may have. Once we are done inspecting your roof, we give you the final roof price, which may or may not include any extra work, such as new gutters installation  or something else. Besides the extra work, our final price is 95% of the time, the same as the preliminary price quote.

What is so special about the way we estimate roofs?

The process I’ve described above, eliminates 70% of unnecessary “driving-around”, which not only helps the environment, but also saves you – our customers money! Since most roofing contractors provide seemingly “free roof estimates”, while still spending time on gas / expenses, and using their time to drive around estimating roofs, the customers that actually do sign up to work with such contractors, end up paying for all previously unsold roofing estimates. We do it differently – we give you all the information we can, including our pricing, so there are no surprises. When you have this info, you can decide if you want to work with us. To avoid charging our customers for someone-else’ unsold estimate, we implemented a $99 estimate fee, which is included in the price of the roof if you decide to work with us (it is not an extra charge). This way you only “pay” for your own estimate, and only if after the estimate you decided that for some reason you do not want to work with us. If we sign a contract – you do not pay the $99 fee. Bottom line – you, our customers don’t pay for other people who “wasted” our time, as is the case with most other roofing contractors.

When we actually go on the estimate, we also as if you have an appropriate ladder at your house, so we could access your roof. If you do not have appropriate ladder or roof access, we will bring a truck with all needed ladders. But if you do have a ladder we’d rather take a “car” instead of the truck. This may sound “cheesy” of us, but here is why we do it:

To be more green, we purchased a Toyota Prius – arguably the greenest and most fuel efficient  production car in US. The sole purpose of getting it was so that we can use it for estimating roofs. Its roomy enough to hold all the needed samples and small hand tools (such as the Hand welder for IB Roof seam welding demonstration), and can also hold additional materials for when your roof needs urgent repair work, which we can perform after the roof inspection / estimate.

Toyota Prius – Green Roofing Contractor’s estimating vehicle.

We would rather take the Prius to an estimate because we usually have to drive long distances, as our roofing jobs take place all over southern New England – we install roofs in Massachusetts, and as far west as NY borders of Western Mass. and Connecticut. Prius will save a lot of gas when we have to drive this far, and as a result a lot of pollution. And no, we do not do it to merely save a couple of bucks on gas – it will take us about 300,000 miles to break even at current gas prices ($2.59 / gallon of unleaded gas here in Massachusetts), if we compare cost of new Prius vs. new Corolla / Civic.

In the end, the way we perform our roofing estimates, benefits you (financially, as we do not need to up-charge you for costs of doing “free estimates”), us – also financially and time-wise, and the environment. This shows just one of the ways we are trying to be the “greener” roofing contractor.

Another way which makes us a greener roofing contractor is our product line of Cool Roofing products which last a VERY long time without leaks and are mostly recyclable and are often made from recycled materials. These products include IB Cool Flat Roofing membrane for flat roofs, Recycled (or new) Roofing Insulation, and different types of metal roofing materials, which often consist of more than 50% of recycled metals.

In some cases we will also recommend that you do not tear off your existing roof (this only applies to 1 layer of existing roofing materials), which will reduce land-fill waste and your costs of roof  removal and disposal. Look forward to our future article on when you should and should not tear off your old roof.

Green benefits of Cool Flat Roofing products – IB Roofs:

IB roofs’ cool white surface reflects up-to 95% of solar heat, and dramatically reduce cooling costs in the summer, and with additional thermal insulation, winter heating costs are also reduced by as much as 25-30%.

IB PVC roofing is long-lasting – you can expect your IB roof to last 30+ years without any repairs (unless there is a physical damage) while average flat roof, such as EPDM Rubber roof or tar and gravel roof, lasts 10-15 years.  Long on-the-roof service life means that you would replace your non-IB roof at least once or twice before IB roof even begins to leak. Beside enormous, non biodegradable or recyclable waste going to landfills, there is also huge amount of energy involved in installation of a new roof:

From roofing crews, each driving their F-250 or Dodge Ram to work each day, to heavy equipment delivering materials to job-site and diesel-hungry dumpster trucks going back and forth from job site to landfill, hauling the waste roofing materials.

IB Roofs are thinner and lighter than any asphalt-based product, and each roll of IB 50-mil membrane has 500 sq. ft. coverage. Therefore, for an average residential flat roof installation  we need only one trip of a fully loaded work truck or van to bring all materials, tools and 3 roofers to a job site. And we don’t need to bring a crane or haul a tar kettle around.

If you have an new hot tar or asphalt roof put on, also think about all the energy going to heat up that tar or asphalt to the point of boiling. For a torch-down modified bitumen roof, think of all the propane gas being burned to melt each square foot of that roof.

Simply by switching to cool flat roof products, a roofing contractor can in time, reduce their carbon footprint by almost 50%, increase profits, production, have happier and healthier employees (just imagine breathing in tar dust or hot asphalt fumes each day), and help protect the environment overall.

Installation video of Cool, White IB roof – hot air welding:

Green benefits of Metal Roofing:

Metal roofing is the longest lasting roofing material for sloped roofs. Some copper roofs in Europe have lasted more than 5 centuries. Metal roofs are readily made with more than 50% of recycled metals content, and will outlast ANY asphalt shingles roof by at least 3 time (when installed properly), and often will last well beyond its warranty periods.This will significantly reduce the asphalt shingles waste that goes to the landfills every 10 to 15 years, when your roof starts to leak and needs to be replaced.

Metal roofs like IB flat roofs are Cool, Energy Star compliant roofs, and will reflect significant amount of solar heat, as well as minimize heat transfer into your house. Reflectivity of metal roofs depends on the color (lighter colors will be more reflective) and the paint or coating used in manufacturing of a given metal roofing systems. The de-facto coating used in metal roofing is Kynar 500 paint and any of its variations / modifications by third-party manufacturers. These paints have in them cool roof reflective pigments, and will usually qualify of $1500 federal tax credit for energy efficient home improvements.

