Roofing Solutions For You

What to Avoid When Your Home Has a Metal Roof

29 July 2017 by Jack King

A metal roof is a great option for any home, as it's lightweight and very durable, and typically outlasts a standard asphalt shingle roof by many years, if not even decades. Metal can also be powder coated virtually any colour, so you don't need to settle for a drab grey shade, and you can ensure your home's roof perfectly coordinates with its paint colour. If you do opt for a metal roof for your home, note a few mistakes you'll want to avoid after its installation, so you ensure it does last as long as possible and is always in good repair.

Repainting

The powder coating or colour on a metal roof will typically last many years before it fades or shows any types of chips or cracks. However, when it does need a touch-up, you don't want to try this job yourself. Powder coating is adhered to metal with an electrical charge, so that it sticks more readily and isn't as likely to fade or peel. In turn, you cannot simply touch up the powder coating on your metal roof with standard paint, even exterior paint meant for metal surfaces. Have a roofer who specializes in metal roofs, or a coating expert who offers powder coating, handle this job for you instead.

Repair

If sections of a metal roof come away from each other, you don't want to repair this yourself. The connectors you would use to repair other metal pieces and objects may not be the same as the connectors used to bolt a metal roof to your home, and the wrong connectors could easily damage the flashing and other layers of materials under the metal.

As with paint, the materials you use to remove corrosion from metal lawn furniture and other such items may not be meant for a metal roof, and you could damage the roof if you tried to sand it, fill it with caulk, and so on. Note, too, that different metals coming into contact with each other can actually cause corrosion when those metals then get wet; this is why you don't want to patch a damaged area of your metal roof with a section of scrap metal. You could actually make the damage worse and, in turn, your roof may begin to leak or rust may spread, so that your entire roof might then need replacing. To ensure repairs to your home's metal roof are done properly, leave them to a metal roofing professional.

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