Metal Roofing Benefits - PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Erik Trefzger of Orca Roofing. You can read the interview below, listen to the podcast or watch the recording.

Intro: Welcome to the AskARoofer Podcast, where all your roofing questions find their answers. Your hosts, Megan Ellsworth and Lauren White, peel back the layers of the roofing world to reveal the knowledge, tips and FAQs you've been curious about. From shingles to skylights, metal to asphalt, we are here to demystify the system above your head. So get ready to ask, learn and explore the fascinating world of roofing, one question at a time, on the AskARoofer Podcast.
Hello, everyone. My name is Megan Ellsworth.

Lauren White: And I'm Lauren White.

Megan Ellsworth: And this is the AskARoofer Podcast. Welcome back. Today, we're going to be chatting about the benefits of metal roofing, because there are so many. And we're so excited. We have Erik from Orca Roofing here to chat all things metal with us. Hi, Erik.

Erik Trefzger: Hi. How are you doing today?
Megan Ellsworth: So good. Excited to learn from you and learn more about metal roofing.

Erik Trefzger: Okay, let's do it. So I'm Erik Trefzger, the general manager of Orca Roofing & Exteriors. We are a roofing company. We also do other exteriors work, such as decks, exterior painting, whatnot. But we are based in Bellevue, Washington and we service the Greater Puget Sound area.

Lauren White: And for our listeners who might not know about metal roofing, what are some of the key benefits of choosing a metal roof?

Erik Trefzger: So there are a lot of benefits of metal roofing, and we love metal roofing. At Orca Roofing, we install a lot of standing seam metal. We think it's a great option for a wide variety of roofs. It really goes well with a lot of different architectural styles.

But when we are talking with homeowners about metal roofs and about the key benefits of metal roofing, the lifetime cost is actually lower than asphalt shingles because it is a lifetime product, as opposed to 20-year roofs. So when people hear standing seam metal or metal roofs, the first thing they think of is how expensive it is. And they're not incorrect; it is more expensive than an asphalt shingles roof. But when you look at the lifetime cost, versus an asphalt shingle roof, it actually can be lower than a competing product.

The maintenance is also great. The maintenance required is minimal. It doesn't have all of those little granules that asphalt shingle roofs have that allow for moss growth and other things. It shouldn't leak throughout the lifetime of the roof. So you have fewer worries, it's more stress-free and then also, it just gives you a modern high-end aesthetic to your home that is difficult to get with other roofing products.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, absolutely. How does the lifespan of a metal roof compare to other common roofing materials like asphalt?

Erik Trefzger: So the lifespan of a standing seam metal roof, it's truly a lifetime roof. There are different warranty levels that you get on the finishes. So we oftentimes install standing seam metal roofs with Kynar finishes, and if you're not right next to the salt water, you get a 50-year warranty on that finish.

So the roof will look great for 50 years, but as far as the actual integrity of the standing seam metal roof, assuming that it was installed by a crew that specializes in standing seam metal, as it is quite a different process than asphalt shingles. But as long as it's properly installed, the finish lasts 50 years, but the metal itself isn't going anywhere. The metal itself will be here thousands of years from now, so it's a true lifetime roof.

Lauren White: That's amazing. And so in order to keep that roof in top condition, to have it last forever, what kind of maintenance is required?

Erik Trefzger: Very little. Compared to other roofs, such as asphalt shingles, TPO, PVC, torch down, the one thing that never goes away that we recommend to all homeowners is that you always want to trim back tree branches and other foliage. That is not your friend. The siding of your house doesn't like it. The roof of your house doesn't like it. So you're going to want to make sure that you take care of any landscaping around your house, as that can get in. It can get into seams, regardless of the roof type that you have.

