Quote:
Originally Posted by PoolBrews
I think it's time we started a movement to get The Villages to allow metal roofs along with asphalt shingled roofs. Metal roofs last a minimum of 3x longer, and the current issue with cancellations due to a roof being over 10 years old would be gone.
I think they look great (there are metal roof styles that look like shingles, look like tile, etc), and once installed are pretty much carefree for 40-50 years.
I had a metal roof in GA, and I was surprised that it was actually quieter than a shingle roof during rain and hail. I never had an issue with it.
Thoughts?
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Asphalt shingles last much longer than ten years. If they are the stronger, more expensive architectural shingles, they last five years longer than regular shingles. Ten year life is about right for asphalt roll roofing, which is not acceptable here. Fiberglass shingles last even longer. Asphalt and fiberglass shingles are all acceptable in The Villages. The threat of insurance cancellations for roofs over ten years old is NOT because the shingles are unsafe or likely to leak. It’s simply because roofers and shady lawyers have a scheme to get lots of extra work by getting “free roofs” for homeowners for what in Florida is generally normal wear and tear. (Of course shingles wear a bit with age—so do we.) The insurance companies pay up when the letter arrives from the lawyer, rather than face the cost of lawsuits. The ten year thing is the insurance company’s self preservation measure.
“Vented properly and installed correctly, you should get around 80-85% of the life span out of an asphalt roof. That means you can expect to get about 20-22 years out of your 3-tab shingle roof and 25-28 years out of your dimensional shingles.” That’s about right.
I had high-quality metal roofs on two homes in Pennsylvania for thirty years, and I loved them. (Not the shingle-shaped ones—I don’t like those at all, and I consider them more of a problem in Florida. They are also easy to damage when you walk on them.) Mine were supposed to be good for fifty years, but the warrantee was prorated and for the original owner. I didn’t even bother to send in the paperwork. There were also metal roofs that looked similar in the beginning, but were thinner, with finishes that faded more or peeled. They are all more expensive than shingles. I’d guess my roof was twice what I would have paid for architectural shingles, but my home’s roof pitch was 1.5 in 12, and shingles wouldn’t have been ideal there.
One thing about metal roofing worth keeping in mind is that if your home is hit with ice cube-size hail, which is certainly possible here, the hail can do the same to the roof that it does to a car. I had a car habit by a hail like that, and the metal looked a bit like a giant golf ball. The insurance company would have totaled it, but I drove it with no trouble for another seven years. The roof still works just fine with hail damage, but if roofers and lawyers and homeowners collude again to get new roofs from the insurance companies, we’ll have the same problem we have now.
By the way, a metal roof is louder than a shingle roof if you are in the attic during a heavy rain. Utterly deafening. The drywall and fiberglass cut out most of that. In one home I had a cathedral ceiling throughout and solid 8” foam insulating panels. It was much louder during a rain than when I had an attic and 16” of blown virgin fiberglass.