Metal Roof

We are fortunate that our HOA does NOT restrict roofing materials for the main structure. We have an architectural guideline that does not allow metal roofs on outbuildings, but a previous ARC chair approved one anyway, so that pretty much neuters that guideline.

At any rate, I know that some HOAs restrict roofing materials. I'm wondering now that metal roof "technology" has improved and metal roofs can be (and usually are) very energy efficient and, let's face it, last for decades, if that is changing.

As I mentioned, I suppose we are lucky because we don't have to jump through any hoops for ours. Since we just had our installed I thought I'd share.

We love our new metal roof. As you can see, the shingles look very similar to typical asphalt shingles. When we get the solar arrays installed on the back, I'll try to share those as well. PS: That is my son-in-law's gas guzzler SUV next to my gas-efficient Hybrid in the driveway!

Michele, what type and manufacturer is your metal roof. I like the stone coated steel roofing material which has been on the market over 15 years and has a lifetime warranty.

To follow up on my question re: cost...

My brand-spanking new Reserve Study gives me the following info for the roofs of our units...
Roof is approx 14,500 GSF.
Best Case Replace Estimate: $36,300 ($2.50/GSF)
Worst Case Replace Estimate: $39,900 ($2.75/GSF)

Would my upper limit estimates come close to the cost of metal roof? Or, would it be more in the $3.00/GSF range - or jeez, hopefully not more than that!?

To make matters more interesting, our roofing materials have been discontinued, so next time anything needs to be done, it'll ALL come off anyway.

Of course...we pray for a hailstorm all the time! I wonder if insurance would cover us to replace asphalt after a hailstorm with metal... Hmmm...

Well, a couple things about our metal roof.

The manufacturer puts a sort of powder coating finish that gives it the same granular/sparkly effect that asphalt shingles have.

But you can get the roof in a variety of colors and styles. This particular manufacturer fabricates their own roofing and they have "molds," or whatever it's called that can mimic asphalt shingles, cedar shake shingles, slate and tile shingles.

To answer your two questions:

The cost in relation to asphalt is a tad more expensive up front, but since the roof is guaranteed upwards of 75 to 100 years, you don't have to replace it every 8 to 10 years like you may have to with asphalt.

Not only do they use recycled materials to fabricate the roofing, you also save on energy costs as well since metal roofs reflect more energy away from the building so your attics don't heat up. They act as a thermal barrier. Some companies claim as much as 25% savings in your energy bills. We'll see. My husband has an excel spreadsheet that breaks down our energy bills over the past 3 years. He'll be conducting a very thorough comparison! LOL!

They also are pretty much "Mother Nature" proof, too. In fact, I think in Texas (and maybe a few other places) you can get a break on your insurance, sometimes as much as 15%, if you convert to a metal roof. This has been a big push after all the recent hurricanes. Since they are fairly new to this particular area, and we aren't in hurricane or hail alley, our insurance company just shrugged at us. But they were the ones who told us that if we lived in Texas, it would be a different matter. Oh well. Not moving just to get an insurance break!

Plus, no matter what kind of shape or how many "layers" of asphalt shingles you have, most of the time you can place these roofs right on top of the old roof, which saves the cost of removing the old one. Of course if you have some areas where the actual wood needs to be replaced, that changes things.

Oh, I forgot, we're getting a $500 tax credit from the government for the roofing. We will be getting an additional tax credit for the solar array installation.

Tracie, I don't have the answer re: cost/gsf in front of me. But I do know this, our insurance company gave us a check to replace our roof because we needed to after this past summer's storms. Even though it didn't cover the cost of the metal roof, we of course applied it to the roof, so that lowered the up-front costs.

And remember, we will never have to replace it! Ever!

Carol: Not that I'm aware of.

Wow! I'm an architect specializing in residential architecture and I never knew metals roofing has evolved to this! With the work I do, budgets are high, and it tends to be a lot about asethetics. I'm not sure this would fly for my clients, but I am all over it for my townhome complex. We are in the process of replacing some wood siding with composite material because it will not rot and has a 30 year warranty. To be able to add to the green environment is just a win-win situation for everyone.

I'm in Illinois and our complex is about 9 years old, so we still have a few years before roof replacement will be required. However, we are in the process of updating our Reserve Study and definitely will ask them to report on the difference in cost to switch from ashpalt shingles to metal roofing. The association is responsible for replacing the roofs in our complex and to be able to install this type of roofing would be terrific. It would certainly help property values and sales of townhomes as well as energy efficiency!

Most of you have repsonded to this thread are from the south. I'm wondering if the same benefits would accur in the midwest where I am at. The weather conditions are different, but I don't see why this wouldn't be more than applicable in my neck of the woods.

Thanks for submitting the photos, they defintely seel the idea!

Michele,

Thx for this info; I'm passing it on to my BOD (the treas is chm of the architectural committee).

Terry is enamored with metal roofs and says it would be his choice if we ever have to replace ours. All the roofs in our HOA are slate. In my s/d they are all the same color, except for a few custom homes. The problem with slate roofs is that, although the slate may last a lifetime, the lining must be replaced every 15-20 years which is very costly.

You should email this to a homeowners association in my neighborhood. They are currently suing a homeowner with a metal roof because they think it is "ugly" and because the modification was made right after the hurricanes and they did not have an opportunity to review it (even though the home is in a different section with no HOA or ARC)!

The good news is that the company that fabricated our roof, as well as a few other companies, has metal roofing that mimics slate, in a range of colors.

Michellen

NO!, you have not mentioned that recently but Kev's post reminds us of it.

What kind of tile? Do you mean like clay tile?









I think this is the tile version in a copper finish:



There is certainly a lot more flexibility with metal than I ever dreamed possible!

Thanks to everyone that had provided information on this thread. This seems like a reasonable semi-cost effective way to begin to green our complex. It would be terrific to determine cost factoring in energy savings and tax credits to determine the real cost compared to other roofing types over a 5-10 year period.

We are in the process of updating our reserve study. We've forwarded info onto the company preparing the update and hope to receive their thoughts on the switch of roofing materials as well as some sort of way to determine cost implications. We have 5-10 years until roof replacement should need to be considered. A lot of things might change by then, technology advances further, tax credits and energy savings change, economy...it will be interesting to see where we end up when our roofs are needing to be replaced!

We've considered metal roofing since we had our house built and the new roof leaked repeatedly since day one.

In researching it, we found some metail roofing installers will run ~1X2" wood strips to secure the metal roofing onto the roof. This provides a small air barrier. Others will install the metal roofing directly to the flat surface. One might reduce the noise when rain hits it.

One concern we've heard, whether it is aluminum or steel with stone coating, is that the screws need to be tightened every few years due to the expansion/contraction of the metal roofing.

Did you hear anything about maintenance issues like this?

Although we've seen the 50 + year warranties, they are meaningless since a company that goes out of business can't be made to honour a warranty.

I had not realized metal roofing have evolved so much either. Our governing docs require architectural shingles which is nice but we are exploring the possibly to amend them for metal roofing. Your post provides very nice evidence to support an amendment to our docs.