A common concern that homeowners express is when they notice backing out screws in their metal roof. Many customers choose a metal roof for its longevity and easy maintenance schedule. We often receive calls from customers who purchased a metal roof a few years ago from one of our competitors. These customers may have had the roof for several years and had just performed a five year walkaround to inspect their roof for damage or leaks. On their inspection they notice several small leaks appearing inside on the top floor. They are confused as to why their roof is failing after only a few years.
During their inspection, the customers first noticed that some of the roof screws seem to be jutting out more than normal. They also see that most of the screws are stripped and can not be tightened any more. This is what we call “backing up screws”. Screws backing up occurs very often with improperly installed metal roofs in areas that are very cold in the winter and hot in the summer.
We recently had this exact telephone call from Chris and his wife Debrah, a new customer located in Lewisburg, PA in Union County. Chris and his wife had purchased and installed a beautiful metal roof from a contractor in Williamsport. This contractor quoted a very low price by skipping the teardown of the old roof. They didn’t remove the old shingle roof and just built the metal one above the old roof. In order to make the quote so low, the contactors avoided the roof teardown and didn’t use the recommended underlayment. This resulted in a cheap, improper roof installation with a propensity to leak after a few years.
Metal roof screws backing out can occur for several reasons:
- Improper initial roof installation as seen above.
By cutting corners with budget materials and installing a new roof over an old failing roof, they greatly increased the likelihood that their roof would spring a leak… Additionally if the contractors crew is inexperienced they may quickly screw in the fasteners too deeply with power tools. It pays to take your time during the install because the screws may pierce too deeply into the bottom layer.
- Lack of visual inspections of the roof.
If your roof is not winterized and ready for snow, you might actually physically damage your roof. Ice Dams may form due to improper attic ventilation or gutters clogged with ice and debris. These ?Ice Dams? form with the constant freezing and thawing of snow and may grow very big and heavy. This extra weight will damage the screw heads and cause them to back out.
- Using too few fastener screws or using “Budget” roof materials.
Too few screws will also allow wind under your roof in certain places. This wind will slowly start to pull you roof upwards and cause the fastener screws to back out. Budget materials are cheap, but prone to leaking. Budget materials will create holes if they experience extreme temperatures. All roof materials must be rated to handle the roof expansion and contraction in very hot weather as well as very cold weather.
The Roof Repair Guys to the Rescue!
The Roof Repair Guys practice a customer forward business model. Unlike the fly by night dishonest contractor, we are only satisfied when we can perform the most detailed and best work possible.?
The Roof Repair guys are one of the few contactors around which will repair leaking metal roofs instead of trying to sell you a new metal roof. We have experience correcting many mistakes from other contractors, and the backing up of screws is no different. We always start working quickly and thoroughly. We note all the areas of concern and will ensure that failing screws are removed, the leak is identified and fixed, and high quality replacements are carefully installed.