Metal Roofing Installation Tips

TOOLS NEEDED

Screw gun (or drill), magnetic bits, tin snips (straight, left, & right), tape measure, chalk line, drill bits, skill saw with abrasive saw blades, safety goggles, gloves, ear plugs, & saw horses.

SQUARE BUILDING

For a clean and successful installation of the metal panels, it is important that the building and substructure are square. The first panel must be square as the remaining panels will follow the path of the first one. If the first panel is not square, the resulting installation will look like a saw tooth.

START POINT

Roofing and siding should be started at the end of the building. Begin your panelling into the direction of the prevailing wind & rain so that the weather goes over the lap, not into it.

LAP DIRECTION

There is an underlap leg and an overlap leg on most panels (see below). It is therefore important to determine in advance of installing the first panel, which is which. The end leg on the overlap side does not reach the deck/purlins when in place. The end leg on the underlap side touches the deck/purlins when in place. This underlap side is called the purlin leg. The overlap leg will always be the outside leg on your first panel, regardless if starting on the right or left side of the building.

Extreme Metal Fabricators Metal News

Builders and architects are changing the way they select building materials and design for energy performance. The roof can have the greatest impact on the energy use of a building. Coatings and finishes available today qualify metal as a recognized cool roof product.

Standing Seam Metal Roofing Installation

The most important thing about installing standing seam, is to measure the roof correctly and precisely. Here is why; Each standing seam panel is cut to the exact size, and if your panels are too short, you will run the following costly issues:

A) If a panel is only 2″ short, you may not be able to use your ridge cap as it will not cover the ends of the panels. In this case you will have to get or make a wider cap. In this case it will go from 12 to 16″ wide cap (remember – panels are 2” off on each side, so we add 4″ to the ridge cap)

B) If panels are short by 4-6″ you may not be able to get a cap that wide, so now you have only two options: Ether panels are useless, or you splice them. Splicing 6 inch metal panels, while sitting at the ridge of your roof is about as much fun as head-butting the curb! 😉 You would probably want to get at least 2-3 feet long panels for splicing. You will also need at least a foot of overlap on each panel.

In either case you will run into additional work and will likely have to spend a lot more money compared to what should have (and could have) been originally spent.