Roofing question

[Bogie]

During the recent climactic unpleasantness, I took a small hit and I'm sticking a piece of plywood in there this weekend, along with some "patching" shingles... Was planning on doing roofing next year, but that may get moved up. The house is roughly 40x18 in size, and it appears that material costs for doing steel will run about $1200-1300. Sort of wondering if I should just do conventional shingles. Either way will probably outlive me. What do y'all think? I can probably strip it, and do steel panels easier than I could strip and do the whole thing with shingles...

[Kingcreek]

Steel is the way to go. I did impact resistant steel 2 years ago.
You can go over shingles with 1x4 boards for purlins. You will notice more noise with rain or hail.
I’m getting ready to do a steel roof and siding on an old outbuilding this year.

[Bogie]

My garage has recycled corrugated barn roofing. It is getting a bit more rust, but it will outlive me. The crackhead who put it on put some of the screws in the valleys, and I need to coat it with something, but maybe over the summer. Gotta get some good kneepads...

[K Frame]

Coat the screw heads with Vulkem, then paint with a compatible roof paint.

You'll also probably want to have a couple of tubes of Vulkem on hand when you repair the house roof. Stuff is seriously good.

[Bogie]

I'll look for it at the home depot... Dude told me that I have to match the shingles. So I'm gonna go pull one off.

[gunsmith]

Q: how much does a roof cost?
A: It's on the house!

[K Frame]

I'll look for it at the home depot... Dude told me that I have to match the shingles. So I'm gonna go pull one off.

The only reason you need to "match" shingles is so that it doesn't look half assed from the ground (a couple of black shingles on a silver shingle roof, for example).

You don't really need to match manufacturer, thickness, or anything like that.

Since you're thinking about replacing the roof soon anyways, I'd go with the cheapest shingle that's not going to stick out like a sore thumb.

[Tuco]

Q: how much does a roof cost?
A: It's on the house!

Tuco approves of this post.

[230RN]

Curious:  Doesn't your insurance cover it?

Historical background not related to myself.  The party involved called a roofer and the roofer gave an estimate for the whole roof and the claim for that went through.  A little dollar-shuffling and the deductible got paid one way or t'other but not out of the owner's pocket. Just BS around the barbie. Not related to myself.  Neither pencil nor paper was involved in this transaction. But alcohol was involved in the tale-telling years after the actual event.

[Bogie]

Insurance? The house is -still- in the works... I got it back in 2012, and I've been slowly rehabbing. Paid $14k for it. Not down payment. No loan.Doing flooring lately. Was planning on doing the roof next year, but I guess that moves up.

[230RN]

OK, that explains it.  Sounds like you got a good deal without the usual extra encumbrances and infringements of home ownership.

[Hawkmoon]

How steep is the roof? Up to 3:12 is fairly easy, just hot up there. 4:12 starts to get uncomfortable. My house is 6:12. I did it when I was younger and my parents were alive and living here. Today I wouldn't even consider it.

[Bogie]

Let's see... High school geometry... House is about 15' tall at the peak, about 18' wide, roof starts about 8'-9' up, So about 6' in 9' or so...

OK, that explains it.  Sounds like you got a good deal without the usual extra encumbrances and infringements of home ownership.

 
When I was moving in, a guy from a nearby neighborhood, much less gentrified, just walked in the front door. Looked at me, and said "You're not him..."
 
No, I wasn't. I don't think he even noticed the 1911 I had pointed at him. I reflexively flip the deadbolt after that.
 
The front door still has the marks where the raid team tried to use a master key on it, but that was no-go. And I put a bit more steel in the frame. They managed to breach the back door, which is now sturdier than the front door...
 
And my prediction was right - this ain't my first rehab; probably my last. The neighborhood, while still close to the 'hood (everything in this patchwork city is) has flipped way toward gentrified.

Here's a before picture... Paint is a beige now, green accents, And that tree is a nice maple... Removed the tombstone pieces.

[230RN]

Nifty place.  What was the stone for --actually a tombstone? Geographical marker?

I suspect there's a tale to be told there....

Was there a set of house keys under it?  <rolleyes>

[Bogie]

Appears to be granite. It is now by the side of the house, and I'm not moving it unless I have to. Shaped something like a Jersey barrier, it is one heavy badword...
 
The side with the hole is now tarped.

[Hawkmoon]

Here's a before picture... Paint is a beige now, green accents, And that tree is a nice maple... Removed the tombstone pieces.

Roof pitch is expressed in inches of rise over 1 foot of horizontal distance. You can get cell phone apps to measure it.

After copying and expanding your photo, I used my level app to check the roof pitch. It appears to be about 6:12, which is what my house it. That's barely shallow enough that you can work on it without tying off (although you shouldn't) -- IF you wear shoes with very soft, sticky soles, soft sticky knee pads, and old jeans.