But as far as maintenance goes, when we do metal roof cleanings, it's usually more about the aesthetics. There's just dust buildup, dirt buildup and we just do a soft wash. So we want to use a really soft cleaner. Even a dish soap actually works great, and a microfiber cloth. We don't want to use any harsh cleaning solvents. We don't want to use a pressure washer. So while roof cleaning isn't as important with a metal roof, and you can even get away with not doing it at all, as opposed to an asphalt shingle roof. With moss growth, you do want to clean that roof every few years. So while it's not necessary, if you don't like the dust buildup or the dirt buildup over the years, it's just a very simple soft wash, along with a soft cleaner.

Megan Ellsworth: Wow, that's awesome. So you've kind of talked about salt water and salt air. How does metal roofing perform in various climates, like coastal climates and then compared to maybe places that have big hailstorms and large hail?

Erik Trefzger: Yeah, so we're lucky in the Pacific Northwest. We don't get the same kind of hailstorms that you get across most of the country, so we don't have the same concerns that many parts of the Midwest have when it comes to hailstorms. We do, of course, have the Puget Sound, so we do have some saltwater concerns. Saltwater is not the friend of any building material. It doesn't matter if we're talking roofing, siding, decks, fences, even drywall and interior paint. Saltwater air really can get in and deteriorate any building product a lot sooner than if you were in fresh water or just away from the coast. So that is true for metal roofing. It's also true for asphalt shingle roofing for single-ply membranes.

The nice thing about the metal roof, again, is the underlying metal is going to be there for your lifetime. The only thing that is a concern is the actual finish of the roof. So that Kynar coating finish, it can deteriorate in about half the amount of time when you're in a saltwater climate, as opposed to being 10 or more miles away from the coastline.

Lauren White: And I know with metal, sustainability and energy efficiencies are such buzzwords and hot topics when it comes to metal roofing. So how do metal roofs contribute to a home's energy efficiency?

Erik Trefzger: Metal roofs are a great energy-efficient option. That is one of the things that metal roofs really have going for it. And there's a number of reasons why standing seam metal roofs are the go-to option for someone who is concerned about their energy usage, about their impact on the environment and other related things.

Most standing seam metal roofs are Energy Star-certified, so oftentimes, you see them called out by architects or roofing consultants, especially if you need a lead certification or another architectural energy-efficient certification. They're a great option there, or even for someone who just cares about the energy efficiency of their home.

There's a number of reasons why standing seam metal roofs are more energy-efficient and do have this rating. Standing seam metal has very high emissivity ratings, so in other words, when temperature or heat comes into a roof and collects in a roof, something that is more emissive will then release that heat back into the air a lot quicker than something that holds it. So an asphalt shingle roof or a torch down roof, it will soak up the heat and it will hold that heat. Even well into the night, that will still be a hot roof, whereas standing seam metal roofs, they'll heat up, but they also cool down much quicker.

So they have much higher reflectivity. They have much higher emissivity. They're much better with their insulation compatibility. So there's a lot of different installations that you can use with standing seam metal roofs such as Polyiso, which we use a lot. So it's easy to get the exact R-value that you're looking for and to pair a standing seam metal roof with different installation options.

And then of course, there's just the straightforward longevity and environmental impact of installing a lifetime roof, rather than a petroleum-based asphalt product you have to rip off every 20 years and replace.
And then finally, you have about 25% lower energy bills in the summer months with the standing seam metal roof, due to that higher reflectivity and higher emissivity ratings, compared to an asphalt shingles roof, so you actually will see a marked difference in your heating costs and cooling costs.

Megan Ellsworth: Wow.

Lauren White: So many benefits.

Megan Ellsworth: That is so appealing. Yeah, I want that.

Erik Trefzger: I do, too. Yeah, it's the best roof on the market; it really is.

Megan Ellsworth: I wish I had a metal roof now. You're really convincing me.

Erik Trefzger: I think we can help you out with that. I know a guy that can install a metal roof for you.

Megan Ellsworth: Oh, good. Yeah, give me his number, and I'll have him come out to Denver.

Erik Trefzger: I will. We'll chat after the podcast.

Megan Ellsworth: Perfect. So you talked about how metal roofs, over their lifetime, is a smaller cost than having asphalt shingle roofs. What is that up-front investment, though, for a metal roof, compared to traditional options?

