New roof and rising cost of shingles/wood vs metal

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/dev/ram

Ralph Graw
Joined
May 19, 2005
Location
Earth
For the roofers out there, or folks who may have already been down this path, I need a new roof. Hoping the insurance co. will help but that's another topic.

Had a conversation with my brother about the rising cost of materials (he's in commercial construction in FL). Not that it would be cheaper, but given the wood and shingle prices have been crazy and are getting worse apparently, he suggested look into putting metal over shingles.

I've done a little reading and it can be done, but my underlayment is bad in a few spots and the shingles are completely shot. Facia needs completely replaced, a few spot of soffit, all gutters/downspouts, even some siding work where downspouts had failed. Aside from covering the shingles in ice/water shield over the entire roof, which is also $$$, it seems some wood cost is still in play and labor to remove old shingles.

Anybody looked at or done an option like this? If I can get base $$ from Insurance co. for shingle roof I might spend up to get the "lifetime" roof and leave a leaking roof in my past... on the other hand, I may only be here 10 yrs max.

Thoughts?
 
A lot of people around JoCo do that, I used to see the crews covering shingles with metal all the time. I wouldn’t do it myself, I would tear off and start from there.
 
Back in 2017 ish A "lifetime" metal roof where all the screws are covered was quoted at least twice the cost of shingles. You can do a cheaper metal roof, but then you have to replace the screws/rubberwashers every 10 years? maybe. I cant remember,

I know metal prices have gone through the "roof" as well over the last 2 years.
 
I've seen people screw the metal down right on top of the shingles, but I was under the impression that you're supposed to lay 1x strips to give it an air gap when putting metal over shingles. I could be wrong, but that's what I was told. I can see where it would make sense to have an air gap, but what do I know? I don't remember if they told me it was because of heat or what it was...

It sounds like, in your case, that I'd probably want to strip the roof to look at everything underneath first, but I'd still get a price on architectural shingles vs metal. If's it's a pretty simple A frame roof, the metal probably wouldn't be too bad and they'd be done with it quick. Obviously, the more complicated the shape of the roof is, the more it'll cost (for both), plus there may be more waste depending on the shape and how they have to lay it. As said earlier, there are a few different styles of metal roofing. Neoprene screw washers, some dab the head of each screw with silicone/RTV, and some of the newer stuff has a tray/groove where the screws go and the next piece of metal locks in over top of that and none of the screws are exposed. As is tradition with most things, the fancier/better quality it is, the more it'll cost.

At this point in time you may have to go with whatever you can get. I don't know if there's a massive waiting line for shingles and metal roofing like there is for everything else. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if there was though.

I'd be interested to see the price difference in today's world. Also, insurance money is ALWAYS nice!
 
We just had our roof replaced. Insurance covered it. We looked into doing metal instead of shingles, knowing we would have to pay the difference. We wanted the metal that doesn’t show the screws. It was nearly 3 times the cost of shingles. So we just went with shingles. The metal that shows the screws was not that much, but I didn’t want to have to redo the screws in 10 years.
 
New screws with good washers, if placed correctly on the flats and not the ridges, last a long long time. Definitely no need to replace at 10 years but I get that some warranty may require it.

Funny, just last night on This Old House channel (Roku) they played the episode where the researchers recreated a hail storm in a facility with 72 air cannons in the ceiling. Very cool to see. The house was sided with vinyl and fiber cement, the roof was 4 sections. It had impact resistant dimensional shingles, 3 tab shingles, standing seam on plywood and standing seam over shingles.

The standing seam over plywood was not really dented or damaged, the metal over shingles looked bad but obviously won’t leak.
 
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