April 19, 2024

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Body and Interior

Ask Danny | Ep. 2: Insider Answers on Metal Roofing

In Episode 2 of “Ask Danny,” metallic roofing pro Todd Miller provides us some insider tips and data about installation, vitality efficiency and design and style solutions.


Todd Miller, president of Isaiah Industries, has a lot more than 40 several years of knowledge in the metal roofing sector. (Image courtesy Todd Miller)

About Todd Miller

Todd Miller is president of Isaiah Industries, a maker of household metallic roofing.

With 40 decades of marketplace expertise, Todd has labored with house proprietors and contractors on initiatives globally.

In addition to roofing, he is generally sought soon after for his knowledge with condensation and ventilation.

Todd also has an academic web site at Request Todd Miller as very well as a podcast, “Design Disruption.”


Todd Miller poses for a photograph with Chelsea Lipford Wolf and Danny Lipford in Cut Off, La.(3 Echoes Information Studio)

Working with Todd in Louisiana

I achieved Todd even though shooting a Today’s Homeowner Tv episode in Lower Off, La., in 2020. Hurricane Zeta experienced majorly damaged David and Ruby LeBlanc’s roof, so we put in a new metallic roof for them. 

For David and Ruby’s metal roof, we applied an aluminum item called rustic shingle.

They dwell on the Gulf Coastline, so aluminum is ideal for their natural environment simply because it resists corrosion. Furthermore, the shingles interlock on all sides, giving it strong wind resistance with an included outdated-world shake look.

Workers put in a new aluminum roof on David and Ruby LeBlanc’s house. (3 Echoes Content Studio)

Significantly less than a calendar year later on, their metallic roof was put to the examination in the course of Hurricane Ida. 

“As I viewed that storm monitor, I was sweating bullets,” Todd suggests. “You often imagine in your product or service, you know it can do nicely, but on the other hand, storms like that can be unpredictable. You can finish up with a great deal of wind-blown particles that quite often can result in damage.”

Ida introduced on wind speeds of up to 200 miles for every hour and also ruined the neighbor’s garage. 

David and Ruby’s metallic roof arrived as a result of in shining shades. The only damage was one particular detached hip cap on the facet closest to their neighbor’s garage. 

“Their relatively previous residence has endured problems and hardships from storms in the earlier, but you would hardly ever know it,” Todd states. “They’re pleasant people and established to secure this property for the next era.”


Metal roofing can be mounted over an present shingle roof. (3 Echoes Material Studio)

Do you have to take away all the existing shingles from the roof before you put in a metallic roof?

Todd: Whilst each individual house is unique, the limited solution is no. If you only have a one layer of shingles, most building codes allow for for a next layer of roofing.

It is pretty typical for metal roofs, specifically shingled and corrugated metallic, to be put in around an current layer of shingles. Nevertheless, if you want a standing seam steel roof, you are going to require to have a clean area for installation. If you really don’t, you are going to stop up with oil canning, or ripples in the panels.

No issue what kind of steel roof you want, constantly have an attic inspection in advance of installation. Glance closely at the underside of the roof deck for symptoms of rot, water infiltration and large dampness amounts that require to be addressed.

Construction of a metal roof
Strapping can be set down to set up a steel roof, but it is not normally necessary. (Getty Photographs)

Do you recommend a roofer set down strapping right before the roof goes on?

Todd: Usually I do not. For most products, it’s not demanded. 

If you have suitable attic ventilation, there are not any fears from a condensation standpoint.

Strapping or batten can be utilized, but eventually it will make the roof more challenging to walk on, far more inclined to wind uplift, and you could discover your self possessing to raise your gutters. This is why we frequently promote immediate-to-deck set up.

Even with direct-to-deck installation, if it is around the old singles, we will place a layer of underlayment over the present shingles.

Most times, the making code necessitates it, but it also helps make great feeling. You really don’t want the aged shingles’ abrasive leading surface rubbing from the again of the metallic panels.

How lengthy does it choose to install a metal roof?

Todd: Of study course, each residence is various, but a person- to three-day installations are not unusual.

This is yet another wonderful advantage of steel roofing — nominal disruption to your program through installation. 


Modular metal solutions, or metallic shingles, are turning into additional well-liked. (3 Echoes Material Studio)

Type Options

What styles of metal roofing are turning into far more well-known?

Traditionally, corrugated and shiplap steel roofs are the most well known, but that is setting up to alter.

Quite a few house owners associations and architectural review boards won’t allow for metallic roofing. Plus, it can be really hard for some homeowners to consider a roof that is not asphalt shingles. 

But now, there are metal roofing options that glance like a traditional roof. They’re called modular steel merchandise, which are fundamentally metallic shingles. 

They are generated from steel, aluminum and even copper. These panels are formed in a assortment of approaches, and can search like present asphalt shingles, wooden shake, higher-stop slate or barrel tile. 

With this variety of steel roofing, you can get the glance of far more classic superior-close roofing with the longevity, electrical power effectiveness and sustainability of steel roofing.


MRA Metal roof on a home
Steel roofs with a neat coating deflect the sun’s infrared energy to continue to keep your residence cooler. (Steel Roofing Alliance)

Electricity Efficiency

Are darker steel roofs fewer power-productive than lighter ones?

Todd: Typically, when we speak about metal roofing’s electrical power effectiveness, it’s in phrases of solar reflection. 

The additional photo voltaic vitality your roof absorbs, the hotter your home will be. This results in your air conditioner working tougher to retain your house great.

Normally, lighter metallic roofs mirror much more daylight than darker kinds. 

White naturally has a high photo voltaic reflection of about 65 percent, but you do not necessarily have to get a white roof to have an strength-efficient roof. 

There are now neat roof coatings with pigments that replicate infrared electricity from the sunshine and retain the roof neat.

Without this amazing roof coating, a darker roof only displays about 3-4 p.c of the sun’s infrared vitality. With these new pigments, the roof reflects up to 25-30 per cent.


Stunning Portland, Oregon home with metal roof, seen from the backyard, with red lounging chairs on the grass.
Discover a metal roof item that complements your home’s architecture. (Metallic Roofing Alliance)

Todd’s Guidelines

  • Decide on the product very first. In the end, you are going to stay with the appears to be of that solution for a extensive time. If you never appreciate the glimpse and it doesn’t match your residence, you will not be pleased with it. The Metallic Roofing Alliance has a visualizer to enable you see how a steel roof will search on your household.
  • When you choose your products, uncover an installer by means of the manufacturer. They’ll know the products by means of and via.
  • Consider lengthy-phrase. The upfront expense of putting in metallic roofing is more costly than a regular roof, but you will conserve in excess of time. Look at it on a value-by-yr basis.   If you intend to keep in your dwelling for a selection of many years, you can see superior payback above time with reduce utility expenses and much less repairs.  

Just when you imagine you have noticed it all, fail to remember about it — you have not viewed anything yet.

A long time in the past, a female in upstate New York wished a metallic roof put in on a modest bungalow. She owned a quite substantial-end journal and internet site and required to do the job out a offer wherever Todd would assistance her get a roof and, in change, she would promote Todd’s small business.

It appeared like a earn-earn for Todd. As section of the deal, he despatched a crew from Ohio to install the roof — free of charge of cost.

Four yrs later on, an upset girl called Todd. She mentioned “You place a roof on my residence and I really don’t know why!”

Turns out, the female who contacted Todd was not the owner. She was the renter.

“We place a roof on someone’s property who didn’t know it and didn’t even want it!”

All’s properly that finishes well, she turned out to be pleasant, and she and Todd turned good mates. 

“We continue to laugh about it,” Todd states. 


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