Erik Trefzger: So when people ask us this question on the phone, because oftentimes, people want to know, "What should I expect? What can I expect? Is it worth you even coming out and giving us an estimate for a standing seam metal roof?"

Our rule of thumb is about two-and-a-half times the cost of an asphalt shingle roof. It can really range, depending on how cut-up a roof is, how complex it is. It can range between 2X the cost and 3X the cost, but the general rule of thumb is about two-and-a-half times the cost. So if an asphalt shingle roof on your home would be $10,000, a standing seam metal roof would be about $25,000.

Lauren White: All right, and kind of piggybacking off of that, I know we talked about this a little bit, but what are the long-term financial benefits that offset that initial cost of the metal roof? When people see that number, they might be like, "Oh, no," but over time, how does that benefit them?

Erik Trefzger: So of course, there's the energy savings, where you can save up to 25% during the summer months. There is the reduced cost of cleaning and maintenance, versus other roof types, but with those costs, we're typically talking in the hundreds of dollars, not the thousands of dollars.

So the real way that you will recoup that investment back is simply how long that roof lasts, and the other cool thing about standing seam metal roofs are you can install it all the way down to a one-half-over-12 pitch. So we see a lot of low-slope roofs that were considering torch down or TPO or PVC install standing seam metal instead.

So let's just compare standing seam metal roofs to a couple of other roof types. Torch down should last 10 years, is the stated lifespan. Torch down is the lowest-stated lifespan of any roof, so it's easy to see how a lifetime roof will quickly recoup the cost versus torch down. PVC and TPO are 20-year roofs. Asphalt shingle roofs, even the ones that are rated for 50 years, they're 20-to-25-year roofs.

So if you are planning on staying in your house for a long time, or even if you are living in a higher-end neighborhood and you think you'll get that investment back when you go to sell the house, a standing seam metal roof can be a great option. It does last a lifetime, as opposed to 10 years for torch down, 20 years for a single-ply membrane or 20 to 25 years for asphalt.

So it's easy to spend money on three different roofs over the course of 40 years in a house, as opposed to one-and-done with standing seam metal.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah, absolutely. You just touched on the aesthetic appeal. If you're in a nice neighborhood, you just bought this house, you want to resell it years down the line and make a profit, what is the aesthetic value and appeal to a metal roof? And also, what are some of the customizations you can do?

Erik Trefzger: So of course, when it comes to a aesthetics, it's always a personal preference, but most people that we talk to prefer standing seam metal. I'd say it definitely appeals to a very wide swath of America, to just a wide variety of people. It is a more modern look, so it doesn't work on every single house. I would say the more cut-up or the more number of facets that a house has, maybe the standing seam metal roof wouldn't work on it, but for the overwhelming majority of houses, probably 95% of houses, standing seam metal is a great option. It looks really good.

We have installed standing-seam metal on homes built in the 1900s in Seattle, on these cute old little Craftsmen that just totally modernize this old house. And it's a great way to blend the old with the new. We put them on new builds that are extremely modern-looking, and it's just a way to keep that modern aesthetic throughout the entire building envelope. So it's really quite versatile. There's a lot of different architectural styles that you can install it on, and there's a lot of different types of homes that it works with.

So yeah, we recommend it to just about anybody who's interested. As far as the options go, there are a couple different options. There is the panel itself. You can get striations or pencil ribs or smoother flat panel. You can customize the width of the panel itself. The most common widths are 12 inches, so 12 inches between the ribs or 16 inches between the ribs. And then there's also just the height of the rib itself, of that standing seam. So those are the three main options when it comes to the panels themselves.

And then if you really want to geek out on standing seam metal roofs, which Orca Roofing likes to do, we have two of our project managers that specialize in metal and they love building out custom flashings packages. So where you can really get customized is actually in the flashings of a standing seam metal, not just the panels. So we can do Bullnose E. We can do Sub J. We can do Vented Ridge with Z. We can do Wide Valley Panels. We can do snow packages. There's all sorts of cool stuff that we can do when it comes to building custom flashing packages, and it's something that we really enjoy.

