Metal Roofing

 I drove up to the site one March morning, and the roof was already close to halfway on! We were so glad that we didn't have to DIY this one!

We chose a simple roof-line, so it was roofed very quickly. We minimized any cuts that had to be made (only one pipe in back for the plumbing vent) and exhaust vents were going to be put into the walls and not through the roof. The attic vent is a ridgeline vent.

We chose a 50-year metal roof, in "storm gray" (keep that in mind, it will show up later!). Depending on the day that gray changes to a cadet blue instead of the dark, warm gray. But it's a good color and we don't regret it. There is a special sort of paint or coating on the underside of the metal to help extend the life of the roofing, too. 

(You can see our little bit of green spring in this photo, we enjoy the few weeks of green hills while we have them.)

The roofing crew did very swift and quality work! It would have taken us weeks, and they had it all done in one day. 

Unfortunately, there was one huge disappointment.

As the last bit of roofing went up, we reached down to pick up some of the scraps that were scattered here and there. We picked up a piece of a black, gritty material. "What's this?" It was the narrow strip that goes up just under the roofing on the eaves to prevent ice damming, we were told. It was like asphalt.

Unfortunately, that was NOT the material we wanted, and not what the manufacturer recommended for ice prevention. There are new non-abrasive materials on the market now which were named for this type of metal coating. There was a possibility that we were voiding our under-paint warranty. 

The roofer had given us a bargain on the entire project, and was unwilling to guarantee his work should it fail in 25 years (which was what we had requested he put in writing). Instead we were told that this is the way it is done out here, that this was the way he was trained to do it by a very experienced local roofer, that he's not seen a roof damaged at all due to this underlayment, etc. etc. Basically we got nowhere.

This caused many a sleepless night, let me tell you! And every time we hear the roof do it's crackle sound when the sun comes out (with expansion/contraction) that scratchy underlayment comes to mind and we inwardly cringe. Visions of rusty and crumbling metal eaves come to mind. 

No one is going to be taking the roof off to correct the underlayment (or even check on it...); it's there until the roof needs replacing, which could be less than 50 years away. But for all we know, we might be dead by then! It was a hard thing to let go, but we eventually had to quit stressing over it.

Other than that, we have no complaints about the roof; we were just sorry that we couldn't put it down in the books as a "job well done" in its entirety.