Metal roofs

We're in the midst of renovation planning and the architect has come up with a plan that has a metal roof. It all sounds very modern and leading edge, but what are they like?

I've only ever lived in "normal" tiled houses with an attic space where you go up and fix stuff that goes wrong.

Would future modifications be more difficult? I'm thinking of things like ariels, skylights etc which we might decide down the track would be a good idea.
What about changes to lights etc if there's no attic cavity in which to crawl around?

Am I just being old fashioned?

Tony

I'm with you Tony I think tin roofs would be a pain for the reason you said but like you I haven't had a tin roof or lived in a house with a tin roof. The architect could have designed a structure that would make it fairly costly to have a tiled roof so it might not be that simple a solution.

Most houses had tin roofs before tiles came on the scene.

Ever heard of a manhole?

Marvellous things.

They allow you to get up into the roof space so that if anything needs doing up there, you can. :D

Declaration up front - I work for BlueScope Steel.

That being said I have been a fan of sheet metal roofing for years. Unpainted has great heat reflecting abilities, painted looks great. Had both on my house over the years. Unlike concrete tiles the roof never becomes brittle and cracks. I like the ridge to eaves water tightness, and if installed correctly it won't rattle in the wind. Great resistance to hail too.

Some people don't like the noise when it's raining. Personally I love it, reminds me of cold winter nights when I was a kid. The noise level is greatly reduced with insulation under the sheet, which has the added advantage of keeping the the roof cavity cooler.

Crawl space limitations are a design issue, not related to sheet steel roofing. You can use sheet steel roofing wherever you would use tiles and then some.

Hope this helps,
Peter

The main setback with steel roofs is that youre going to need a possum trap and somewhere to plant the little fuggers.

I've only lived in houses with corrugated iron roofs.

I know that a tiled roof is considerably heavier than a metal roof and, I suppose, needs more structural strength = more cost involved in the roof structure. And a pitched roof (with attic space) requires a lot more timber framing than a flat roof.

It is very common to add an extension with a minimal slope to a house with a pitched roof - it's much easier and cheaper to do it this way than to build a new pitched section into the existing pitch. A tiled roof needs a fair degree of slope to be watertight, whereas a metal roof needs very little slope.

From the sound of things, it seems you are more concerned with the shape of the roof, rather than what it is clad with. The important thing is whether or not you like the architect's design. If you don't think you can live with it, don't go with the design.

Tiles are curiously illogical things, invented in a climate where it never rains!

Why would anyone consider waterproofing their house (unless you can think of another good reason for having a roof) by loose laying hundreds of ill fitting elements which allow insects and dust and water(in extreme conditions) through the gaps? Roof tiles are also absorbent, so a tiled roof becomes a ton or so heavier after rain!

I don't understand the emotion regarding metal.

Possum traps?? How do they get into a fully sealed space?

Use anti-con insulation hard against the roofing and the noise in rain will be minimal, and you'll have a roof which will need minimal if any maintenance for it's life. No more re-pointing or replacing cracked tiles!

I am also curious as to what keeps going wrong in your roof space?

If you have to access the roof space, use the manhole, or if you want to put a fridge up there you only have to undo half a dozen screws to take a sheet off (heaven knows why you'd need to do it)

If anything future modifications like skylights, arials etc will be simpler because of the lesser structural requirements.

Cheers,

P :rolleyes:

Nothing wrong with a tin roof. Our current house has one, our next house will too. The current house has a flat roof so there is no attic space. We have made many modifications in the ceiling space including a skylight, installing one of those bathroom fan heaters, and installing light fittings.

When we needed access to run cables, cut holes and so on, we just removed one or two sheets. To add a skylight you would need to cut a hole in a sheet with tinsnips (with tiles you just remove a few). No big deal and you have to flash it either way.

Like wombat says, it sounds like you are more concerned about the lack of an attic space in which you can crawl around and 'fix stuff'. If you don't want a flat roof, you'll probably need to change your exisiting roof line to accomodate the extension, which means a major disturbance to the house (no roof for a week or so) and more expense.

I had a house in Sydney which was tiled and we added an extension with a low pitch trussed roof, clad with tin. You could get into the space between the trusses, although it was a tight squeeze, but we could only fit that kind of roof in under the eaves of the existing house by dropping the floor of the new bit half a metre below the original floor level.

Tin roofs are great, go for it. My sister-in-law has switched to tin roof 6 months ago and they are very happy with it. The other one is also thinking of changing it. My father-in-law will have tin roof on their new house (it is actually going up today).

If I had the money I would definitely change my old and damaged tile roof. Thanks to the Possums :mad: and cockatoos. :mad:

another advantage of tin roofs is that they resist hail better than tiles ( according to the insurance companies anyway and they have a vested interest in reducing damage that they have to pay for ).