Lauren White: Amazing. There's so much to metal.

Erik Trefzger: Yeah, I probably shouldn't get so excited about talking about flashings, but I do.

Megan Ellsworth: Hey, I like it. It's great.

Lauren White: We're all roofing geek-outs over here, right?

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah.

Erik Trefzger: That's right. Real roofing nerds.

Lauren White: Yeah, so for homeowners who have been listening to this and are now convinced that they would also like to be a metal roofing nerd and have a metal roof installed on their home, what advice would you give to those homeowners who are maybe considering a metal roof for the first time?

Erik Trefzger: I think that the up-front cost is significantly higher, and it's understandable why some homeowners would be scared away, but for many, it's worth it. I would say: Don't be scared away by the sticker shock. Try to determine how long you'll be in your house, what your energy savings will be, what the increased value to your home will be from putting a metal roof on. And then make the decision with all of the relevant factors in play, rather than only focusing on that one up-front price.

Megan Ellsworth: Absolutely. I think that's really good advice because it's like doing your research, buying that really nice pair of winter boots. They're a couple-hundred dollars. You don't want to spend that much, but you have to if you want the quality. So yeah, everyone, just buy the nice winter boots and get the metal roof.

Erik Trefzger: That's right. Easy.

Megan Ellsworth: Are there any trends or innovations in metal roofing happening right now that homeowners should be aware of?

Erik Trefzger: One trend that is pretty neat, I'm excited about it, is there are a lot of new finishes rolling out right now that just were not available even just two or three years ago. So a big trend that we've seen is the matte-finish trend. There are now matte finishes that you can install, and of course, they have really fun new names, like Carbon and Slate and all of these fancy names to them. But they have significantly lower reflectivity. They have significantly lower sheen, and they're very, very cool to look at from the ground.

You look up, and you don't see that glare that is associated with metal roofs, so getting a matte black or a matte gray roof, it looks really cool. We've installed a couple of them now in the last few months since these new finish options turned out, and they've just turned out amazing. So I would say if you are interested in a standing seam metal roof, check out the matte-finish options and they can really upgrade the look quite a bit.

Lauren White: Is there anything else that we haven't touched on yet?

Erik Trefzger: As far as anything else homeowners should be aware of, I think we've done a pretty good job of covering everything. Last thing I'll say is standing seam metal roofs are much more custom than standard roofs, and I mean that in a good way. So we have installed a lot of standing seam metal roofs way up in the mountains, next to Snoqualmie Pass, where they get a dozen-plus feet of snow per year and we can build out a standing seam metal roof with a snow package, with a lot of additional flashings and a lot of things that you don't see that are going on underneath the panels, that will help protect that roof from significant snow.

We can install flashing packages to make it look an exact way. We can install Polyiso insulation right underneath the panels to give you that extra R-value and to increase your energy efficiency even more. The nice thing about standing seam metal roofs is there's really a lot that you can do with it. You can make them as custom as you want, and you can really make them fit to achieve what you're looking to achieve.

Megan Ellsworth: That's amazing. I love the customization. You don't get that with asphalt shingles, so I think that's something special that people can really put a lot of time and consideration in, into this really important aspect of their home that they're going to be in for years to come.

Erik Trefzger: Absolutely.

Megan Ellsworth: Well, Erik, thank you so much. This has been so informative. I know Lauren and I have learned a ton, and we would love to have you back and learn more about metal roofs as the innovations keep continuing on.

Lauren White: Absolutely.

Erik Trefzger: Sounds great. Well, Lauren, Megan, thanks for having me. I enjoyed it.

Outro: Absolutely. Thank you so much again, and everyone out there listening, make sure you subscribe. And ring the bell so you get notified every time we release a new episode. This has been the AskARoofer Podcast, and we'll see you next time.

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