Replacement · metal panels
Metal roofing
Metal costs more than a shingle roof up front and outlasts one by a wide margin. Both halves of that sentence are true, and which half matters depends on how long you plan to own the house.
Two systems people both call “metal”
They are not close to the same thing, they do not cost the same, and they do not fail the same way. Any quote you take should name which one it is.
Concealed fastener
Standing seam
The panels lock to clips fastened to the deck, and the seam stands up above the water line. Nothing that holds the roof down is exposed to the sun or sitting in a puddle. It costs more to buy and more to install, and it is the version that gets you the long service life people mean when they say a metal roof lasts.
Screw-down panel
Exposed fastener
Screws go through the face of the panel into the deck, each one sealed by a rubber washer. Much less expensive, much faster, and common on carports, patio covers, sheds, and manufactured homes. The washers are the service item: they harden and shrink in this sun long before the steel gives out.
Where metal earns it here
- Slopes too low for shingle. A composition shingle needs pitch to shed. Below the point where it has any, you are choosing between a membrane, a coating, and a panel system, and shingle is off the table whatever the budget says.
- Sun. A light-colored metal panel reflects a large share of what lands on it. On a building with rooms directly under the roof, that is a difference people notice from inside.
- Wind. Properly fastened panels have no tabs for a Santa Ana to lift, which is a real consideration on an exposed ridge lot.
- Structures a shingle roof suits badly. Carports, awnings, patio covers, and the additions people build onto manufactured homes. Much of what we see in the parks is already panel.
What we will tell you that a metal salesman will not
Exposed fasteners are a maintenance schedule
A screw-down roof is not finished when we leave. Those neoprene washers are the weak point, and in this sun they need looking at and eventually replacing, screw by screw. If nobody ever does it, water finds its way in through hundreds of small holes and the panels themselves are still perfect.
Metal moves
Panels expand and contract with temperature, and a long run of metal can tick and pop as it does. A properly detailed standing seam allows for that movement. It is worth knowing before it happens over your bedroom rather than after.
Roof Maxx has nothing to do with a metal roof
The treatment is an oil that soaks into an asphalt shingle. There is nothing on a metal panel for it to soak into. Anyone offering to rejuvenate your metal roof is selling you something else.
Fire ratings belong to assemblies
A roof's fire classification comes from the whole build-up — panel, underlayment, and deck together — not from the fact that the top layer is steel. We confirm the rating your assembly carries with Building & Safety rather than quoting one off a brochure.
Title 24
Cool-roof requirements depend on your roof's slope and climate zone. Low-slope roofs are regulated statewide; most pitched shingle roofs in coastal Ventura County face only a modest requirement or none. We confirm the exact requirement with Building & Safety on every job.
Already have a metal roof?
Then the question is usually not replacement. A sound metal roof with tired coating, weeping seams, or rusting fastener heads is often a candidate for a restoration coating instead — a continuous film over the panels and the fasteners both, for a fraction of a tear-off. That is a different product from the one we put on composition shingle, and we will price it as one.