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Are you a DIY enthusiast or novice roofer looking for instructions on how to replace metal roof? Roof replacement is a sporadic home servicing job done to correct leaking, cooling, and corrosion issues. It’s the cheapest way for homeowners and facility managers to keep roofs at peak working conditions without having to pay heftily on landfill costs or disrupting their everyday operations.
Over time, roofs will succumb to the harmful weather elements, making them lose their solid structural integrity and impressive external aesthetics.
Get your metal roof checked and often replaced to optimize its performance and protect your costly belongings from water damage. Roof replacement is a complex and demanding task that requires professional attention. Read along to acquaint yourself with simple yet useful tips that work.
Metal roof replacement work starts when you take off the old roof. The metal roof removal process cannot begin until you gather the right tools and supplies. Get a drill or full-size pry bar to loosen up the easterners that hold the panels in place.
When done, get rid of the ridge caps to access the fastener heads for easy removal. Unscrew and remove the fasteners one by one on both sides of the panel until you’ve removed all of them.
Once you’ve wholly unhooked the panel, get it off the roof and place it securely on the ground. Please do this for all the panels, until you’ve removed all of them. Once all the entire roofing system and underlayment have been removed, clear up the mess caused by the remnant roof wastes.
Now that the roofing has been removed, and the mess created by the broken roof pieces cleaned, it’s time you check the roof flashing. Whether the flashing is made of galvanized steel or aluminum, confirm whether it is strong and secure enough. The purpose of the flashing is to secure the roof and house against water overflow.
The flashing usually includes the drip edge, chimney, roof’s valleys, and vents. If they are damaged beyond repair, consider having them replaced. When replacing the roof flashing, get rid of the old flashing, first. While removing the roof flashing, check how it was installed, previously so that you can precisely mimic it.
Most chimneys require counter, cricket, or step flashing, depending on how they are designed. As for vent boots, they need valley flashing and proper shaping to prevent potential rusting and cracking. The valley flashing spoils quicker than other types of flashing since it takes more abuse, and so it should be replaced often. Now that you’ve replaced the flashing, take down the new roofing and underlayment.
The underlayment is one of the most critical parts of your roof. Its absence in a roofing structure means reduced performance. Roofing systems without an underlayment will always allow water to leak. The work of the underlayment is to catch and shed such water, ensuring the framing or sheathing underneath it doesn’t rot or get wet.
When putting down your roof’s underlayment, you should first create a water and ice barrier. Place the barrier below the drip edge to enhance the quality of protection to the roof replacement. You might have to pull up the drip edge to reinstall and clip it lengthways to the drip edge.
You should nail down the water and ice protection down lengthwise to the roof to make it stronger before you install the underlayment. Run the underlayment at the roof edge over the drip edge and the water and ice barrier. To optimize the strength of the installed underlayment, use cap nails to install it above the drip edge.
Create a unique and attractive nail pattern by installing one after the other four to six inches. You might want to spread the cap nails out to around eight to ten inches on the remaining part of the underlayment.
Intersect the initial nail row with the second one following the same nailing pattern and at a distance of not less than 6 inches. Ensure the nails are spread out to the center of the underlayment. Keep doing this until you have nailed the entire underlayment.
The next step will be to run the material above the ridge, ensuring it drops and covers the top edge on both underlayment rows. Once you’re done, fasten the two underlayment edges down securely to complete the installation.
The final step on how to replace metal roof is to install a new roof in place of the old one. Make the installation work easier by following the instructions given by your manufacturer. You must read all the details of the mental roof installation to avoid making mistakes. Screwing or nailing your metal roofs wrong is quite costly.
The installation process starts by placing the metal roofing materials vertically and screwing them up vertically in the ridges instead of the flats. When you screw the vertical rows, the resulting roofing will flatten. Consider using high-quality screws that are characterized by wide-rubber washers to ensure optimal protection and coverage.
The reason we recommend you screw the roof on the ridges instead of the flats is to prevent instances when the uncovered sections of the holes created by the screws will cause water leakages. Roofing replacement isn’t a few hours job. It’s quite complicated and demanding, and that’s why we advise you to work with a qualified local roofing contractor.
Though the metal roof replacement task may be a bit tricky and demanding, if you understand its basics and master the art, you can always do it yourself whenever the need arises. However, if you don’t want disappointments and costly mistakes, you should always work with a reputable and experienced local roofing contractor.
These are technicians who have handled similar roofing projects in the past, and so they know how to do it superbly well. While a roofer can get the job done to your expectations, the lack of quality materials can mean a low-quality job.