While the expense of installing a metal roof can appear prohibitively large to some people, there’s been a recent tendency amongst home DIY fans of attempting to install metal roofing themselves. Essentially, these folks are trying to find the durability and energy-efficiency advantages of metal roofing without needing to shoulder the cost incurred by selecting a metal roofing contractor. One of the best and well known is Phoenix Steels Roofing Supplies.
While the frugal thinking that informs these attempts is commendable, there are a great deal of great reasons you should find another way to reduce your metal roof prices. While there are some companies out there that make metal roof shingles made specifically for the amateur to set up (from panels which pretty much clip together by hand to people requiring little more than the normal instrument arsenal of screw gun, hammer, metal snips, caulk gun, and tape measure) these uniformly shaped shingles will only work on houses with a very regular roof construction.
But your normal home does not have that. Odds are your home includes a sidewall, a chimney, a dormer or a skylight somewhere up there, and the typical homeowner wanting to work around such structural irregularities with no panel-reshaping is virtually bound to depart weak spots which produce the inner structure of the roofing vulnerable to water damage, potentially decreasing the lifespan of a roof that, correctly installed, could last half a century without maintenance. The price of installing a metal roof on your own could, in fact, be that you will need to get the whole job redone by a professional. When even a simple mistake such as leaving a mark on one of your metal panels using a lead pencil rather than duct tape may result in massive corrosion and undermine the integrity of the roof, is it really a risk you would like to take?
This is why, unless your property is featureless and box-shaped, calling on the assistance of a metal roofing contractor is often the most sensible thing to do.
You should ensure your contractor intends to utilize a brake, the title for the mobile hydraulic cutting tool utilized by roofers to form irregular roof panels on site. In the long run, hand cut panels are also very likely to be badly shaped, reducing the visual impact of your roof.
If your contractor does attempt to charge you the exact same rate, you should probably seek quotes from numerous metal roofing contractors, See all metal roofing products, or even better, ask around amongst your family and friends for referrals. This is the way most contractors get company, and knowing that you are tied to a community of past and possibly future clients will make that contractor far more eager to please with rapid service delivery.