Cost Of Steel Roof?

4nTN is correct a metal roof is not a fix all. I hate to throw rocks but your new roof might have been poorly installed. With your non insulated roof there should have been ice and water sheld all the way up. Another option which I am doing on a old mill project is to have roofing insulation (6" of ISO rR40)put on top of the roof a sheet of plywood is screwed to it then shingle it with ice and water sheld.
4nTN I will see if I can find your thread
Stay warm all
Steve

I wouldn't do anything that would continue to have your warmth exiting through your roof. I notice that you are in Central Wisconsin so I assume you have cold winters. If you're getting ice dams, that is energy escaping from your house.

insulation on the exterior and new roof sounds reasonable. If you don't care for the cathedral ceiling, then insulate inside. But I would definitely not solve the problem only with a steel roof. Insulation would be a must in my opinion.

Chris

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Chris DeVries
Common Ground CSA
http://csa.amandadevries.com

Why have gutters in the north? Don't they catch the snow and encourage the ice damming?

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Alice
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"No great thing is created suddenly." ~Epictitus

Just to clarify:

I apologize if I was leading everyone to think that I was only going to install a new steel roof with no consideration to the insulation underneath. That was not my intent. If I decided to go with steel roofing, I would requested additional insulation under the roofing to help with insulating. Sorry if I wasn't clear.

When our new roof was installed, Ice and Water Shield WAS installed as required here in central Wisconsin where our winters are both cold and snowy. Code requires that it be positioned from the lowest edge of the roof deck and continuing up 3'. Had I known what I do now, I would have paid extra to have it installed all the way to the top of the roof.

In a perfect insulation/ventilation/R-65 attic world, the gutters would have no melt-off to speak of. On the areas of my home where we have a conventional attic, there is nothing melting and thus, the gutters are empty. It is only where the gutters extend for the length of the roof area that forms the cathedral ceiling, that we have this issue. And when the snow does begin to melt, we really need those gutters to carry all the water away from the foundation of the house and also to keep it from splashing up against the logs.

I'm really thinking that insulating from the inside may be the way to go. I'm not so keen on having to remove the wood planking, but as tiogacounty noted, it would also be a way to be sure that there are no other problems 'lurking'. And that alone is a scarey thought...LOL...

RVcook

How much is one of those electric crimpers that seal the seams down the metal roof?

Insulation & an air gap between the roof top and the insulation, so the roof top surface is always the same as the air outside is the answer to ice dams. They are _terrible_ this year, here in MN, just aweful.

It looks like you understand this, so don't need to preach it.

Metal roof: Be careful now, you said 16 foot ladder, so you are on a tall house. Are you sure you want a smooth tin roof up there? The snow & ice crashing down can be very dangerous. In fact this winter my barn had snow slide off it so violently it dented in the metal silo chute. That woulda killed someone......

A good product for roofs if you want metal is Decra. Comes in about 3x6 sheets, screws on sorta like shingles would nail on, has a 50 year warrenty. It's good metal embossed piece, with tar sprayed on and grit sprayed on the tar, so from the ground looks just like a 'regular' shingle, and it won't let the snow slide off in a killer sheet to the ground. They cost close to double what regular shingles cost, but they last 2x as long as well.

--->Paul

Galvalume $55/square. Painted metal $65/square. A square is 100 square feet.

If you have a straightforward simple roof, it's pretty cheap... lots of hips and valleys and 'features', and they'll 'get you' on the trim pieces.

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Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival. W. Edwards Deming

We have no attic, cathedral ceilings everywhere, and a steel roof.

A big ice pack does form, it slowly slides out and drops ice sometimes. But no ice dams.

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http://www.mofga.org/Programs/FarmAp...2/Default.aspx

Ice dams should be called gutter dams.

Ice dams form on the edge of the roof above the soffet. The roof is a couple degrees warmer from escaping heat through the roof; water runs down and hits the cold area of the roof where there is no heat coming up from below - the overhang of the roof - and the water refreezes there.

Day after day after day.

This builds up a ridge of ice on the edge of the roof. More water coming down the roof under the snow has nowhere to go when it hits the ridge of ice, and flows backwards under the shingles 'uphill' because of the buildup, and now leaks through the roof.

As some of the water runs over the ice ridge; and as some of the ice melts a tad in sunshine - it will also end up filling up the gutter.

But the gutter itself is _not_ the problem, cause, or associated with ice dams.

The only good solution to ice dams is to keep heat from escaping through the roof line. This means more insulation, a good vapor barrior, and an air gap that is vented so cold air moves directly under the shingles/roof boards to keep them from being a warmer temp that the outdoor air. With cathedral-type roofs, that is very difficult renovation....

