2008_03_06 Metal Roof finally being put on

St. Clair Metal Roofing company in Ashville, AL started putting the metal roof on this week. I believe that our builder said that he was buying the metal itself from A&E Metal Roofing Supply. Their web site is www.aemetalroofing.com. Although I don't know for sure if that's where he ended up getting it their factory is in Alexander City, AL and that's where the builder lives. The metal is 26 gauge metal if that means anything to you. The smaller the gauge the thicker the metal. For example, 26 gauge metal is thicker than 29 gauge metal.

They started working on the section of the roof over the great room and dining room.

Another view.

Here is a view of the way the ends and corners look. We'll have to get some other company to put the gutters we want on after the roofer's are done. We went to the Birmingham Home and Garden show on Friday.

There were at least 3 different gutter companies there who offer some system that prevents leaves, etc from being able to get into the gutter. The design of the metal that completely covers the gutter allows water to go past the gutter and then because of the water's adhesion to the surface it's on allows it to flow over the edge and then back in toward and into the gutter. They are guaranteed to never need cleaning. If you are interested in looking at this type of gutter you can check out the web sites of the following: LeafGuard at www.leafguard.com, Gutter Cap at www.guttercap.com, and Dixie Home Crafters who have GutterGuardian gutters at www.dixiehomecrafters.com (click on clog-free gutters).

We'll have to see whether their systems will work well on our particular roof since it is both metal (which allows water to run faster than traditional shingles) and also a couple of sections of steep roof (over the great room) and each of those things (and maybe especially since both exist for us) sometimes cause the water runoff to travel so fast that it overcomes the surface tension of water that allows all these roof systems to work.

It may be that we end up putting this system on part of the roof and a more traditional system on sections of the roof that might not permit this system to work. I think that some of the areas that might not work well with these systems just might be low enough that I could clean them without risking death, but we'll see.

Below you can see the ladders that they use. They have a hook on the top end that hooks over the top of the roof to keep it anchored for them to use to walk up the roof.

Here you can see the roof, the sky, and guy. He's waiting on another piece of metal to be cut to fit somewhere around the dormer behind him.

They lay the metal out on the deck and then mark it to be cut with the metal snips or shears. This piece is just over 23 feet long.

When they cut the angles they use another scrap piece of metal that fits over the ridges perfectly as a guide to make their mark on the metal to show where to make their cut. Below you can see how that is done. Once the line is drawn, he then cuts it with some large metal snips or metal shears if you prefer that term. You may call them tin snips or tin shears. Whatever you call them they are like big scissors that but metal.

They worked on the metal roof on Wednesday and Thursday and planned to try to finish on Friday, but I don't know if they did or not because it rained on Friday and they wouldn't work when the metal is wet. It's dangerous enough when it's dry. I didn't go up there on Friday. The gas bills have become pretty bad with the prices now up above $3.00 and we also wanted to go to the Home and Garden show in Birmingham on Friday anyway so we could see many of the products we may want or need. If they didn't finish up on Friday they plan to show up on Monday to continue working so hopefully by this next week the roof will be finished.