Metal Roof Advantages

• Energy efficient: Coatings with high reflectivity like Kynar with “cool roof” pigments commonly save 20-30% on air-conditioning costs due to reflecting away much of the sun’s heat. Increases the thermal efficiency of buildings in high temperature areas with its cool-roof paints and high emissivity.
• Environmentally Friendly: Metal Roof is green building material that earns green building credits.
• Durable and Long Lasting: The lowest end metal roofing (thin gauge with acrylic or polyester paints) commonly called AG (agricultural) or Utility panels will last 20 to 30 years, which is roughly twice the lifespan of an average asphalt roof. Most metal roofing products today come with warranties from 25 to 50 years. Sheet materials like stainless steel, copper, zinc and aluminium are inherently durable; the oxidization of the base material forms a protective patina. Some modern steel roof sheeting materials are coated with an alloy of zinc and aluminium to give it some of the durability of each of those materials at a lower cost and higher strength than either. Copper and Zinc details have historically been proved to last upwards of 100 years with little or no maintenance. Residential and commercial grade metal roofing usually lasts from 50-100+ years, depending on the type. The coatings and fixings on steel roof sheeting can be designed for different environments including industrial and marine locations. A Metal Roof that is installed correctly can last twice and three times as long as asphalt shingle roof.
• Fire and spark resistant:
• Hail resistant:
• Wind resistant: Withstands wind uplift of up 110 miles per hour and higher
• Snow shedding: Sheds Snow and Ice, which helps prevent Ice Dams. Painted metal roofs are usually snow-shedding. Snow can usually collect when it is fresh and lighter weight. As soon as the ambient temperature rises a few degrees, the snow usually just slides off. For this reason metal roofing is ideal for homes in high latitude or mountain regions.
• Strong: Because of their high strength to weight ratio, metal roofs are often used to cover large buildings.
• Recyclable: Metal is readily recyclable. Aluminum and copper roofing products are available with over 95% recycled content. Most metals can be recycled over and over without losing any valuable properties. Recycling is very efficient. As an example: recycled aluminium only requires 5% of the energy to produce as does new aluminium.
• Design flexibility: Some steel roofing products can be installed over open framing, or on a solid substrate.
  • Large sprung curves.
  • Rolled bull-nose shapes.
• Easily Add Solar Panels: Can be out-fitted with solar roofing panels for standing seam roofs.
• Light Weight
• Portability
• Labor efficient
• Low Maintenance: Most metal roofing products require very little or no maintenance and greatly reduces possibility of roof leaks and need for on-going roof repairs
• Versatility: Metal roof sheets can be used equally well in cladding the sides of a buildings. Often the same TR-36 profile in two colours will be used to do both roof and sides of a building.
• Value: Upraises value of your building and pays for itself

In U.S states where severe hurricane winds cause massive blow offs of composition shingle roofs, metal roofs prevail. In the state of Florida, there are many simulated Spanish tile stone coated steel roofs that stand up to any wind, while asphalt shingle and cedar shake gets uplifted and blown off when winds exceed 60 mph. It is not an unusual scene, by any measures, to see a lone metal roof surrounded by its less resilient roof-less neighbors that used to have asphalt shingle roofs before the storm. Clearly, there are some vital advantages of metal roofs in hurricane prone states like Florida, Louisiana, and Texas.

Metal Roof Disadvantages

• Care must be taken on large roofs to provide for thermal expansion and movement.
• Movement caused by differences in temperature may cause objectionable noises in some roofs; for example, curved roof surfaces. However, this is not a common occurrence.
• Care must be taken with all metal roof products to avoid the use of incompatible materials. Dissimilar metals can cause unexpected and rapid corrosion.
• Metal refining and production and transport of metal roof components can be energy-intensive and is almost always a non-local activity. On the other hand, metal roofing products can often be recycled, and the process is relatively clean and energy efficient. Even 200 year-old Copper, for example, can be easily and inexpensively recycled. Some of the metals that are used today, such as Aluminum and Copper, routinely contain over 80% recycled content.
• While metal roofs are expensive, rising oil prices have made metal roofs more affordable in relation to asphalt shingles.

One of the major drawbacks is higher metal roofing cost of initial investment than an asphalt shingle roof. Average initial cost of metal roofing is two to three times higher than regular roof. Hence, investing in metal roofing only makes sense if you plan to stay in your home for some time, and reliable long lasting roof is actually important to you. Another major drawback can happen if your metal roof gets installed by a regular roofer who is only familiar with asphalt shingle roofing, and has never installed a metal roof before. It would be highly likely, that such an inexperienced installer would make installation errors that will result in roof leaks. Therefore, be sure to hire only experienced metal roofing contractors.