If your metal roof was installed incorrectly or is way past its warranty period and starts to rust / leak (only steel roofs can rust, as other metals used in metal roofing are usually rust-proof, except for corrosion caused by mixing of different metals, such as copper and aluminum). This old metal roofing materials can be recycled, and there and numerous metal recycling facilities around, where contractors bring old metals.

When we replaced old metal  roofs on IHOP restaurants (which were in part incorrectly installed over 35 years ago) in Hyannis, MA and Brighton, MA, we recycled every single piece of each of those roofs, including clips and nails used to hold them down. For more information, read or article on pros and cons of metal roofing.

Installation video of Standing Seam Cool Metal Roof:

Why hire green roofing contractors?

Basically, when you are dealing with a green roofing company, you can usually expect to work with caring and responsible people, who charge a little extra for their products and services, but will give you a lot more than your neighborhood roofer from yellow pages. It is almost a given that level of workmanship and quality of roofing products will be above and beyond than most roofing contractors. And of course the green roofing contractors will use earth-friendly products and will run their operations in a green way, which will benefit the environment. You don’t have to believe in global worming to agree that using green products and conserving energy / resources is a good thing.

If you live or own a business in Massachusetts, Connecticut or Rhode Island and need a new roof – let us know and we will give you some of the best deals around. Fill out our roof estimate form and we will help you get a “greener roof” and we promise to be gentle with mother earth!

You may use our roofing calculator to estimate the cost of your roof replacement, find out your potential energy savings (in dollars) and compare the prices of IB Roof to “not cool” EPDM rubber and Modified Bitumen (torch-down) roofs.

So is your roofing contractor green?

Massachusetts is our home state and here is where we install majority of our roofs (with Connecticut being in second place). In Massachusetts, roofing market is very different, depending on location, and although there are a lot more sloped roofs, not only in Mass., but in the rest of the country, we still install more Flat roofs than Metal roofs. As for geographic location of your home in Massachusetts, up north, toward the New Hampshire border, roofs are more prone to Ice Dam roof leaks and damages than houses located in the southern MA.

Although Massachusetts is not a very big state, the your location can have a dramatic effect on the amount of snow fall in the winter, and thus your chances of having Ice dams and and related roof leaks. For example on the same day, an average roof in Sharon or Norwood will have 1-2 inches of ice alone the eaves, whereas an average roof in Lowell will have 5+ inches of ice build-up. If you go further north of south away from Boston the amount of annual snow accumulation and ice dams will increase or decrease respectively.

Why do I mention Ice dams and roof leaks in the intorductory part? It’s simple – most commercial roofs are flat, and are not prone to ice dams, though they have their own list of problems that I will discuss bellow. Residential roofs on the other hand are the ones mostly affected by ice dams. These are both sloped roofs and low-slope / flat roof, and we have the best and longest lasting solutions for both - Metal Roofing for sloped roofs and IB Roof for low slope flat roofs, such as shed dormer roofs, and completely flat roofs.

Bellow we will give you a quick overview of most recent and some older roof installations that we’ve completed in Mass. Keep in mind that these are not the complete job profiles. Complete job overviews will be posted separately, as time permits us to write them. In the overviews bellow I will provide basic information about each roof, accompanied by a few pictures and short description of roof installation process and challenges we had to face.

Before we go into job reviews, here are a few additional articles you may find useful, when choosing a roof product for your home and a roofing contractor to install it:

How to prevent Ice Dams – comprehensive guide on which focuses on the root cause of Ice dams which is usually a combination of poor ventilation and and inadequate insulation in the attic space or between roof rafters. This guide will help homeowners minimize heat leaks in the attic, improve ventilation and eliminate the effects of ice dam leaks by installing a Metal Roof or an IB low-slope roofing membrane.

Low-slope roofs – Overview of common problems associated with low slope residential roof such as shed dormers or roof on most cape-style homes located in the norther MA. Common issues with such roofs include rotten roof decking / rafters and Ice-dams. Since this roofs are prone to Ice dam leaks, most of the rot damage is an effect of ice dams and although many roofing contractors will insist that using Ice and Water shield will do the trick, our experience shows that most of the time I&W fails to protect the roof even if entire roof deck is covered in Ice and Water. Therefore we believe that best solution for permanent protection of low-slope roofs and eliminating ice dams is the use of metal roof of IB flat roofing membrane in conjunction with solving ventilation/insulation issues described in the article above.

Roofs we installed in Massachusetts:

Low slope shed dormer roof in Westminster, MA

This roof we installed in early May of 2009. The house is located in heavily wooded are of central Mass, just north of mount Wachusett. Westminster, MA is located along Rt. 2, and not very far from New Hampshire border. These areas get major snow falls in the winter, together with colder temperatures than those in Boston and ice dams are a major problem in Westminster, even for high slope roofs. Low slope roofs such as the one we replaced there, are very likely to have ice dam leaks and other problems such as rotten roof deck, wet insulation, and mold.

The roof has been leaking for some time around the chimney in the center of the roof and was patched many times with tar, but rather unsuccessfully. Also, due to Ice Dams and roof leaks caused by ice formation along the roof eaves, the home owner installed heating cables to stop the Ice dam leaks. These however did not help either and after one more unsuccessful roof repair, home owner decided to get an IB roof installed.

The home owner and their cousin who is a roofer in NH, did the roof tear-off and replaced all rotten plywood decking, to reduce the cost of roof installation, while we installed the roof itself, insulation, chimney flashing, ridge vent and snow guards (snow retention system).

Note – even though before we installed IB roof, home owner’s main concern was to get ice and snow off the roof. After IB roof was installed, our concern was that due to roof’s pitch, which was about 3 in 12″, the snow and Ice would just slide off the roof in a large pile, crushing down onto deck and perch bellow it. Also there was a grill on the deck which was not movable since it was tied to a gas line.

