An Unusual Repair Using Classic Methods in Hadley, MA
A Replacement Metal Roof Overcomes Surprising Damage in Hadley MA
South Hadley longtime residents Mike & Cheryl F. were in for quite a surprise as they were preparing dinner one spring evening. “We were in the kitchen getting dinner when all of a sudden it was like a bomb exploded in the garage,” says Mike. “We ran out of the house to see what happened. To our disbelief, a car came through the metal roof of our garage.”
It was like something out of a movie. To make matters worse the couple had just replaced their roof with an aluminum metal shingle roof just about 6 years earlier. The garage roof was a total loss as that is where the car came through. The main roof on the house suffered damage from the exploding battery from the car. The estimates were that about 20% of the roof was damaged due to the battery acid. The manufacturer of the existing roof was a Canadian company that markets aluminum metal shingles here in southern New England. They wanted to do a complete replacement. The homeowner wanted to replace just the damaged roof and install a new roof on the garage. That Canadian manufacturer insisted: “No, we need to replace the entire roof.” At that point the couple contacted us. Here are the storyboard and a description that shows the project from accident to finished replacement.
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| The picture to the left shows the result of the accident. The car came through the garage roof and landed on the homeowners’ sports car.
As you can see, it was a total loss. The picture to the right shows the cars being pulled out of the garage by the tow truck |
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| Classic Metal Roofs is contracted to remove the existing aluminum metal shingle roof and replace it with the Classic Oxford Slate aluminum shingle.
We show up on the job with our crew, two company trucks, and a job trailer. |
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| You can see from the picture on the above-left that the roof was damaged by the battery acid that exploded from the crash. The picture on the above-right shows the rest of the roof on the same side with virtually no damage.
We estimate that about 20% of the roof of the main house was actually damaged. The garage was a total loss and had to be rebuilt. |
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| The tarps are put in place by our experienced crew and the removal of the existing metal roof begins.
The job foreman said it was the easiest removal of a metal roof that the crew has ever done; it went faster than an asphalt roof. Why this was so will become clear a few pictures down. |
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| The roof is removed here and then new plywood decking is being installed. The roof was in rough shape and should have been re-sheathed 6 years ago when the first metal roof was installed. | |
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| The underlayments are installed, with high-temperature ice and water shield to code, then the polypropylene metal roof underlayment is installed over the entire roof deck. The drip-edge is on and the roof is underway. | |
| The chimney is being prepped for the new flashing. Alex is cutting in the reglet for the chimney flashing. |  |
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| The fastening of a metal shingle or a standing seam metal roof is one of the most important aspects of the installation. A quality installation always includes the use of clips to allow for the expansion and contraction of the metal.
Well, there is no place to hide here. As you can see, this roof on the left has no clips and just a tab, a manufactured extension of the shingle, to place the one nail that is supposed to hold the roof on for life. (Seriously??) These shingles are 18” long and there is only one nail holding it on. In comparison, look at the photo on the right. Classic’s standard metal shingle is a clip system, a clip, and an aluminum ring shank roofing nail every 12 inches. In high wind areas and on the coast, we place the clips every 8”. The clips allow for the expansion and contraction of the metal. |
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| The ridge cap/ridge vent. The picture on the above-left shows the type of shingle vent that the Canadian company used. This is a standard plastic asphalt shingle vent used in asphalt shingle installations. You can see that the frequency of fasteners is far apart and the shingle type cap for the ridge is made of a thin gauged aluminum. Once again the cap is nailed through the product and not through a clip system.
The cap on the above-right – the Classic Metal Roofs ridge-vent cap – is designed for a metal roof. All the components are manufactured from heavy-gauge aluminum. The attachment is made with stainless steel screws, which go into each rafter. The system has a built-in baffle to prevent water infiltration. Its low lines and high performance make this metal roof ridge vent/cap one of the best the industry has to offer, truly state of the art. |
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| As the new aluminum metal ridge-vent cap gets installed, you can see from this picture on the above-left, that there is a lot that goes into putting on a quality ridge-vent cap. Here you see the vented channels and the cut in the roof deck. The crew snaps the chalk line to ensure a straight and perfect installation.
On the above-right, Vlad is “harnessed in” according to OSHA standards (By the way, our crews are “OSHA 30” trained.) as he puts the final touch on the cap/ridge cover. A great shot of the Oxford metal shingle panels, and emblematic of the care that our crews take to make sure that the staging creates no scratches on the roof: Note the cardboard under the roof jacks. |
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| The finished product. The homeowners had over 12 metal roof colors to choose from but chose the newly available Vermont Slate. We think they made the right choice, don’t you?
