2008_03_13 Metal Roof

The metal roof is now on and awaiting the gutters which will come later. The builder wants us to wait till later after the final grading of the land so that none of the downspouts are affected by the land getting moved around (e.g. the ground ending up higher or lower and the downspouts not being right then, etc).


Below you can see the roof closer because, well ... it's closer! :-)

2008_03_10 Gutter system, metal roof, Charli's boards

The first picture is one of Kathy's favorites. On the day that Clay, KC, Clarli, and Jasper were here, Clay was taking some of the larger boards from the scrap pile and putting them in the basement in case I wanted them for something later. Most of them were either logs or larger boards that were 4"x 8" or so. Charli wanted to help so she made 2 trips. The ones she saved were the two little pieces of 2x4s on the right! How cute is that?



Also, you can see the gutter system that we bought from Dixie Homecrafters called Gutter Guardian. It allows water in, but it doesn't allow any leaves, pine needles, etc. First there is a row of tiny holes that are small enough to allow some small amount of water to go through them without being large enough to allow any leaves, debris, etc in. They also tend to slow the speed of the water down a little bit as it passes over the holes.

The picture below shows the gutter as well as the interior support system that is screwed into fascia board through the gutter. It supports the upper guard and locks it into the proper position in relation to the roof and gutter so that it stays where it needs to be to optimally allow water in and keep leaves out and also make sure that it doesn't get bent out of shape by wind or limbs that might hit it, etc. The supports are not as close together as the ones in the picture. This is just a sample section to show how they go together. I think the supports are just every 30 inches or something like that.



However, the main design feature is that the top part of the gutter completely covers the gutter itself, but allows water to still go into it while not allowing leaves, etc to do so.



It does this using the surface tension of the water to allow the water to flow down over the top of the gutter and then take a turn over the edge and back into the gutter since the water "sticks" to the surface of the metal top much like water "sticks" to the side of a water glass and run down the side and drip from the bottom if you pour it slowly rather than all at once. The water will stick to the gutter and follow its curve back underneath the top cover and then go into the gutter itself.


One thing that we'll have to remember is that it will take the roof a few weeks (usually over a couple of months of sun and after it has rained a few times) till it works as well as it will eventually. That is because of a coating of some kind on the surface of the metal, but once it has weathered a little bit the water will "stick" to it better and the roof will function more efficiently.

The gutters will be 6 inch gutters because with metal roofs the water comes down the roof at a faster rate than with shingle roofs and since the steepness of the roof is fairly steep. Steve (the guy doing the building) supported what they told us about the gutters needing to be 6 inch gutters with metal roofs. He said that nothing smaller would work.


The gutters haven't been installed yet since we're waiting till the final grading is done on the property so that the downspouts won't have to be moved later when the dirt is being moved around the house.


The gutters are designed so that leaves and debris can't get in, but water can. The example is shown on a regular shingle roof. Ours will be screwed to the fascia board in a different way since they can't go up underneath the metal roof which is screwed down.

The gutters are also designed so that the downspouts do NOT have to stick up inside the gutters. That is so that there won't be a portion of the downspout sticking up inside the gutter to create a lip or little wall that water inside has to build up around before it will go down the downspout. They believe that any amount of downspout sticking up can result in water remaining in the gutter and that allows mosquitoes to breed or any debris that might get in (pollen, dust, etc) to not get washed down the next time it rains.

They have a patented way to attach the downspout to the gutter that allows them to have nothing sticking up into the gutter at all. See below:

The above part is attached to the gutter with the left side in the above picture fastened to the gutter. The hole in the gutter that is cut above where the downspout is to be attached therefore has nothing sticking up into it. It simply empties into the large end of the above connecting piece and then goes down through the smaller end of the above connecting piece into the downspout.

Then there is one shot of the new metal roof.

The gutter company is going to install gutters on every place where the roof would otherwise dump water onto the deck or ground. Although the decks or balconies and sides of the house will, of course, get wet when it rains, the volume of water that would otherwise hit the deck or ground and splash back onto the logs would both tend to wash away the deck stain faster than desired and cause the logs to stay wetter and be more prone to mildew, mold, etc.

The gutters are warranted for life on materials and workmanship and for 20 years on the paint itself. The guarantee is also transferrable when we sell the house. They also guarantee that if the gutters ever clog for any reason they will come and clean them out for free. They are not cheap, however! That's the only disadvantage I can find in them so far. :-)

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.