The chimney flashing, which may seem to take not to much time, actually took about 6-7 hours to properly flash. The reason ot turned out to be so lime consuming it that it is located in the center and separates the ridge vent as well as creeping onto another side of the roof. Due to its position, size and the way IB roof is installed it not only took long to work around, but also slowed down the rest of roof installation. Because the the ridge vent buts into the chimney, we had to make sure that not only ridge vent is raised an inch off the roof level to prevent the wind-driven rain from leaking into the house, but also that it is completely tied to the roof, and flashed up the chimney. Once the chimney flashing was installed and counter flashing reglet had to bi installed as well.

All in all it took us 3 days to install this roof, though 3rd day was rather short. What really slowed us down, was the first heat wave of that spring and unrealistic number of bugs / flies / mosquitoes in this wooded / swampy area of central Mass.

Roofing membrane used: 50 mil mechanically attached IB PVC flat roofing system.

Insulation used: 1/2″ fan-fold Styrofoam insulation with clear plastic / metal facing.

Total roof square footage: Approximately 500 sq. ft.

Standing seam metal roof in Wayland, MA.

Right after the roof in Westminster was installed, we started getting ready for a big metal roofing project, which used .032 Aluminum standing seam metal roof in 1 3/4″ snap lock profile with 16″ wide pan and stiffening ribs. This roof took about two weeks to install between tear-off of old asphalt shingles, siding removal, replacement of rotten wood replacement, delays with material shipments and wrong type of flashing being delivered.

Actually one of the delays happened because our supplier ran out of Grey aluminum coil after 80 % of roofing panels were rolled out of their mobile standing seam roll-forming machine, which was based in Manchester, NH. As the supplier received more aluminum coil 3 dais later the send a different truck, from New London, CT. As that truck arrived and rolled off the first test panel, just out of curiosity I decided to compare first batch to the second one. It turned out that the machine on the New London truck was set up to be 1/8″ wider than Manchester truck. This, over the course of 23 panels gave us an extra 3″ of panel which converted to two extra panels – 1 1/2″ wide – on either side of the rear roof section and exactly 23 panels on the front. We had to send the truck back and wait for the Manchester, NH truck to deliver and roll out the same coil. Even the guys working for the supplier were not aware if this mismatch between the two machines.

In the end the Manchester truck delivered the right-width panels and we were able to finish the jobs without any more delays. The homeowner – Glenn – was also very concerned with snow and ice falling off the roof and damaging the gutters bellow, so we installed a commercial-grade double rail snow retention system to eliminate the possibility of snow falls form the roof.

We already posted a full review of this roof installation on our blog, a few months back, so if you want to know more details, read the standing seam metal roof in Wayland, MA job profile.

Rubber roof in Boston, MA.

In August of 2009 we’ve completed a rather small, but very tricky and complicated flat roof installation in Boston, on one of the traditional Boston-style homes/buildings, which you can see all alogn Mass. ave, Comm. ave as well as Blue Hills avenue, on which this house is located. It was originally a EPDM rubber roof, which had over 50 percent of seams separated due to adhesive failure. The two-tower wood design made this roof much more difficult to repair and our client – Jim – chose to eliminate the hassles of frequent roof repairs and decided to have an 80-mil IB roof installed.

Although this should have been a pretty much straight-forward roof replacement, with rubber tear-off performed first and a new IB roof installed, I sensed that it will not be an easy job. Until we opened up the roof I could not say for sure what obstacles we’re going to face, but once we did remove the rubber, we found that entire length of the masonry parapet wall was damaged by water and poor quality of brick mortar. We also found that we would have to rebuild the parapet walls much as 4 layers of brick deep.

Because a chose a careful approach to the rubber removal, by only pulling back the rubber membrane off the parapet wall, and not cutting it, we were able to do entire brick repair work and roof preparation, while having the roof watertight each night with original rubber membrane.

Once all brick repair war was complete and mortar had sufficient time to cure, we installed a 2×8 pressure treated perimeter wood nailer to which IB wall flashing and drip edge would be attached. Only on the last day did we remove the whole rubber roof, installed new insulation and laid dawn the new, mechanically attached IB PVC flat roofing membrane.

We had to come back one more time to install the new gutter and downspouts, IB two-way membrane vents and 9″ IB attic vents over specially cut holes in the roof deck. These attic vents were installed to vent out the moisture that accumulated in the small attic space when the old rubber roof was leaking. Once in place these oversize vents will eventually dry out the attic and prevent any future mold growth.

Now Jim can enjoy his watertight roof and get sun baths sitting in his beach chair on the roof of his home, and not worry about damage to membrane – he chose a very durable, commercial grade 80-mil IB roof. He will also enjoy a cooler home, due to IB cool roofing features.

You can read the complete job profile about this Flat roof in Boston, MA on our Cool Roofing Blog.

Flat roof in Framingham, MA

One of the more recent roofs we’ve installed was in Framingham, MA, where we installed an IB roof on yet another shed dormer roof for Ed Kelly – a high-end remodeling contractor out of Northborough, MA. The builder had his crew remove old asphalt shingles off this roof an replace most of the old decking with new 3/4" plywood. We were there to install just the membrane and flash it 2 feet up the sloped roof.

During my conversation with Ed (builder), he told me me why he chose the seemingly more expensive IB roof over a cheaper rubber EPDM membrane. His main reason was the IB’s hot-air welded seams, and hassle free roof performance. Before, Ed would use a rubber roof on a few of his projects, end all but one of them leaked due to problems with seams, and required expensive rubber roof repair. Ed decided to end his flat roofing nightmares and constant rubber roof leaks, and went with IB roof.

The entire job took us one day to complete. The roof was ready to start, as we arrived to the job site in the morning, and before dark we packed our tools and were ready to leave, as the roof was all done. The roofing crew which did the tear off and deck replacement was putting the new asphalt shingles and aluminum fascia trim back on, as we were driving away.

Roofing material: 50 mil white IB roof, mechanically attached.

