Metal Roof on an A-Frame House

Hello, We are thinking of building an A-Frame house with a metal roof. Does the steep pitch of an A-Frame significantly increase the cost of installation? Thank you!

Laura, feel free to email me direct. I guess I'd prefer to take this conversation off line if that's okay. Just drop me an email reminding me who you are and I will respond. My email is todd@asktoddmiller.com Thanks.

Hi Everyone, My husband and I purchase a wonderful A-Frame home about 6 months ago and we are in the process of having the roof replaced. The house was built in 1976 and the current roof was Cedar Shake. After much time and consideration we have decided to go with a Metal Roof as first it will make our property have the Modern look we want and Second we like the idea of not having to worry much about replacing it in 20-30 years. We picked out a 26 Gauge Standing Seam Metal Roof (Sound-Lok 12" Wide Panel, Kynar Coating). The Roofing company came out last Friday to start the work and I noticed while they removed our old Cedar Shake roof they also removed the foam insulation. This was a concern to us as they started to put down the HT 300 Ice/Water Shield directly over our Cedar planks which happen to be our ceiling in the A-Frame as well (considering we don't have any Drywall). I called the project manager as it seemed odd to my husband and I that they were not putting down any addition layers between our interior wood planks and the Ice/Water Shield. After a few days I was finally able to get ahold of the project manager and he was surprised to find out that I could literally see outside from inside my house do to the Knots in the wood. He was under the impression we had another layer or maybe Drywall inside. Anyways, I brought up to him my concern of the house not having ANY insulation as his guys removed what was there with the Cedar Shake and there were no intentions on putting any on the house. This seemed odd to me as the thought of the Ice/water Shield then the metal (Only) ON Top of my roof sounds like it will be freezing in the Winter and possibly even loud when it rains (which we get a lot of). Now the roofer is recommending another type of Insulation on top of the Ice/Water Shield which would have some sort of ridges to it (Sorry I don't know the name of it but I will double check in the morning). I am a little ticked off about this recommendation now as it would have been nice to know this before we even started the job as I am not sure we would have went with a Metal roof. This additional insulation is going to cost us another $6k making the grand total for this roof $28k! Considering this is a HUGE expense I am freaking out a bit! Help Please! I don't know much about roofing (which is obviously apparent in this message) but I am trying to figure out is the additional insulation is even worth the $6k. We have 30ft tall ceilings in part of the house which in the Winter time makes the home chilly as all of our heat rises. However, most of the rest of the house is 2 levels which is a bit easier to eat as the rooms can retain the heat better. We did have an awfully cold Winter and our heat bill was a bit high so the idea of this lowering is appealing. What I want to know is if we spend the extra $6k are we really going to notice a difference in the warmth in the Winter and Sound of rain?? The roofer mentioned something about the previous foam was rated a 1.2 and the insulation they are recommending is rated a 6.1. No clue what any of that means but it sounds like it would be a lot better but again I don't know what any of this means. Any advise or input on this would be highly appreciated as I am stressing out about keeping my baby warm in the winter but also would like to keep the money in our bank to pay for his college in 18 years ;). Thanks in advance!

Ok so you guys have been so helpful thus far I wanted to share with you the newest issue to get your advice on how to proceed. We live in Seattle, WA so as you might have heard we get a lot of rain. My roofers have completely torn off our entire Cedar Shake roof and put down the Ice/Water Shield. Well the crew left our house around 7pm and my husband and I noticed the Polyiso insulation was left out not covered at all which seemed odd as we knew it was going to rain. I did some research on what recommended for this insulation and everything I found mentioned to NOT have it in any type of moisture or direct Sunlight. The insulation is now soaking as it poured down rain last night which is a little concerning to me being that they plan to sandwich that between the water/ice shield & the metal. On another note which is the main reason for my message is I was woken up last night around 3am to hear not only the rain pouring outside but also inside my house. Directly outside my sons bedroom the water was literally pouring in to the point we had to put a bucket down and many towels. As we started to walk around the house we noticed there were at least 10 other leaks with standing water all over our house and directly on our wood floors, cedar planks, the carpet upstairs is saturated in water which is now dripping down to our Kitchen below! I of course called the project manager at 3am to let him know about the issue as well as his office and of course no one picked up so my husband and I took turns of cleaning up the water until about 630am when I was finally able to get ahold of someone. They came back out to the house to put tarps everywhere to help prevent any further moisture but at this point it has been leaking into our house for over 5 hours (as the rain didn't stop)!! I just got off the phone with owner of the company who assured me the water is nothing to be concerned about as it will dry up but lets keep in mind I am a real estate agent and I am well aware of what trapped in moisture can do to a home. I have a 1 year old son and the thought of mold or mildew accumulating due to this mistake makes me sick! Not to mention my Cedar planks are now stained with water stains, my carpet is soaking wet so is the pad, my hardwoods appear to have a water stain from standing water & who knows what is behind the Drywall upstairs as that is the area the water was pouring inside! (the other areas it was more of a heavy leak). What the heck do I do at this point??? I wanted to fire these guys and start all over but once I calmed down I realized I should probably give them a chance to remedy the situation. I have lost all of my confidence in this crew and I am exhausted just thinking about all of my concerns now. Help!!

Sounds like exactly what I would do and have specified in similar situations. The Ice/Water will help with the air seal of the boards and keep the conditioned air inside the home and away from the condensing surfaces. While I certainly understand your frustration with the additional expense, unless a core sample or some system exploration was done, it would not be easy to identify the exact structure and system. Make no mistake, the roofer should have qualified his quote based on an understood system or recommended that there be some selected demo. PolyIso is very expensive so he is likely (at that number) doing the revision at very near his cost.