I have a metal roof on my 150 yr. old brick house in a small town in rural Ontario. It was installed in 2004. I bought this place when I took early retirement in 2003. I had a home inspection, and knew what was involved before I bought. I had a budget, and most of the other renovations have gone very well. I love old houses, with large porches, sun-rooms, firelplaces, and big gardens -- all of which, this house has. I very much enjoy living here, and am near family. They like to come here and visit. I lead a simple, frugal, happy life.
Back to the roof -- although I like metal roofs in general, my experience was not the best. My roof does not leak, and stands up to heavy winds. It came through a terrible wind storm completely unscathed, when most of the houses with shingles in my neighbourhood had damage.The sound of the rain does not bother me at all. My problem is that I bought an expensive stone-coated metal roof from Duraloc. I justified the extra expense, thinking it would last 50 years, as per the warranty, ( company had been in business for 75 yrs. and I admired the roof they put on a home near my parents place, in another city --researched online, and found no complaints at the time -- many now ! )and the stone coating looked beautiful, but was also supposed to guard against hail, and it prevented the snow from sliding off all at once. For 7 years I was happy, but did not know I had a problem. These roofs all had defective stone coating, which comes off, especially on the south side of the house, because the stones are translucent, and burn off in the sun. One is left with a roof with large brown patches that look like rust. This is the brown primer underneath. Duraloc was bought out by Allmet, in 2006, who did not take care of the warranty. That was supposed to be the old Duraloc, which became a numbered Ont. company, 2 years after I bought my roof. They went bankrupt, and now the 50 yr. warranties are worthless. No one seems to know what to do. The contractor who installed it, and sold it to me, did a good job installing it, and he is not liable. He suggested replacing the roof. I cannot afford that, and hope that some kind of metal paint will work, but so far I have not found much help. Everyone says it will not stay on, and it will be expensive. I wish I had never tried a new product which had not been properly tested in the market, but I was naive -- never renovated an old house before, and in future would use the standing seam, baked on painted type of roof Mr. MM has installed on his home.
Can anyone offer any suggestions ? I have talked with other people online who have this problem roof, and they either decided to cut their losses, and sell the house, or just let the stone come off, and look terrible. No one seems to have a good re-coating solution. Since my roof does not leak, I am living with an ugly roof at present. Eventually I think the silver galvanized metal will show, and need some kind of coating to protect it. I was advised by the paint Dept. at Sherwin Williams, near me, that they were not interested in supplying paint unless I had it sandblasted first. This could damage other parts of my house, would be very expensive, and would remove most of the protective silver coloured metal layer. Another painter suggested pressure washing, then applying an elastomeric paint. The paint store that supplied that, also did not want to promise it would stay on very long, maybe not even 2 years. Elastomeric coating is very expensive. My problem is compounded by the fact that I have a large roof on the house, and also had a carriage house/garage done too. It is not a small roof that is easy to replace.
These roofs were installed in many parts of the United States, as well as Ontario. Although some people tried class action lawsuits, they could not do anything after Duraloc declared they were bankrupt. I learned that these roofing warranties, whether they are 50 yr. or 20 yr. don't mean much, and they are mainly marketing tools. Never again will I pay any attention when a salesperson starts talking about warranties.
I would appreciate any help or advice that you care to offer. Thanks .