Insulation: 1/2″ fan-fold Styrofoam.

Total roof size: Approximately 450 sq. ft.

Flat roof deck in Wellesley, MA

Just before the Framingham flat roof job described above, we did another job for Ed – an 80 mil IB roof that would be a water-proofing membrane for a roof deck over a garage being built as an addition to an already huge home in a very secluded area of Wellesley.

Once again, a complete job profile for this roof deck is already on our blog, so there is no point to rewrite it here – read the Wellesley, MA  flat roof deck installation overview.

Solar flat roof in Medford, MA

This job, was actually sponsored by Cool Flat Roof (us) and IB Roof Systems, as it was a non-profit project, competing in the 2009 Solar Decathlon competition, sponsored by the US DOE. We installed an IB roof on a Boston solar home with some help from the project volunteers and Architecture students from BAC and Tufts.

Once again, we have a complete coverage of the installation of the IB flat roof and the Solar PV panels on this roof - Solar roof installation in Boston, MA.

Low slope shed dormer roof in Hingham, MA

Yet another shed dormer roof and also with major ice dams problems and leaks. This roof was just a year old when we removed the old asphalt shingled, and installed a new 50 mil IB traditions roof with asphalt shingles pattern printed onto IB white roofing membrane. This roof was completely covered with Ice & water shield which failed miserably and forced homeowner to climb up the slippery ladder all winter long, sometimes two times a day, to brake off the ace along the roof edge.

Homeowner – Paul – tried everything, from sodium-filled socks above the skylights to heating cables – nothing seemed to help, as with lack of proper ventilation and inherent limitations of asphalt shingles, his roof was still leaking, as it faced north, and sun never shined over it in the winter.

Paul wanted a permanent solution to stop roof leaks and not a single roofing contractor that Paul contacted could explain to him how they would stop the leaks or promise that their roof will work. Some even offered to  install asphalt shingles with Ice & Water shield – Really? Paul already had shingles with Ice and Water and it was not working.

Initially, Paul contacted us about getting a metal roof installed on his house, but after examining the roof, I suggested ti install IB roof instead, and residential flat roofing solution form IB  - Traditions Classic seemed to be the best option as it combined all the benefits of IB roof with the classic look of architectural asphalt shingles printed onto the membrane. After a little decision making, Paul and his wife chose to go with a seamless one piece IB roof. In this case there would be zero possibility of ice dam leaks.

All skylights now have seamless 1-piece plashing whelded to the roof, and the rodge vent is raise by an inch above the roof level to prevent wind driven water from penetrating the roof.

Now that Paul has a new IB Traditions roof, which is in effect a seamless, one piece blanket over entire roof, he and his wife won’t have to worry about roof leak and breaking ice off the roof any more.

With this, we conclude the first part of our Massachusetts job profiles list. We will update it as we have time to add more pictures and descriptions to each job, and will also add complete job profiles for each roof, when we have a chance.

Getting IB roof or a metal roof installed on your home in Massachusetts:

If your roof is leaking or you have Ice dams,and are tired of fighting with the ice, using heat cables, sodium-filled socks, raking your roof, and risking to fall of a ladder, you need to contact the low-slope roofing experts ( us ), request a free roofing price quote and schedule a roof inspection / estimate. You can also use our online roofing calculator to estimate your roof replacement cost and compare the roof prices of IB PVC membrane to Rubber roofing and Modified bitumen / Tar and gravel roofs.

Rubber roofing (EPDM) is not the best system for flat roofs, but in some instances, it just does not work right off the bet, and when it leaks, repairing such a roof is not even an option. In late July of 2009 we began work on one such roof in Roxbury , MA – a neighborhood of Boston, located 15 minutes from downtown.

The roof was installed by an unqualified roofing contractor that apperanly never installed a rubber roof before, nor did the contractor care about quality at all, which you can judge for yourself from the photographs of the roof that we’ve provided. As you will be able to see, this particular roof, though small, required a lot of detail work which is the defining factor of weather this roof will leak or not. The roofer that installed the EPDM rubber on this roof, completely skipped the flashing part, choosing to instead caulk the corners with rubber lap sealants, and in some cases use the sealant to adhere membrane seams. As a result, most seams – even those that were glued together with rubber glue, partially or completely came apart.

In addition to a generally horrible roof installation practice used by the contractor, the home owner – Jim  - was very concerned about insulation screws being loose under the rubber roof and in some places penetrating the roof, cratering more leaks. Despite all the corner cutting and improper installation of the rubber roof, Jim had one advantage that kept his house more or less watertight, and without major roof leaks. The roof was built with a slight slope, which diverted all the water toward the through wall drain, while parapet walls kept the water from spilling over the roof edges.

Just as a side note, this house used to be a part of a larger building, which was partially demolished at some point in time. Its back wall now, used to be a separation firewall between different sections of the building. You can easily figure it out by looking a the brick on the front and back of the house. This brings up a mystery which I cannot solve: The through-wall drain is located in the back of the house where the old separation wall is now. Therefore, back when the house was bigger, all the water would flow to the adjacent section of the roof. Still it had to drain somewhere, otherwise the house would be completely flooded, and a roof could actually collapse under all that weight. I suppose there were through-roof drains which were buried / removed during one of the re-roofs and a through-wall drain was created when rear part of the building was removed. I will come back to this topic later on, when I’ll discuss the parapet walls on this house.

General roof details:

This was actually a very small roof (just over 400 sq. ft), which however took us more than 7 working days to complete. Most of this time was spent on preparation work and many repairs we had to perform, before the new 80-mil IB PVC flat roof membrane would go on. All these repairs had to be performed while maintaining roof water-tightness. Using tarps on this roof would be nearly impossible and time consuming to put up, because of the roofs shape. The roof has two round towers on the front, a “head-house” or a stairs walk out that leads to the roof in the center and parapet walls all around. In addition to all the given obstacles, to perform a quality roof installation we had to remove all siding and the door off the head house, and then put it all back together when roof was complete.

