Metal Roof Repair

A metal roof will outlast two or three shingle roofs, which is why they are increasingly common on barns, shops and newer houses out towards Dayton and Splendora. The panels rarely fail. What fails is everything that holds them down and joins them: the screws back out as the metal expands and contracts through a Texas summer, the rubber washers under the screw heads perish, and the sealant at laps and penetrations dries and cracks.

Repairing it is mostly detail work. Replacing fasteners with oversized screws and new washers, resealing laps, re-flashing pipes and chimneys, and dealing with the rust that starts anywhere a scratch went through the coating. On a standing-seam roof the seams themselves can open and need re-crimping, which is specialist work.

The mistake to avoid is a smear of roofing cement over a leaking screw. It holds for a season and then traps water against the panel. A contractor who works with metal regularly will replace the fastener properly, and will also tell you if the roof has reached the point where re-screwing the whole thing is cheaper than chasing leaks one at a time.

Whatever the problem turns out to be, the first step is the same: describe it, say where the house is, and one independent roofing contractor working in your town contacts you to look at it. No charge for being connected, and no obligation once he has.