You’ve bought your forever home and you’re making improvements, making it your own. As appliances and other things wear-out, you’ve decided to not just replace them, but upgrade them. When the water heater finally fails, you replace it with a tankless. When it’s time to replace the AC and furnace you’ve decided you’ll make the jump to a heat pump. These are all smart decisions, as they consume less energy, last longer, and cost less to operate. However, when your roof needs replacing, what will you do? Will you go with an energy efficient roof or stick with traditional asphalt shingles? Will you invest in your roof the way you’ve invested in other things?
Investing in a longer-lasting roof is worth it because
- it’ll cost less in the long run,
- you’ll have fewer interruptions in your life,
- you’ll get peace of mind and one less thing to worry about for a long time,
- and it’ll save you money in the meantime with a lower utility bill.
Convenience
Your typical asphalt shingle roof lasts around 25 years. So, about every 25 years you’ll be getting your roof replaced. A roof replacement is a noisy and dirty affair. When it’s time for a new one, roofers will be on your house for a day or two, banging and scraping, kicking-up all sorts of dirt and dust. If your garage isn’t finished, that dust will be falling onto whatever is in your garage. During this time, you’ll be asked to move at least one of your cars out of the driveway, bring any outdoor pets inside, deal with a large roll-off dumpster in your driveway, have an bushes outside covered, and listen to footsteps, hammering, scraping, and various power tools on your roof all day, possibly more.
A metal roof, on the other hand, be it standing seam or metal shingles, often lasts 70 years or more. If you move-in to your forever home when you’re in your twenties, and you replace your roof right away, you’ll probably never have to go through the mess and inconvenience of a roof replacement ever again. Wouldn’t that be nice?!
Energy-Saving
‘How can a roof save you money on your heating and cooling bill’, you ask? Basically, it comes down to two things; how well the roof reflects heat and how well it releases absorbed heat. Both of these are rated on a scale from 0% to 100%, 100% being the best. Solar reflectivity is the most important characteristic of a roof’s ability to help lower your heating and cooling bill.
When a material, such as a roof, reflects heat well, it doesn’t get as hot and it doesn’t absorb it. When a surface gets hot and stays hot, it also heats what’s below. In the case of your home, it heats-up your attic, and the rest of your home. When a roof is cooler to the touch and is quicker to cool down, your home also doesn’t get as hot.
Most residentail roofs, such as asphalt shingles, metal shingles, standing seam, concrete and clay tiles, do a good job at releasing absorbed heat. However, when it comes to reflecting heat, there are obvious winners and losers. In the following list, the roof that reflects heat the best is at the top, while the roof that reflects heat the least is at the bottom.
- Standing Seam, Corrugated/PBC Sheet Metal (67%)
- Clay Tiles (43%)
- Stone-Coated Metal Shingles and Tiles (41%)
- Concrete Tiles (22%)
- Asphalt Shingles (15%)
According to the Florida Solar Energy Center, there’s a 20-24º attic temperature difference between roofs that have black asphalt shingles vs white standing seam metal roof. This is a big difference and a lot more heat in your attic/home. A hotter attic means a hotter home and more work for your attic fans. You might be thinking that you don’t want a white roof. That’s ok. Although white is technically the coolest roof color, any color of standing seam or corrugated/PBC roof is significantly cooler than even a white asphalt shingle stone-coated metal shingle roof.
Piece of Mind
With metal roofing, especially standing seam or corrugated/PBC, you get more peace of mind. All metal roofing is secured with screws. Asphalt shingles, on the other hand, nails are used to secure them to your roof deck. Screws offer much better holding power over nails. Standing seam and corrugated/PBC sheet metal panels are often 2-3′ wide and cut to length. Asphalt shingles, on the other hand, are about 3′ wide and 1′ deep. To cover the same area as one sheet of standing seam, it will take many more shingles. That’s more seams, which means more opportunites for wind, ice, rain, and snow to get under. Metal is also much more durable than asphalt shingles. Asphalt shingles have – wait for it – asphalt in them. Asphalt in combustible. Therefore, not as fire resistant as metal. Metal is also extremely resistant to hail, cracking and splitting. All this adds-up to peace of mind for you. Simply-put, with a metal roof, you have less to worry about.
Cost
On average, an asphalt shingle roof lasts about 25 years. A metal roof often lasts at least 70 years. The average cost for new average asphalt shingles on a 2500 square foot roof, is about $8,000. The average cost for a new standing seam or corrugated/PBC or stone-coated metal shingle roof is about $24,000. That’s 3 times the cost of an asphalt shingle roof. Considering the fact that a metal roof often lasts 3 times as long as an asphalt shingle roof, these roof coverings cost about the same over 70 years. Depending upon where you live in Colorado, how much hail and wind you get, metal might last longer, therefore costing less.
The Bottom Line
When you’re moving into a home you plan on living in for many years, it’s worth considering investing in upgrades, upgrades that will cost less to operate, last longer, use less energy, and cost less in the long term. Although a metal roof costs more initially, it often costs less in the long-run since it lasts so much longer. And, when roof financing is available, it’s easy to get your new metal roof sooner than you thought.
Metal roofing doesn’t mean your house has to look like a barn, either. Today, stone-coated metal roofing resemble traditional asphalt shingles or clay tiles. What’s more, a standing seam or corrugated/PBC roof fits right in, in Colorado, especially given that these roofs are available in literally dozens of colors.
When you’re ready to discuss a new metal roof, contact for a free consultation and estimate.