Roof installation – Day 0ne:

On the first day of roof installation was more like a test run, and we got rained out in the middle of the day. We started out the installation by removing the drip edge from the parapet walls and pulling back the rubber membrane to expose parapet walls. The reason for not just cutting rubber at the base of the roof and actually puling int back was discussed earlier – we had to keep roof watertight when we leave for the night and by maintaining a the old rubber intact, we could simply put back the flaps and attach them back to parapets, until we come back the next day. We also planned to install a 2×8 pressure treated (PT) wood nailer over the parapet walls, by attaching them with masonry anchors, and Liquid Nails adhesive (for additional rigidity). To our disappointment, over entire length of the parapet wall, the bricks were completely loose. Old mortar fell apart, damaged by age, moisture and other weather-related factors.

Between days 1 and 2 which were Friday and Monday, we went to install an IB roof that we sponsored for a Team Boston Solar Decathlon home with Solar PV roof. Since all construction on the Solar Home happened over weekend and the house needed a roof, to allow the crew to start work on the inside, we had to work all weekend to put on a new roof with a tapered insulation system.

The next day (Monday) we were back on the job site continuing work on the parapet wall repair.

As we dug deeper, it turned out that we had to replace at least 3 rows of brick mortar. We could not go any lower as that would create potentially disastrous situation with the old casted metals moldings installed on the outside of the parapets. This metal moldings were held in place by nails inserted into the brick joints. If we would remove another row of bricks, the metal would just come loose and fall to the ground in one piece. Fortunately as we dug deeper, the strength of mortar improved and we did not have to go down any more. Once the old brick was removed and old mortar, dirt / dust and other loose debris were vacuumed out, we could begin putting new mortar and bricks back. We had to wash and wire brush every brick, before it was laid back into the parapet wall. If you ask why not use new bricks – answer is very simple. The new bricks that you get from Home Depot or Lowe’s are junk. I could break on apart with my hands. Old bricks were of the exceptional quality and strength, and were solid brick (no cavities) which allowed us to securely attach masonry anchors later on in the roof installation.

Roof installation – days 2 through 5: brick work on parapet walls:

While maintaining rubber roof integrity, we replaced / repaired top 3 rows of brick parapet walls and performed all other prep work, while getting ready for the big push – complete removal of all rubber roofing and laying a new 80-mil IB PVC flat roofing system. The entire process had to be done in one day, so everything had to be ready. We removed old metal flashing, installed all wood nailer boards, membrane over parapet walls and drip edge before tearing off old rubber roof. Now the roof was ready.

At the end of day 5 we took down all th metal coping off the outside of the parapet walls. At this point it was dangerously hanging, nailed through the brick joints. One person would stand on the ground, making sure there were no pedestrians walking near the house while I was cutting the metal coping and taking it down in small sections. When all the metal was successfully removed, I was no longer worried that it may fall off on its own. Although we attached it to the rubber membrane over night with no chance of becoming loose, I still could not wait until the metal was completely removed.

Roof installation – days 6 & 7: installing IB roof and welding seams

Once everything was prepared, the actual roof installation took two days. First we laid down and mechanically attached all the membrane. All field seams were welded before any flashing work began. Once main membrane was installed we flipped down all the membrane that was already installed on parapets and welded it down to the main roof. Then the roof to wall flashing on the head house was installed, and it was now time to flash the chimney and at the same time make a new through-wall drain liner, so the water would run off the roof into the gutter which we later installed along the back wall of the house.

At the end of day 7, all roof flashing was welded together, roof attic vents and membrane vents installed, the door was put back on the roof entrance and everything was watertight. All we had to do now is to come back one more time to install the new commercial 6″ gutter and 4×3″ downspouts.

Although this roof took twice as long as originally planed, we had enough time to fix everything and get the roof ready and now it will perform flawlessly, protecting this house from water and reducing the inside temperatures in the summer, thanks to roof’s cool white surface.

Here is what Jim (the homeowner) has to say:

Hi Leo,

I’m writing to pass on my thanks. The new IB roof is a vast improvement over the poorly installed rubber one that preceded it. It was also a great idea to swap in some of the heavier IB for the main floor area. I can tell how solid and rugged it is.

I can also confirm that it’s working, believe it or not. There was a section of wall in the upstairs hallway which had gotten damp, to the point that paint had begun to peel there. I’m likely going to replace the sheet-rock at that spot anyway, to be safe. But it is now bone-dry! We’ll see how it goes, but it seems to be off to a promising start.

I much appreciate the thoroughness and quality of your worksmanship, and that of your crew.

All the Best,
Jim

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.

It is no secret that a metal roof, although designed to last a lifetime, is only as good as its installers. Additionally, metal roofing is a completely different animal than asphalt shingle roofs, cedar shake or even slate roofing, and to be able to install a metal roof correctly, you need a professionally trained metal roof mechanic.

Usually when a metal roof is installed by a seasoned roofer, who never worked with at least on of many types of metal roofing, the results are more than sad. Roof begins to leak with the first rain, roofers reputation suffers and very unhappy customer seeks to resolve the problems with the manufacturer and files complains with BBB, Angie’s List and other consumer protection organizations. Fortunately all of these of these troubles can be avoided if a professional metal roofing is hired to do the job.

We understand the needs of home and business owners, and their demand for highest quality of materials and installation. We hand pick the best materials and the most thoroughly thought-out roofing systems, and combine them with our unique installation methods, which in the end, provide you with a true lifetime roofing solution, and unmatched beauty for your home.

