Metal Roof Installation | Metal DIY, Design & Decor

Metal Roof Installation – Installing a standing seam metal roof is not as easy as it may seem at first. “Yeah”, you might think: “What is there to do? Just put up those panels!”.

Not so quick, now! Standing seam installation process can actually involve a lot of tedious work, so let’s cover it in a step by step fashion to see some of the challenges it may entail. Shall we?

Contents

1 Basic Preparation for the Job
2 A few words of advice before you get started:
3 Metal Roof Installation Design Ideas

Basic Preparation for the Job

The most important thing about installing standing seam, is to measure the roof correctly and precisely. Here is why; Each standing seam panel is cut to the exact size, and if your panels are too short, you will run the following costly issues:

A) If a panel is only 2″ short, you may not be able to use your ridge cap as it will not cover the ends of the panels. In this case you will have to get or make a wider cap. In this case it will go from 12 to 16″ wide cap (remember – panels are 2” off on each side, so we add 4″ to the ridge cap)

B) If panels are short by 4-6″ you may not be able to get a cap that wide, so now you have only two options: Ether panels are useless, or you splice them. Splicing 6 inch metal panels, while sitting at the ridge of your roof is about as much fun as head-butting the curb! ? You would probably want to get at least 2-3 feet long panels for splicing. You will also need at least a foot of overlap on each panel.

In either case you will run into additional work and will likely have to spend a lot more money compared to what should have (and could have) been originally spent.

A few words of advice before you get started:

Roofing, by its very nature, is a very dangerous work, and hence your safety should be your number one priority. We always recommend using a full body harnesses and a properly set-up fall protection system consisting of roof anchors, 50′ lifeline, and shock-absorbing lanyard.

Using heavy duty steel screws or 3″ framing nails with a double head for easy removal, install your roof anchors over the ridge, so each “ear” of the anchor is located on different side of the roof. Best way to install it, is to find roof rafters and put your nails into them. This will give you the best hold-down on the roof.

When attaching the lifeline rope, always make sure that the arrow on the lanyard’s self-tracking rope grab points up, toward the roof anchor. Otherwise it will not hold you in case of a fall.

You should always have at least 3 anchors for an average size home. Each person on a roof should be tied off to his or her own anchor. You should not have more than one person tied to one anchor (unless it is the end of the job and all other anchors have already been removed.).

Source : Metal Roof Systems.