Metal Roofing and Wind Resistance
Continuing our trend of timely rewrites of foundational articles, up next is wind resistance and metal roofing, first covered in early 2015. With our facilities in the Midwest, we were hit with very strong winds just last week, leaving asphalt shingles littered on the ground in surrounding neighborhoods. Many local homeowners reached out to contractors seeking repairs and roof replacements. While this is an unfortunate event, it’s also an opportunity to provide a quality roofing upgrade with superior performance in high winds.
If you ask the average homeowner what the enemy of roofing is, the most frequent answer you will receive is high winds. While we know that wind is only one challenge a roof faces, wind resistance is foremost on many homeowners’ minds. For good reason, too, as missing shingles and wind damage are obvious and immediate.
When presenting wind resistance, I like to start by establishing some basic facts with homeowners first.
Conventional roofing materials depend upon three things to perform well in high winds: their rigidity, their weight and gravity, and failure-prone sealants. Once you’ve established these three criteria, compare asphalt’s properties to metal. Asphalt is somewhat rigid and does weigh more, but it depends on sealants for wind resistance. Metal is far more rigid, and while lighter, is held down with interlocking panels and nailing clips, a big improvement over sealant.
While this comparison may seem like common knowledge to us, most homeowners haven’t considered how susceptible conventional roofing materials are to windstorms. Not only can wind get between the shingles or tiles and lift them, but it can also blow rain, snow, and debris underneath them.
Next, present the interlocking nature of metal roofing. This appeal is stronger if you sell a system that fully interlocks on all sides and edges. Once you inform homeowners of the problems with other roofing materials, you can present the silver bullet: interlocking panels. Instead of hoping that adjacent shingles don’t catch the wind, metal shingles are proactively locked together and to the roof deck.
A natural next step then is to substantiate your claims by showing examples of metal roofs in high-wind and coastal areas. Many homeowners will agree that they have seen metal roofing commonly in those areas. You can also bring up the universal presence of metal in national franchise and commercial buildings. When they have to choose a standard roof for dozens or hundreds of locations with different weather and climate, metal is almost always the material of choice to protect their investment.
Now that you’ve established a clear difference between their options, explain the wind ratings and approvals held by the roofing product you sell. Metal roofing wind tests are now conducted on an uplift basis because the highest wind pressures on roofing are not on the windward side of the building but on the back of the structure. Winds that hit the structure travel up the windward roof plane and roll over the ridge, creating negative uplift pressures on the other side. Wind uplift tests replicate these pressures by pushing the panels off the test roof rather than trying to blow the roof panels out of place.
Make sure to mention that wind uplift tests are performed on new roofing materials. Most roofing materials lose wind resistance with age as they become more brittle and sealants dry out and fail. Metal roofs, though, last for decades and maintain their wind resistance even as they age. Ultimately, age is far crueler to asphalt, and even newer asphalt roofs can struggle with high winds before the sealants have a chance to bond.
Ultimately, while most homeowners may initially prefer asphalt, windstorms provide direct proof of its shortcomings. Reinstalling asphalt won’t provide the confidence or peace of mind they want, as they just saw how it holds up to high winds. No one likes the idea of fixing something with the same solution that led to the problem in the first place. Take this idea with you as a tool in your sales toolbox while high winds continue to damage roofs this spring.
Todd Miller has spent his entire career in the metal building products manufacturing industry. He is president of Isaiah Industries, an organization recognized as one of the world’s leading metal roofing manufacturers. Todd is currently Vice President of the MRA (Metal Roofing Association) and a Past Chair of MCA (Metal Construction Association). Through his website, he strives to raise the bar on standards and practices to provide property owners with the best possible products for successful roofing projects.
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