What are the advantages of a metal roof?Â
Great question, and one we get all the time!
The short answer is, metal lasts longer. Usually.
That may be all you need, but if you want more details on the pros and cons of metal shed roofs, keep reading.
PROS–Advantages of Metal Roofs
- Long-lasting. The biggest talking point of metal roofing is that it lasts a long time. How long it lasts depends on the thickness of the metal, and its coating quality. But generally, a quality metal roof will last from 40-70 years. (A shingle roof may last from 10-40 years. How’s that for precise? But like metal, the quality of shingles makes all the difference.)
- Cool. Metal roofs reflect heat, keeping the building cooler. (Shingles draw heat.)
- Durable. Metal roofs are tough. They will take a lot of abuse from wind, sun, and rain.
- Wind resistant. A metal roof is extremely wind resistant. That is only true, of course, if the metal roof is on a solid building. If it’s on a flimsy structure, it will be flopping like a kite. But generally, high winds will not affect a metal roof.
Metal roofs come with a wide array of color options.
- Fire resistant. This one seems obvious, but a metal roof is fire resistant. That doesn’t mean that you should do a hotdog roast inside your shed. But if you have your bonfire outside of the shed, and sparks hit the roof, you won’t see any damage. (Don’t try this, however. If the ember is large, it could still burn your paint.)
- Colors. Metal roofs come in a wide variety of color options. From bright red or green to brown and black, you can choose almost any color of the spectrum.
- Environmentally friendly. Metal roofs are fully recyclable. The metal we use includes 25% recycled material.
CONS–Disadvantages of Metal Roofs
- Appearance. Some people dislike the look of metal for home applications. If your house has a shingle roof on it, then metal will not match it.
- Dents. In a heavy hail storm, metal may be dented. Cheap all-metal sheds are particularly susceptible to this. But if you have a good quality metal on top of a solid wood-framed shed, you won’t see much damage unless it’s hailing baseball-sized hail. Even if it is dented, it will only be a cosmetic problem.
- Repair. Metal roofs are tough. But if your 7-year-old Bob the Builder takes a hack saw to the roof, repair is a little more specialized. Unlike shingles, you can’t just replace a few square feet. Instead, you’ll need to replace an entire panel, which comes in 3-ft widths and is as long as your roof slope.
- Scratches. A sharp object, or tree branched rubbing, can wear through paint, requiring touch-up.
- Cost. Metal roofs have a higher initial cost. Over 50 years they will probably cost a good bit less than the 3 or 4 shingle roofs you’ve put on your building in that time. But initially, they cost more. (Hint: at Ulrich Lifestyle a metal roof is a $100 upgrade at the time of this writing.)
- Noise. If you are in an all-metal shed, and it’s raining cats and dogs, it’s going to be noisy. A framed wood building, on the other hand, has wood sheathing under the metal. In this kind of shed, you actually won’t tell much difference from shingles.
That gives you the basics of metal roofing pros and cons. It’s probably all you need to know to make an informed decision. You have permission to stop reading, and go find the style of shed you want.
But if you really want to dig a little deeper into how to tell a quality metal roof from junk, you’ll want to read Metal Shed Roofs–3 Differences Between the BEST and the REST.
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