Metal roof frustrations

[dstig1]

The metal roofing supplier I talked to a few years back said NEVER use a saw or cutoff wheel. You will throw tons of hot metal shards that will embed in the roofing and rust, and it will look like crap in no time. He said shears only (manual or powered). I never ended up doing it, but the guy was quite adamant about it. It made sense to me...hard to argue with their experience as they are a huge metal roofing supplier.

 

[JJZ 109]

The metal roofing supplier I talked to a few years back said NEVER use a saw or cutoff wheel. You will throw tons of hot metal shards that will embed in the roofing and rust, and it will look like crap in no time. He said shears only (manual or powered). I never ended up doing it, but the guy was quite adamant about it. It made sense to me...hard to argue with their experience as they are a huge metal roofing supplier.

I own a seamless gutter business. Now and then I'll look at a job where the customer has steel hanging a ridiculous distance past the drip edge. Enough so that water would not land in a 6 inch gutter. I always tell them that it's on them to get the roof cut back. I'm not getting called back next year because their steel roof is rusting.

 

[DJ54]

Definitely align the metal with the end rake. That way your end cap will run even with it. If the metal is running out of square to the eave, you'll be best to measure the shortest side of each sheet off the fascia for proper overhang. Chalk line, and trim even however you decide. I prefer 1-1/2". On my two new buildings, the design guy and contractor assured me 3/4" would be enough, even though I pretty well wanted the 1-1/2". WRONG... In a misty drizzle, or even a heavy morning dew dripping off, it will wick back, missing the drip edge, run down the fascia, and behind the gutter and now have a drip line the full length of the buildings.

One half of the shop roof leaked after 8 months, due to them putting screws in the flat of the metal, per the metal companies directions, not mine. Had them take that off, and re-install a new roof on that side of the shop, and insisted on a 1-1/2" overhang. Problem solved on that one side. The rest I will have to live with, or put a piece of flashing to get the water out further over the gutter.

And as far as the fascia running in and out, seems some contractors set the trusses measuring off the header, but don't follow through and strike a line with a chalk line end to end on the rafters, and cut to even it up all the way through, as I was taught many years ago.

 

[Cord]

Did you measure your diagonals? On roofs that are way out I'll pull a string across the bottom where I want the edge of the metal so I have something to square the metal to. I like to use the 3' wide panels. They are easier to stretch and squeeze to make the eaves fall out closer.

I snapped a straight line across the eave and then laid out a large 3-4-5 last night and found the sheet on the right side to be only 1/8" out of square. WTF? I then measured the diagonal across the sheets that were laid down and it was off by a lot. Checked the width at the top and the bottom and sure enough they're different. It looks like when I was setting the top I was setting the panels a bit different than she was and over time the top got wider than the bottom. I'm basically setting them in a wide arc.

I did confirm that the panels are too far down from the ridge for the ridge cap to cover. It's a narrow cap so there isn't a lot of love to be found there.

Definitely need to reset the panels, but I'm not sure how far to take it. I could just pull the screws and then slide the panel up giving the dreaded saw tooth pattern to the eave edge. I'd really hate to do that because it will always look like a mistake. Otherwise I'll have to take the panels off, snap some parallel lines and then reset them. I'd hate to do it, but I'm favoring the second option. Thoughts???

 

[jenkinsph]

if it were me I would start over as long as you can reuse the holes in the tin. I think it would bug you forever if it isn't right.

 

[ace10]

Panels will fan out, depending on where you set the first fastener and how much force is being applied. A three foot panel can be easily "stretched" 1-2" if the installer isn't paying attention. Do that repeatedly, and you've got a mess. The problem should be evident when you go to fasten the next panel and the drip edge doesn't line with the previous one.

If it can be safely done, take them off and set the tins properly. Snap a line every few. No need to do if for each and every one.

 

[SPIKER]

The diag is required to know if building is square so you know if you need to pull/push a bit of the panels to make it square. The easiest way is once you have diag strings on it mark center and measure out from it. (EDIT IN If you find it is out of square by more than a couple inches.) Use big marker and put measurements on the boards one top and one bottom. working a 2 man team it does not take a long time to put the marks on and you then fly thru the actual putting down. keeping marks on ave width of the panels is key. Last ones we did we used layout sticks my Brother had made, small notch that set point and go used marker and notches on side & added measurements to em... I found using tapes was more accurate but also took longer, he was not as caring about being in or out a 1/4" or so here or there...

Mark

 

[/pine]

The metal roofing supplier I talked to a few years back said NEVER use a saw or cutoff wheel. You will throw tons of hot metal shards that will embed in the roofing and rust, and it will look like crap in no time. He said shears only (manual or powered). I never ended up doing it, but the guy was quite adamant about it. It made sense to me...hard to argue with their experience as they are a huge metal roofing supplier.

This is probably true with painted panels...most of the 5V roofing I've seen is galvanized...

FWIW...A novice may not realize that there is an over and under side to 5V panels...

 

[franklin2]

Definitely need to reset the panels, but I'm not sure how far to take it. I could just pull the screws and then slide the panel up giving the dreaded saw tooth pattern to the eave edge. I'd really hate to do that because it will always look like a mistake. Otherwise I'll have to take the panels off, snap some parallel lines and then reset them. I'd hate to do it, but I'm favoring the second option. Thoughts???

I am no expert, I am trying to learn about this myself reading this thread. If I am getting what the other guys are saying, you can "steer" the panels in the direction you want to go, fudging each one. Or you may have inadvertantly "steered" them if you were not careful enough when screwing them in place. I would think you need to figure out if that really happened, or the buidling is really that far off.

I think I didn't tighten the screws evenly on the metal roof I just installed, and that made the panel wider on one end than the other and gave me the same problem.

If it's not too windy, you might want to put just a few screws in the panels and fiddle with them to get it looking good, and then go back and add the rest of the screws when you are happy with it.

 

[PILOON]

Panels will fan out, depending on where you set the first fastener and how much force is being applied. A three foot panel can be easily "stretched" 1-2" if the installer isn't paying attention. Do that repeatedly, and you've got a mess. The problem should be evident when you go to fasten the next panel and the drip edge doesn't line with the previous one.
.

On the other hand you can use this characteristic to correct for errors.
For prevention of stretch errors I always liked to temporarily 'tack' top and bottom with a 2 1/2 nail which is easily pulled and the hole replaced with a screw.
I always 'hung' my panels from the top with 2 roofing nails (hidden by the ridge cap) and tacked the bottom with that temporary nail.
Using the slanted screw to pull a panel wider (top or bottom) has made many a roof look near perfect for me even when there was as much as 5-6" difference from top to bottom width.