Examples of our unique approach to installation of metal roofing:

In the above video clip, you may see how we approach the installation of this residential metal roof in Revere, MA. As with most roofs, attic ventilation is crucial to the longevity of the roof, its wooden substrate and the health of the entire home, including its occupants. There are multiple ways to ventilate the attic space, but the most effective way is to utilize a ridge and soffit ventilation system, where the cold air enters the attic through the soffit vents, located along the eaves of the roof and escapes through the ridge vent. However, the ridge vent is often the path through which the wind driven water can penetrate the roof, causing slow, but devastating damages to the roof’s framing. Since amount of water coming through the ridge vent is usually insignificant, homeowners will not notice the leak for many years, at which point damage has already been done, and repairs can cost thousands of dollars. It is very common that the wooden substrate is completely rotten along the ridge line, and so are the tips of the rafters merging at the peak of the roof.

The solution to ridge vent leaks:

Water-tight ridge vent system

We designed a special way to raise the ridge vent off the roof level by 3/4 of an inch. While insignificant in therms of aesthetics, this bump-out prevents the wind drive water to enter the ridge vent cut-out, while the ventilation still works just as efficiently as it would have otherwise. Notice that the custom flashing we use, rests on top of a pressure treated 1×4 board. The flashing is inserted into the top lock of the last course of aluminum shingles, which makes it impossible for wind driven water to penetrate the roof. Just as an extra protection measure, we used  commercial grade exterior caulking, at the joins of top locks between every shingle.

Ice Dams can cause very serious and expensive to fix problems and are usually caused by improper ventilation of your attic space and inadequate insulation of your roof. Ice Dams are a sign of heat loss in the attic and this lost heat is money you through out the window.

This Ice Dams Prevention Guide will help you identify Ice Dams and eliminate either sources of the problem (preferred method, though not always feasible) or the effects, which are just as dangerous for you home, as the cause rot and mold damage not only to your roof, but also inside the walls.

Ice Dams Guide – quick navigation:

What are Ice Dams – technical explanation of ice dams and what causes them.
Ice dams and poor roof ventilation – ice dams are cause by warm air in your attic, which requires adequate ventilation.
How to solve Ice Dams problems – permanent solution to prevent ice dams.

Ice dams may seem harmless at first, but they are known to cause thousands of dollars in roof leaks, structural  damages and repairs of your home, and can create dangerous mold growth, which can cause or aggravate allergies, asthma and other respiratory diseases.  Fighting ice dams can be costly, and you also need to know how to approach the problem, to make your efforts more efficient, to permanently eliminate ice dams.

Although ice dams are common on most roofs in the northern regions of US and Canada, they cause most damages and leaks to Low Slope roofs, as it is much easier for water to “travel” up the low pitch roof vs. steep roof.

Additionally, you may see many roofs in New Hampshire, northern Massachusetts, as well as other parts of the country with 2 x 2 feet aluminum pans locked together along the eaves of the roof. These metal sheets are installed so that ice formations would slide off, and ice dams would not build up. This may work for steep roofs, but on a low slope, the ice dams can form in the center of the roof as there is not enough pitch for water to run off.

What are Ice Dams and what causes them?

If you live in northern US, Canada, or any other region with cold winters and lots of snow, you’ve seen and possibly experienced first hand the Ice Dams and problems which they create. Just a few of the most common ice dam related problems include roof leaks, rotted roof decking / exterior & interior walls / framing, mold and related respiratory illnesses (allergies, asthma, etc.), reduction in insulation effectiveness and associated heat-loss.

Ice dams are just that – they are large ice formations along the eaves of the roofs. Main causes of ice dams are poor ventilation and / or inadequate insulation in the attic. In a nutshell, when warm air from the living space of your home rises into the attic it melts the snow, which runs down and freezes at the eaves, creating ice dams. If your attic is poorly insulated, much more warm air escapes, and larger ice dams form.

Lets see how ice dams are created and what  can be done to get rid of them:

When it snows outside, a thick layer of snow settles on the roof, and the warm air from the attic slowly melts the snow. Melted snow begins to run down the rood toward the eave, which are usually colder than the rest of roof surface. There, water freezes thus creating ice dams. As more more water melts at the top of the roof and freezes at the bottom, the ice dams grow to a thickness of over 4-5 inches.

As ice dams become larger and more  melted snow water runs down the roof, it hits the already large ice dams and cant go down any more. At this point it starts to refreeze under the shingles. At the same time warm attic air melts the newly formed ice under shingles, which starts to drip inside the attic and /or down the walls.

Ice Dams and Ventilation:

Even if you have a very well insulated attic, which blocks most of the warm air from escaping your living space, still, some warm air will escape into the attic. This is where you you need a working ventilation, which will vent most of the warm air from the attic and will create a temperature parity between outside and inside the attic. Only then, the snow will not melt artificially and will not create ice dams.

Most effective and commonly used attic ventilation system used toady in residential construction and roofing is the Soffit / Ridge vent system. Although soffit/ridge systems is the best-performing type of ventilation, it is not always possible to implement it. While implementing a good ventilation system on a new construction home is easy, some of the older homes were designed to have no ventilation at all, or optionally were build with two gable vents that are usually two 12 x 18 inches openings at the peak of the gable-side walls. These are not as effective as ridge and soffit vents but still work O.K.

In many cases however having a ventilation system is not an option due to many reasons, such as financial constrains or building limitations. For example, if a home was build with insulation stuffed between the roof rafters, but the the builder did not install baffles, which would create an air pocket to allow the flow of air. In this case no ventilation system will work ans there is no room for air to circulate. Of course this situation can be fixed but it would cost a lot of money and many home owners are unwilling to spend that much.

Other type of roofs that are not designed to accommodate effective ventilation systems such as ridge / soffit vents or gable vents, are Hip Roofs and low slope roofs. In the case of hip roofs, you could get away with static box vents or power vents with a thermostat. These are not as effective, but still provide some ventilation.

In the case of low slope roofs, builders and roofers not only need to solve the ventilation problems but also they have to make sure that there are no leaks cases by the air vents. Unfortunately too many builders and roofers do not include any ventilation on a low slope roof as it is easier for them to avoid potential leaks. For example a ridge vent on a low pitch roof will allow the wind driven water to enter the attic.

