Metal Roof Installation Process

Panels are cut to length. That means the roof has to be measured accurately, slope by slope, before anything is ordered, and it means a mistake is not something you correct from stock on the truck. Colour and profile are confirmed at this stage too, and lead time on a specific colour can be the thing that sets your schedule rather than crew availability.

We do not schedule a start date until material is confirmed. Beginning a tear-off against a delivery that has not landed is how a roof ends up open over a weekend.

This is the part homeowners are most surprised by. Standing seam panels commonly run the entire slope in a single piece, which can mean lengths of twenty feet or more. Long material does not turn corners, does not come through a narrow side gate, and cannot be carried around a pool enclosure.

So before the job we work out where material lands, how it gets to the roof, where the dumpster sits, and what has to be moved or protected. On a tight lot with mature landscaping that conversation determines the schedule more than the roof size does.

The old roof comes off. On residential work we tear off rather than installing over the existing roof, and it is worth saying why: going over shingles hides the deck from everyone, traps heat against the underside of the new panels, and makes the eventual removal worse. It saves a day now and costs more later.

With the roof stripped, the deck is visible for the only time in twenty years. It gets walked and looked at, and anything soft or delaminated is replaced in full sheets landing on framing. This is the one line item nobody can price in advance, which is why the per-sheet rate should already be in your estimate. Our roof decking repair page covers what causes it and what to ask.

A high-temperature underlayment goes down, because the underside of a metal panel in Texas sun gets hot enough to degrade ordinary felt. Drip edge, valley metal, and flashings at walls and chimneys are set. This is unglamorous and it is where the roof is actually waterproofed.

Field panels go on faster than people expect. A straightforward slope can move very quickly, which is why homeowners sometimes think the job is nearly finished on day two when it is not. Panels are set with clips on a standing seam system, or through-fastened on an exposed fastener system, and seams are closed as the run progresses. Our standing seam metal roofing page covers that system if you are still choosing between the two.

Then the part that takes the time. Ridge and hip caps, sidewall and endwall flashing, closures, pipe boots, and anything around a chimney or a skylight. On a cut-up roof this is the majority of the labour, and it is the part where a fast, cheap installation shows itself two years later.