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TOPIC: Insurance Discounts

insurance question

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I am an insurance agent in Louisiana. Many of our customers have heavy guage metal roofs. Our main company is imposing a hefty deductible on our customers who do have metal roofs. Why we ask? The possibility of hail damage is slight.. they agree, however they say the possibility of fire damage is greater from a metal roof... not from outside but from internal fire...they claim that a metal roof will hold in the heat more should a fire break out in the interior of the home and the firemen cannot break through to put out the fire...what are your thoughts on this? I am trying to argue this with the company and the other factor of contention is that a wind claim on a metal roof is higher to pay out than on a regular asphalt shingle roof, because panels of metal are more costly than a few squares of shingels. What would be the MPH rerquired to blow off a panel of correctly installed heavy guage metal??? vs correctly installed asphalt shingles??? Waiting... The insurance agent !
Georgia Frasier

6/14/2004
George, It is unusual to hear of a metal roof being treated in a negative light by insurance companies. In fact, many homeowners in hailprone areas are receiving insurance discounts due to having a metal roof. This fire fear thing has been raised in the past by some competitors of the metal roofing industry. In fact, I have never run across any documented evidence of metal roofing "containerizing" a fire. The metal is not that diifficult to cut through. I will not deny that the initial cost and repair costs for metal are higher than for asphalt shingles. However, from an insurance standpoint, this is easily offset by the very low number of problems ever encountered with a metal roof. Wind resistance varies somewhat from panel to panel. However, most panels have passed 90 psf uplift tests which simulate wind speeds in excess of 200 mph.
Guest User

6/14/2004