Since most low slope roofs are not vented, ice dams are much more likely to occur and cause extensive damages to the roof and interior of the house, as it is a lot easier for water to travel “upward” on a low pitch roof. Most low slope and flat roofing systems are designed to have their seams put together with glues and adhesives, ranging from solvent based seam lap adhesives used with Epdm black rubber to Tar and roof cement used with asphalt and modified bitumen roofs. Du to the nature of adhesives, these roofs are prone to develop leaks as adhesives break down with time and weather affecting it’s longevity, and Ice Dams only speed up the process as Ice melting and re-freezing process expands the gaps between the seams.

Additionally, asphalt shingle are often used on low slope roofs, which is a blunt ignorance on the part of homeowners who did not do the due diligence, and hired roofing contractor to install such a roof, and home owner abuse by shady roofing contractors who do not let the home owner know that the roof the are about to install, violates manufacturers installation guidelines and annuls the warranty on the roof. By definition, low slope roof is pitch less than 3, while ALL shingles manufacturers require at least 3 pitch to install their asphalt shingles product.

In many cases, with luck of proper ventilation and in some cases improper roofing materials used on low slope roofs, some home owners turn to heated electric cables to melt the ice dams. Despite common opinion that heat cables solve the Ice dam problems, it could not be further from truth.

Here is why heat cable do not solve Ice Dam problems:

First of, just a reminder that ice dams are caused by hot air escaping your living space and lack of adequate ventilation. Heat cable use electricity to melt the ice formations. Therefore you are trying to fight a heat / energy problems by throwing more energy into the cold atmosphere, so despite fixing the problem you just add a band-aid which does not even work. At the same time you incur ever increasing energy expenses, while the problem not only remains there, but becomes worse.

Heat cable melt the ice dams along the eaves, but there are still ice dams forming just above the effective range of heat cables, so your ice dam leaks now occur high up the roof slope, affecting more insulation and aggravating the problem even more.

Permanent solution to Ice Dam problems:

The best thing you can do to eliminate ice dams is to improve your attic ventilation and add / improve insulation to minimize heat loss.  Insulation should be your first step as poor attic insulation is the main cause of ice dams, and besides, you don’t want to keep wasting your money on heating up your unused attic. Seal the gaps between insulation, use expandable foam insulation for tight spots, etc. If you have the soffit vents/air intake slots, make sure that loose insulation does not block the air circulation.

Install proper ventilation. As mentioned before, soffit and ridge vent system is the most effective and does not cost a lot if you are having a new roof installed. You can also add it to an existing roof, but make sure there are appropriate conditions for adequate air circulation. Do NOT mix different ventilation systems – if you do so, there is a good chance that one system will minimize the effects of the other, therefore your ventilation will stop working.

What to do if you cannot improve / fix  ventilation and insulation issues:

Although it is best to eliminate the source of the problem – heat loss and improper ventilation, it is not always a viable financial option for many homeowners, and another solution is required. As I discussed earlier, heat cable do not work and only increase your energy expenses. The best solution for a sloped roof is to have a Metal Roof installed.

Metal roofs are designed to prevent the damages associated with ice dams, by preventing the water from traveling upward. Be it a standing seam metal roof or an interlocking shingles systems, Ice formations may occur, but the design of the roof will not let the melting water rise and penetrate the roof surface.

In fact, due to its smooth surface, metal roofs shed ice and snow, which come down like an avalanche, and to prevent this snow from damaging things bellow and falling on some one’s head, special Snow Guards must be used, which you can see in the image above.

For low slope roofs, we install IB roofing system which features hot-air welded seams to prevent water from entering the roof, , and is perfect for residential low sloped roofing as it comes with asphalt shingle pattern to give it an architectural look and design.

To properly ventilate a low slope roof, we’ve created a special assembly method which allows the installation of ridge vent, and eliminates associated roof leaks. We raised a ridge vent by 2 inches from the roof surface. This clearance is more than sufficient to prevent any water from entering your house through the ridge vent.

In conclusion, I’ll once again mention that it is best to go to the source of the problem and fix as much ventilation and insulation as you can. Combine a great, energy efficient attic insulation with a permanent, cool flat or metal roof, and you will get a long lasting, great looking roof that will not leak, will save you money on roof repairs and heating / cooling costs, and take the many headaches out of being a proud homeowner, as well as allow you to enjoy your home without ever worrying about roof leaks.

If you live any where in Massachusetts, Rhode Island or Connecticut, contact us to get a free roofing price quote and schedule a roof inspection and estimate to install a lifetime flat IB roof or a beautiful metal roof. You can also use our online roofing price calculator to estimate your roof replacement costs and annual energy savings.

References and Resources:

• Step by step guide about installing metal roofing.
• Roof repair guide, which includes cost estimates for basic and advanced repairs, as well as what you can expect and how to choose a roofing contractor to fix your roof. Useful information for DIY homeowners, property maintenance personal and business owners.
  

We have not updated our roof project profiles in a while, but now since we started using a blog, it became much easier. This is one the first in a series of projects we’ve completed in the last 12 months, that never made it to our website. We start this series with a flat roof in Connecticut.

I will try to objectively describe the roof problems that our customers had, and what we did to eliminate the roof leaks, as well as give them a piece of mind that their IB Cool Roof will protect their home or building and provide our customers real money saving on ever-rising energy costs.

