American farmers have a hard and busy job: feeding critters, working the field, hauling livestock, keeping their equipment running. From sun-up to sun-down, there’s no shortage of things to do. The last thing you want to do is worry about your roof. We understand this. You need a roof that’s highly durable and low maintenance. That’s why recommend sheet metal as the best roof for your farm. One style of sheet metal roof is recommended for your house, while another is recommended for your barn and other outbuildings. See how they compare.
Best Roof for Your Farmhouse
Getting your roof replaced is kind of a drag, from a preparation and installation standpoint: it’s noisy, dirty, messy, you’ll need to make room in your driveway for our large dumpster, you’ll want to keep your pets inside so they don’t get accidently hit by falling debris. For a day or two, depending upon the size of roof or which material you’re having us install, there’s strangers on your property and additional vehicles. Wouldn’t it be nice if this day or two of inconvenience happened as infrequently as possible?
Traditional asphalt shingles only last 15-25 years. Unless a hail storm comes through. 🙂 That means, every 15-25 years, you’re having to make room in your driveway for our dumpster, lock-up the pets, prepare for reroofing, again. What if you had a roof that was longer-lasting, one that was more durable?
Standing Seam
Standing seam metal roofing, on the other hand, often lasts 70 years or more. That’s because it’s more durable than traditional asphalt shingles. This means you’re being inconvenienced less often. A standing seam metal roof is more durable because it’s more resistant to hail, high winds, fire, snow, rain, mold, etc.
Why not use good ol’ corrugated or ribbed metal sheets from your local hardware store?
Metal expands in the hot summer sun and contracts in the cool Colorado nights. In fact, a 50′ piece of sheet metal will expand up to 6″ during the day. You read that right. Over the course of a long summer day in Colorado, that 50′ sheet of metal will be 50′ 6″ by mid-afternoon. Imagine that sheet of metal secured to a structure, and the stress those fasteners are under trying to hold that metal in place. This is one reason we recommend a standing seam sheet metal roof for your farmhouse.
Standing seam metal roofs use separate clips which are secured to the roof deck. The sheet metal roof you see from your yard is then attached to these clips. As a result, your standing seam sheet metal roof can expand and contract all it wants, without causing any stress to the fasteners beneath. The metal clips beneath – the metal clips that are screwed to your roof deck – are cool and don’t expand and contract nearly as much as the sheet metal above. Standing seam is considered a concealed fastener roof.
So, the best roof for your farmhouse is standing seam.
Best Roof for Your Barn (or other outbuilding)
The best roof for your barn or outbuilding is one that’s less expensive than the standing seam metal roof on your house, yet is still durable and long-lasting. And, that’s an exposed fastener sheet metal roof, such as ribbed or corrugated.
Ribbed or Corrugated
As an exposed fastener sheet metal roof fluctuates in the changing temperatures, the fasteners (screws) can become loose over time. As a result, they need to be fastened back down. Additionaly, the rubber gaskets on the screws can become dry and cracked, and they need to be re-sealed. If some rain water seeps through your barn roof, it’s often not an emergency since there’s probably no insulation in an attic or walls. There’s also less wiring in your barn. You should check the fasteners in your ribbed metal roof every 10 years or so. This is a lot less maintenance compared to a wood shake roof. And, a ribbed or corrugated metal roof lasts a lot longer than traditional asphalt shingles. Like standing seam, you can expect a ribbed or corrugated metal roof to last 70 years or more.
So, the best roof for your barn or outbuilding is ribbed or corrugated.
The Bottom Line
The best roof for your farm is standing seam on your house, and ribbed or corrugated on your barn or outbuilding. These metal roofing products last a lot longer than other roofs because they’re more durable. Sheet metal roofing is more fire-resistant than wood share or asphalt shingles. It’s also more resistant to high-winds. Sheet metal roofing requires less maintenance, and is recyclable. Some folks use their old sheet metal roofs as wind breaks for their livestock 👍🏻