I'd never lived in a house with a tin roof before I bought this one ( up until I came to Australia I thought that tin roofs were what you put on sheds ).

A disadvantage if you live in Victoria is that apparently tin roofs are roof plumbing and require fitting by a licensed roof plumber. Tile roofs are for some reason not roof plumbing and your granny or your dog can go up there and fix the tiles on.

I really wouldn't stress about the roofing material, I'd be more interested in whether the overall design meets your needs.

If there is no loft and you want a loft change your design. If you have a loft design in a loft hatch of sensible dimensions and get an attic ladder fitted and fit access boards to any location that you feel you are going to want to visit more than once in a blue moon.

Seeing as I was a rep and a manager with Lysaghts aka Bluescope Steel formaly BHP Steel for 11 years I will put my 2 cents worth in.

As some have said steel roofs have been around a long time and have certainly proved their effectivness as a roof over a couple of hundred years in this country.

Some of the advantages are.

Long spans without joins except for side laps.
Great range colours to complement any decor.
Can be insulated easily against noise, heat and cold.
Penetrations can be easily waterproofed with Dektites flashings.
Lighter construction methods can be used with light weight roofing.
Harder for the wind to penetrate in storms.
Flatter pitches are obtainable down to 1 degree depending on the roof profile. Minimum of 5 degrees on corrugated.

A couple of disadvantages are.

Some colours can fade badly and it is worth going around and having a look at different roofs to see which ones fade the worst.
I have never seen hail penetrate a steel roof but they can get damaged by hail. It took 18 months to replace all the roofs in Armidale NSW that were damaged by hail about 8 years ago. The good thing is that insurance will cover the cost of that and that can sometimes give you the chance to change your colour scheme.

As some have said tile roofs can double their weight when the paint on them fades and they become porus and absorb moisture. This is not the case though with glazed terracotta tiles which are probably twice the price of concrete tiles.

Tile roofs can lift in wind storms if all the tiles are not fastened or tied and the practice is to only fasten or tie every fifth tile.

As others have said crawl space is usually only an issue on skillion roofs but as SilentC say you can easily lift a couple of roof sheets to gain access.

Thanks for all these helpful and detailed responses in just 24 hours!

Sounds like I don't really have anything to worry about. I'm basically happy with the floorplan/room sizes that the architect has come up with. He recommends a metal roof for aesthetic reasons (it'll appear to float ?!) and to avoid any possible complaints from neighbours about roof height.

There wasn't anything specific I wanted to do in a loft space, it was more a case of I don't know what I don't know and I don't want to be thinking in 5 yrs time - "gee wouldn't tiles have been a great idea!".

I have visions of the outer roof surface only being, say 200mm from the internal ceiling and then I get to wondering things like "how on earth do you run cables to light fittings?"

Anyway, it's very early days in our grand renovation project so I'll be quizzing the collective consciousness of this BB with more renovation queries over the following 12 months!

Tony

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bitingmidge

Possum traps?? How do they get into a fully sealed space?

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The traps are for the ones that tap dance on your roof at exactly 3.30 every night

Quote:

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Originally Posted by capedcrusader

The traps are for the ones that tap dance on your roof at exactly 3.30 every night

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They are busy aren't they. first my house about 1 am, then your house, then back to mine for the encore about 5am.

Iron roof is my only source of drinking water.
i hate to think what it tastes like off a tiled one.
love to hear the rain on it.
have two satelite dishes on it.
looks like battle star galaxtica !

I have a tile roof with no attic. The only proble I have had is when I wanted to install ceiling fans and the only way was to lift off most of the roof sheets so I got fans installed with lights fitted on the unit. This was not what I wanted really. Like everyone has been saying, it is not a roof issue really just a lack of an attic problem.

I seem to remember reading somewhere that corrugated iron was invented in Astraya - the first roof sheets were flat zinc sheets laid like large slates imported from the old country - but I could be wrong.

one more thing about steel roofing is that it gives up its heat quickly.

Nothing like living in a house that has a roof still at 40 degress at 11 O'clock at night.

I can attest to this, ripped the old super six and tiled roof off and have a lovely rivergum roof and crawling up in the roof void after a hot day, is so much more bareable with steel.

JR

I wouldn't have anything but a tin roof. We live in the Blue Mountains in NSW. We have a tin roof with sarking under it and R4 insulation on top of the ceiling. The rain isn't too loud, neither are the possums. If you didn't have insulation it would be deafening.

Tin roof is all i will have with snow during winter and fire storms through summer plus i'm on tank water it's the only roof that will keep all the weather out no matter what mother nature throws at it (the rest of the house need a bit of work though)