If you would like to see this project in person or any of our other projects in southern New England, give us a call or email us for the information. |
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| Epilog: The Canadian company claims to have the heaviest gauge aluminum shingle in the market. All one has to do to discern the difference between their product and ours is to pick them up and feel them. It can be difficult to judge the thickness with precision using your fingers. The Canadian company provides nothing published that we could find committing to a number on the thickness of their product. Classic’s Oxford Slate is 024 in thickness and it is PUBLISHED in the company brochures. It is a fact, not hype.
Frankly, we were sick and tired of hearing their outrageous claim. So we had an independent metal company use a micrometer to measure the Canadian company’s shingle thickness. As you can see in the pictures above, the product that was previously on the house is 019. (It was measured in several places.) Classic’s Oxford Slate is roughly 26% thicker than the Canadian metal roof that was installed 6 years earlier. |
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| For the record we had the same independent metal supplier put a micrometer on our Oxford Slate shingle.
The results speak for themselves. The thickness of our products is published, and the actual measurements taken conform to those published. One is hard-pressed to get an honest answer as to the thickness of the Canadian product. |
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| We received the testimonial below from the happy clients after the project was completed. We are sure the reader will find the recounting of their experience to be instructive.
August 15, 2013 To Mr. Michael Gonet, Classic Metal Roofs, LLC, I wanted to take a minute to send you a brief message to thank you for the immediate response to our inquiry about your metal roofing product. I found your company’s information on the web site. When I inquired about your product and within a few hours you sent me a reply. I explained to you that we had a car accident, where the driver of the car hit our garage and breezeway. The car battery separated from the car and entered our home through the gable vent and landed in the attic. We lost our new pool, all three of our vehicles were damaged, we suffered extensive yard damage, (oils, battery acid, anti-freeze, and our related car fluids) and the battery acid sprayed onto a section of our existing metal roof. I explained how the original metal roof company was contacted back in July 2012, just after the accident. That company sent out one of the original installers to review the damage. I asked that installer if we could remove the damaged section and we replace the damaged materials and install all new materials on the garage/breezeway sections where the entire structure was demolished due to the amount of damage caused by the car landing on the back section of the roof. The installer said the damaged section, could be removed and replaced and still able to be warranted, but they would need to replace the garage/breezeway with new stock. One year later, I inquired if the estimate issued us a year ago would still be valid? This time our original estimator set up an appointment to discuss the roof issue. When he arrived, we looked at the roof and I was told we have no warranty on our roof. Including the sections where there were no visual signs of battery acid. I asked him about the request I made to the original installer, to have only the damaged shingles removed and replaced with new shingles. I was told by the original estimator, that he (the installer) never had the right to make that offer or to make any decisions on any warranty information or final decisions on warranties; he is only an installer and does not possess any management making decision powers. When I responded with a little anger in my voice since I just found out one year later that our $30,000.00 lifetime warranty roof has had no warranty only after 5½ years from when it was originally installed. The estimator started telling me to calm down and that he would not be spoken to in that tone. I tried to explain my response, but he did not care why I was upset. His job was to come out and tell me the roof has no value or warranty and we could either replace the entire roof system or we could live with the roof with no warranty. Since we were both heated, I went into my home to get my camera, and the estimator got into his car and left our property. I waited two weeks for some sort of response, but we never received any letters or phones to date. My previous employment position was in Facilities Management, where I made decisions on roofing and other related building products. Between slate roofs, asphalt singled, rubber membrane roofing systems, and metal roofing, I feel metal roofing is the best product for longevity other than slate. This is why we chose to replace our metal roof with another Metal roof. During our conversation, you provided me with information, by showing me the thickness difference, the different type of fastener systems between your product and theirs. They use a single fastener support system, meaning they only attached their shingle to the roof at one point (nailing through one tab on their shingle), where your system uses a six-point clip system with six fasteners to their one. Because of your fastener system uses a six-point clip fastening system, your roof has a much higher wind speed rating. We were also impressed by the rapid response to not only deliver the materials to our home but to have our new Classic Metal Roofing System delivered, installed all within a two-week period was remarkable. Your staff were polite, cleaned up every day at the end of their workday to the final clean up and your foreman even asked me to review their work to see if my expectation were met and if I was completely satisfied. Folks have stopped to admire our property and the only question asked of us was why we did not stay with our original blue metal roof, we explain to everyone our experience with the previous company, plus the nightmare of the accident left us with a bad memory we both wanted to forget, so we moved forward with a better product with a better warranty, so why not a new color to match our happy recovery. Mike, we want to thank you and your staff for all of your help. Cheryl and I are very happy with our new Classic Metal Roof System, which we hope never to replace ever again. I should not say never, you never can tell when you might be visited by flying cars without permission to land, or at least not on our new Classic Metal Roof, WE HOPE! Thanks again, Sincerely, Michael & Cheryl Fern |
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Thank you for visiting this…we think you’ll agree…amazing case study. We can help you solve your roofing problems…no matter how fantastic or interesting they are. Please feel free to call or email us, any time.