On the roof in Andover, Connecticut – with happy homeowner after IB flat roof installation was complete

Roofing problems and our roof installation in the words of the homeowner:

In December of 2008 my wife and I awoke to a dripping sound in our master bedroom. Much to our dismay the drip quickly became a steady stream of water as we were experiencing a rain storm that totaled 4″. We placed buckets under the stream to mitigate the damages. The next morning I opened up the Sheetrock ceiling which was sagging down. Upon opening the ceiling I could see that all of the insulation and plywood was wet. As I moved across the room I found that it wasn’t just that area that was leaking but several places. Our flat roof measures 20′ x 34′ and has a 1 pitch covered with 5 year old roll roofing. We tarped the roof and called a water damage restoration company to come in and dry us out. Unfortunately, MOLD was discovered growing on the underside of plywood decking, framing, and Sheetrock. An industrial hygienist was hired to do testing and determine the mold spore levels. We ended up have to demolish the entire area and have the mold professionally re-mediated. The insurance company did not like to hear about mold. The have limit on coverage of $10,000.00 and were facing $24,000.00 in damages!
This is very small amount when you see how much it can cost to remove mold. Insurance companies also will not pay to repair your roof. Especially a flat one. They will only cover the resulting interior damage. I was frustrated with the extent of damages that occurred all from what appeared to be a little leak. Often times by the time water comes through your Sheetrock it is too late and you have lots of mold and wood damage waiting for you. After settling with the insurance company I began to research possible ideas to make sure this never happens again. I investigated the idea of raising the roof pitch which proved to be very expensive. Next I looked into flat roof systems such as rubber. I found that the seams end up leaking after a while. Not to mention the fact that it is ugly and retains heat making the inside of your home hotter in the summer. I also, looked into metal but no one could install on such a low pitch and guarantee me that it won’t leak. Finally, I found Leo’s website talking about the IB Roof system. I was amazed by the fact that this product provided a lifetime guarantee for the product and labor. I also love the fact that it is attractive looking and reflects the hot sun keeping my home cooler in the summer. As an added bonus in the future I can add IB solar panels to my IB Roof and generate my own electricity. I’m told that in some places the cost for IB Roof may be a bit more than the alternatives. However, for me the cost of the IB Roof was actually less than my quotes to go with a rubber roof. Therefore, it was a no brainier. Leo and his crew were on my job-site within just a few days after our initial contact. It was impressive to see how the construction is preformed and you can really see the quality of the product. Leo and his crew were very respectful of our home and they kept the property clean. I have already recommended Leo and IB Roofing to a few people that I know have up coming flat roof projects. If you are considering a flat roof project you can’t go wrong with Leo and IB Roofing. Do it once, stay green, and enjoy!

Alex from Andover, CT

Roof problems, causes of leaks, and installation of a new IB Roof.

When I first met with Alex, the roof had an expensive, heavy-duty tarp on it and about 5 inches snow. Although it was a time of very cold arctic air front in New England, it was actually good for Alex’s roof and cold temperatures kept snow from melting for a couple of weeks.

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Flat roof covered with tarp to prevent more leaks

Alex planned to tear-off the existing rolled asphalt roofing with the help of his friends over the weekend and, put the tarp back on, until we would come to install our roof. All went as planned, but it snowed the day after Alex and his friends removed the old roof, and replaced rotten plywood decking and fixed some rafters. On monday morning snow melted and the roof began to leak again. The heavy-duty tarp turned out to damaged in few spots, and the roof was virtually unprotected.

We had to adjust our works schedule to quickly come out and make Alex’s roof watertight, to prevent any more water damages and additional repair expenses. Fortunately the weather was dry for a few days, and on Wednesday we came to install our roof. Once on the roof, we found that there were numerous causes of leaks. The major contributing factor was due to roof rafters caving in, and creating cavity for water to puddle on the roof.

It is know among roofing professionals that standing water causes majority of flat roof leaks. Standing / ponding water easily breaks the bond between roof laps, and enters the house, destroying insulation along the way. If left unattended, or unnoticed, these leaks will create thousands of dollars worth of damages, as well as pose a health risk – mold causes and/or aggravates allergies, asthma and other respiratory illnesses.

My estimation is that most water damages occurred were water ponded on the roof. Other leaks occurred due to Ice Dams, where ice slowly “traveled” between the seams, and melted under the rolled asphalt, causing slow, but steady rot of plywood decking and mold. Although Alex’s roof is not completely flat, Ice dams are known to affect roofs that are completely non-walkable, so this very low pitch roof was an easy “prey”.

Roof Installation:

We use IB PVC roofs exclusively, because in my opinion it is not only the best flat roofing product in US market, but it creates a completely watertight blanket over entire roof. With IB, I can look customers straight into the eyes and honestly say: “My roof will not leak!”

New IB flat roof

Reason why IB is such a great roofing system is the hot-air fusion welded seams. Once we weld two sheets of IB roofing membrane, a permanent bond is created, eliminating a possibility of water penetrations. Additionally, IB manufactures all the flashing components, which speeds up installation process, and minimizes installation error.

Alex’s flat roof is actually an addition and was added as a shed dormer to a pitched roof. When this roof was constructed, builders put in a soffit / ridge ventilation system, which is always a good idea to have in a for wood roof frame / deck. However, a ridge vent can create many leaks problems as it is very easy for water to be blown in by wind past the vent, and into the attic.

Normally, roofing contractors would just cover the ridge vent completely to eliminate leaks, but this would take away the ventilation, causing the plywood deck to dry out, de-laminate and slowly “dry-rot”.

We have created a custom design ridge vent assembly for low-slope roofs and shed dormers, where the vent sits two inches above roof level, eliminating a possibility of wind driven water entering the roof. Although the installation of such assembly is tedious and consumes a lot of time, it is the right was to go about maintaining proper ventilation and preserving the roof deck.

Ridge vent assembly for IB flat roof eliminates wind driven water leaks.

As sou can see from the picture, ridge vent sits on top of a 2×4 wood, which is completely wrapped with IB membrane to create a water-tight barrier, and prevent leaks through the ridge opening.

Conclusion:

Overall, it was a straight forward installation which took 2 days to complete.

Special thanks to Alex for providing us with delicious hot chocolate, which made our work easier and warmer during these cold January days.

If you have a flat roof in Connecticut, Massachusetts or Rhode Island, you can fill our roofing estimate request form. You can also get an instant price quote with our online Roofing Price Calculator.