On that roof, I would still venture to make a small patch repair, but I wouldn't take on an entire re-roof.

[Bogie]

Yeah. The peak is right about 16' high... We tarped it off this afternoon. If I was working on it, I wouldn't be standing. Having a friend of a friend look at it this week.

[230RN]

Roof pitch is expressed in inches of rise over 1 foot of horizontal distance. You can get cell phone apps to measure it.

After copying and expanding your photo, I used my level app to check the roof pitch. It appears to be about 6:12, which is what my house it. That's barely shallow enough that you can work on it without tying off (although you shouldn't) -- IF you wear shoes with very soft, sticky soles, soft sticky knee pads, and old jeans.

On that roof, I would still venture to make a small patch repair, but I wouldn't take on an entire re-roof.

For what it's worth (0.00):

Same philosophy here, but drew the lines for the triangle, used the three basic "Gee, I'm A Tree" methods (SOH-CAH-TOA), got three different results due to vagaries of constructing the lines.  Basic one was 25.9 degrees for the roof angle, which translates to 5.82 inches per foot slope.  I don't trust that result, but it's in the ball park, anyhow.

My two least favorite jobs on my old farm was re-roofing a small outbuilding with about that pitch, and re-flooring a four-horse trailer.  I was in my late 30s and still had all my hair.

I had previously got good advice about roof work:  "Don't step backwards."

[JTHunter]

Bogie - if the rest of the roof is in decent shape, it might be faster, easier, and less expensive to just patch it.  It depends on how old and how good those shingles are now.
Steel is more durable BUT, imagine being inside a large drum and somebody pouring BBs on the drumhead for HOURS.

[tokugawa]

A simple roof like yours could be done pretty quick in steel.

Lots of times a steel roof installer will quote a square foot price, you might get a better deal if they know it is a simple two pitch roof with very little cutting.

[230RN]

While at CU, Wife1 and I lived in apartments, but the On-Campus married student housing was steel quonset huts.  We knew some couples living in the huts and I want to tell you, a good rainstorm or worse, a hail storm made a horrendous noise.  Avoid steel roofing if possible.

They were milsurp just like these:

[Hawkmoon]

Same philosophy here, but drew the lines for the triangle, used the three basic "Gee, I'm A Tree" methods (SOH-CAH-TOA), got three different results due to vagaries of constructing the lines.  Basic one was 28.99 degrees for the roof angle, which translates to 5.82 inches per foot slope.  I don't trust that result, but it's in the ball park, anyhow.

Perspective may affect it, since the angle of the camera is slightly upward rather than straight on. 5.82 in/ft is probably pretty close, but no captentar is going to frame a roof to a decimal increment like that. It's 5:12 or 6:12, and 5.82 is a lot closer to 6:12.

And that's steeper than I want to work on in my old age.

[K Frame]

"It appears to be about 6:12, which is what my house it."

Agreed. That's what I was thinking when I saw the picture.

That's about 25 degrees, and that is the ragged edge of what someone without experience or the proper equipment should attempt to work on.

I painted steel roof on the house I grew up in back in the 1980s. I was roped off, took my time, was VERY careful, but it was still a gold plated bitch.

There were multiple roof slopes. Several (smaller sections, thank God, that were pretty quick and easy to deal with) were closer to 10:12 pitch, but most of it was in the 6 to 8:12 pitch.

A day of working on that was some of the most tiring work I've ever done. The 7-8 days it took me to clean, prep, and paint the roof? I'm still feeling it nearly 50 years later.

[K Frame]

Bogie - if the rest of the roof is in decent shape, it might be faster, easier, and less expensive to just patch it.  It depends on how old and how good those shingles are now.
Steel is more durable BUT, imagine being inside a large drum and somebody pouring BBs on the drumhead for HOURS.

The house I grew up in had a steel roof. It was quite a bit larger than Bogie's place (3 full stories) and rain on the roof could be kind of pleasant sounding.

That changed a bit when there was hail, but fortunately that was pretty infrequent.


I replaced my roof back in 2019. I would have gone with a metal roof were I younger and just moving into the house, but the extra expense just wasn't worth it with my intending to move in a few years.

The secret to a good metal roof without the noise is to use a sound absorbing backing material, insulation that also serves as a sound barrier in the attic space, and other potential mitigations.

The reason Terry's experience with "metal roofs" was so negative is because Quanset huts had none of that.

[Bogie]

Yeah, one of the houses I grew up in, my room was in an addition that had a steel roof. I kind of miss that noise sometimes... Calling a roofing guy that a buddy recommends. Gonna rape the 401k, at a time I would rather not, but...