I'm not sure what you meant with your message, but I hope this helps clear it up a bit.

--->Paul

Do a lot of research before you install a metal roof.
www.metalroofing.com is a good resource.
What most are pricing you is metal sheeting, not a roofing system, and most is improperly installed and comes with furthur problems later on. A metal roof might mask part of your problem, but might create other problems later. Nothing will "fix" a poor designed structure even if it's just how it's insulated.

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To do it yourself around here, it's around 40-60 cents per square foot, with trim and screws extra.

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"Luck is the residue of design" - Branch Rickey

As Beeman says, tar, metal, or made of cotton candy, doesn't really matter unless you fix the problem - keep the roof coating as cool as the outdoor temps.

Something a friend of mine did was put 2x4 on the roof, screwed new decking to the 2x4s, and then roofed over the new decking. Put venting in the bottom & top of the roof so air could moe through that 2 inch (actually 1.5 inch...) gap, and the ice damming on his house went way way down. This works if it is too expensive/ hassle to work on the ceiling, and insulate/ air gap from that side.

The air gap is important.

--->Paul

Funny you mention this...one of the articles suggested the same 'fix' and I thought it was really a good idea since you can go right over the shingles.

Working on the inside shouldn't be too expensive except for the cost of the spray-foam (if I decide to go that way.) Any 'fix' at this point is going to be either a hassle or expensive. Guess I'll have to figure out which will hurt more...

RVcook

I do understand what you are facing, esp with having pretty good shingles on at this time.

--->Paul

You certainly have several options to sort through. We live in AK and I can only say what has worked for us. We do our own work, for what it's worth, so our experience is mainly self taught with some common sense tossed in. The website in the signature line has an "About" link at the bottom of the page with the routine blah, blah, blah about us. I'm saying this so I don't build myself up as a self proclaimed building envelope scientist. I'm just an ordinary Rick.

Our house in Anchorage had a hot roof with about R-19 foam board and a hot mopped top. It was built in the 70's and we bought it in 1990, ice dams and all. The interior was a nice 2x6 T&G so we went outside to do the insulation. 4 inches of a poly-iso foam board was laid on the hot-mop surface and fiberboard was placed on top of that and secured with screws long enough to reach the interior 2x6 ceiling planks. A layer of torch-down was applied and it was very ugly. Fortunately we lived on the "Hillside" overlooking Anchorage so no one was overlooking our roof. But it worked. Absolutely no more ice dams which had been rather huge.

By going to the outside, we maintained any vapor barrier which was in place and the dewpoint was probably somewhere in the foam insulation so there was no condensation or moisture problems. Today I would probably have put at least 6 inches of foam board instead of the 4 inches, just because.

Only problem comes with facial trim, it gets rather wide as you make a hot roof thicker. In your case, the better option may be be to figure out how to build a "box" on top of your existing roof and spray foam or lay foam board down and finish with metal roofing?

To spray foam the interior would be messy but workable. If you get ~6 inches that will be plenty for most cold climates. Foam board works with less mess. But, you are going to cover up your nice interior wood with any re-insulation on the inside and need to cover it with either sheetrock or more wood.

Don't want to get too long winded here but it is a matter of where you want the work to take place, inside or outside. I haven't done an analysis but I wonder if the costs are comparable to insulate either side of the roof? There is a lot of prep and finish work either way. Actually the more I think about it worst the problems get . Maybe you could just do like some folks build around here, just sprayfoam the outside roof and paint it a nice white color. That works too. Looks like a marshmallow but... like I said I am no envelope engineer, just a part-time builder of my own buildings .

Rick
Homepage: www.power-talk.net
Forum: forum.power-talk.net/

If your moving to a steal roof make sure you check with your insurance agent. Although its regional, metal roofs in some areas cost more. In other (fire) areas less.

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Gary in Central Ohio

this was for a pole barn. yanno, post frame construction. If I was putting it on a house, I would at least put perlins over the shingles, nail then into the radfters, then screw the steel to the perlins.

I bought this steel from some Amish who sell it. It was commercial steel roofing

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right. If there was enouhg insulation, there wouldnt be ice on the roof to begin with

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E-X-A-C-T-L-Y! This is why it is so maddening. It's impossible for me to believe that anyone in our area would have built a home with so little forethought to the insulation that, at the very least, would improve the overall comfort of the home...regardless of the 80's codes or not.

I really do appreciate everyone's input and y'all given me a LOT to think about. I guess we'd better put some money aside each month until we have enough to do something. I sure don't want to be crawling up and down that ladder one more winter...ughh!

Thanks all!!!

RVcook