Metal Roofing in Melbourne, FL

Three houses on the street in Satellite Beach have gone to metal in the last two years, and the one that went first, in 2014, has rust blooming at every cut edge. The shingle on your roof is at 17 years and the renewal letter is on the counter. This site connects you by phone with an independent local roofing contractor who installs metal roofs in south Brevard County.

What the crew does first

The contractor looks at the roof structure, the pitch, and what is on it now. Metal is light, so a truss roof built for shingle carries it without engineering. A low-slope porch or Florida-room roof needs a panel and a seam type rated for that pitch. Then they ask where the house is, because the answer decides the metal.

Within a mile or two of the ocean, and along much of the lagoon, the scope names aluminum or a coated steel rated for coastal exposure, stainless or coated fasteners, sealed cut edges, and trim of the same metal. Inland, a standard coated steel panel with a good paint system is the common choice. A contractor who works both sides of the causeways knows where that line falls, sometimes street by street.

Standing seam or exposed fastener

Standing-seam panels lock together with concealed clips, so there are no screws on the weather side and the panels can expand in the afternoon sun without working anything loose. It costs more and takes more skill to install. Exposed-fastener panels are screwed through the face with gasketed screws. They cost less up front and put hundreds of gaskets on the weather side, each one a maintenance item after ten or fifteen years. On the beachside, that difference shows up early.

Either system is inspected under a permit like any other roof. The scope should name the panel gauge, the coating, the fastener material, and the Florida product approval number.

What is usually replaced and what is not

Most metal jobs here are a full roof replacement: the old shingle comes off, the deck is re-nailed, a high-temperature underlayment goes on, and the panels go over it. A metal roof over an old shingle roof is allowed in some cases and is worth asking about, but it hides the deck and skips the re-nailing that earns wind-mitigation credit.

An existing metal roof that leaks at a screw line or a penetration is a roof repair, usually new fasteners with fresh gaskets or a resealed boot. Panels rusting from the cut edges in on a beachside house are a different conversation, because the metal was wrong for the address and replacing a few panels does not fix that.

Brevard County notes: salt, wind, and the form

Salt air is a chemistry problem before it is a weather problem. The barrier island from Melbourne Beach to Satellite Beach is narrow enough that ocean spray reaches one side of a house and lagoon air the other, and galvanized hardware fails there in a few years. Inland, in Palm Bay, West Melbourne, and Viera, the same hardware lasts decades.

A properly installed metal roof scores well on the roof covering line of the state's wind-mitigation form, and the re-nailed deck and sealed underlayment under it score on two more lines. The wind mitigation page explains the form. Deed-restricted communities in Suntree and Viera often review roof color and profile, so the product sheet goes to the association before material is ordered.

Metal costs more than shingle up front and typically lasts far longer, so the arithmetic favors owners who plan to stay, and on the beachside it favors almost everyone.

Calling about metal roofing

Have the address and say what is on the roof now. Say whether the house is on the beachside, on the lagoon, or inland, and whether an HOA governs the property. Say whether you are replacing the whole roof or repairing an existing metal roof. Call (321) 490-1097.