Metal roofing panels are a long-term system, not a patch over a tired roof. We install them on houses and on commercial buildings, and we repair metal roofs other crews put up. Panels shed water fast, resist the moisture that shortens the life of softer materials, and hold their shape for decades. Most of that performance gets decided underneath: the flashing, the fasteners, the deck. A good panel over bad detail work still leaks. We would rather do the underside right.
We cover Madison, Fitchburg, Middleton and Sun Prairie, all of it on the same terms, same crews, same standards. A job starts with somebody on the roof, not a guess from the driveway. We look at the deck, the existing flashing and anything already moving water badly. Measurements come off the roof itself. Then we lay out the panel runs, the penetrations and the edges before a single sheet gets ordered.
Failures on metal are rarely the panel itself. Fasteners back out, gaskets flatten, and a screw line that looked fine at year three starts weeping. Valleys and penetrations are the other usual suspects, where flashing was cut short or sealed with caulk instead of metal. Water gets behind a panel and travels, so the stain on a ceiling is seldom under the actual hole. We chase it back to the source before patching anything.
Getting a metal roof right takes time more than anything else. The median house around here was built in 1979, so decks, older layers and past repairs all have to be read before new material goes down. We do not install over problems. If the structural deck is soft, or the framing has taken on water, that gets handled first and the panels come after. That order is slower, and it is what makes the system last. Call for a free estimate.
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TPO is a single-ply membrane, usually 45 to 80 mil, laid over insulation on a flat or low-slope roof. We heat weld the seams rather than glue them, which is why a good TPO roof fails at the details before it fails in the field. Watch the perimeter flashing, the pipe boots and the drains. Ponded water sitting for days is a sign the drainage was never right.
Standing seam panels run 24 or 26 gauge steel with a factory Kynar finish, seamed on site and fastened with concealed clips so the metal can move as it heats and cools. Exposed fastener panels cost less to install and rely on neoprene washers that dry out and back off over time. Most metal roof leaks trace back to penetrations, valleys and end laps, not to the panel itself.
Hail bruises asphalt shingles: the mat fractures under the impact and granules shed, leaving black spots that shorten the life of the roof without leaking right away. On metal, hail dents panels and can split a seam. Soft metals show it first, so we check gutters, vents and flashing for strike marks before deciding whether damage is cosmetic or structural.
Repair makes sense when the damage is contained: a few blown-off tabs, a cracked pipe boot, step flashing pulled loose along a wall. We match the existing shingle as closely as the manufacturer allows and hand seal the courses above the patch. If the mat is brittle across the whole slope or the decking has taken on moisture, patching only moves the problem. City of Madison permitting applies to a full replacement.
Two metal roofs on the same street can price out differently, and the reasons are usually visible from the driveway. Madison's housing stock has a median build year of 1979, so most of these roofs sit on decades of earlier work. What we find under the old covering, and how panels reach the roof, moves a bid more than the panel profile does.
| What changes the price | Which way | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Two or three layers of old shingles already up there | costs more | All of it comes off before panel goes down, and tear-off is hauled and dumped by weight. |
| A clear driveway run to the eave | costs less | Panels arrive long. An open approach lets us stage and lift them without a boom or a hand carry around the house. |
| Soft or delaminated deck under the shingles | costs more | Panels fasten into the deck. Bad sheathing gets replaced before installation starts. |
| Heavier gauge and taller ribs | costs more | Long spans and low pitch call for more steel and a stiffer panel to hold shape. |
| Every pipe, vent, chimney and wall intersection | costs more | Each one is flashed and fitted by hand. That is where water finds a way in. |
| Pitch steep enough to need staging | costs more | Roofs we cannot walk need anchors and planks, which slows the work per square. |
| Valleys, dead-flat porch sections, slow transitions | costs more | Water that sits needs added membrane and detail work underneath. |
| A simple gable with two planes | costs less | Fewer cuts, fewer hips and valleys, fewer places to seal. |
Compare bids line by line instead of by total. Ask what gauge and coating each one quotes, whether tear-off and deck repair are included or left as an allowance, how many squares were measured, and whether fasteners are exposed or concealed.
A metal roof is backed by two separate things, and it helps to keep them apart. The panels carry whatever coverage the manufacturer publishes for that product and that finish, written by the mill and not by us. The installation is ours. Fasteners, flashing, panel engagement at every seam and penetration: those details decide whether water stays outside the building. We hand over the manufacturer's paperwork for the system that goes on your roof, and we go through what it actually says with you before any panel is set.
Most metal roofing trouble starts at a detail rather than in the field of a panel. Wall and chimney flashing, valley work, the seal at a plumbing boot, a fastener driven a quarter turn too far: that is where a system gives up water. So we install to the manufacturer's written instructions for the panel and the substrate under it. Material coverage usually depends on that anyway. Widening clip spacing to save an hour is how long-term performance quietly disappears on a residential or commercial roof.
When something does go wrong years out, the first task is separating a material problem from an installation problem. Those two go to different places. Photographs from the installation, the panel and finish designations, the underlayment we used: that record stays with you, so nobody is guessing later. The median home in Madison was built in 1979, and on houses that age we often find deck or structural conditions worth writing down while the old roofing is off. We do the same on repair and maintenance visits in Madison and Middleton. Call for a free estimate.
Most of what we install here is standing seam panel over houses from the late seventies, which matches the median build year of 1979 across Madison's housing stock. Ranches, split levels, and additions where a low slope porch ties into a steeper main roof. We have done full replacements, partial jobs where only a dormer or an entry roof got metal, and commercial work on small flat sections. We also get called out for repairs on panels another crew installed. Those calls come in from around Madison and out toward Sun Prairie.
A replacement starts with tear-off down to the deck, because we want to see the sheathing before any panel goes on. Soft boards get cut out and replaced. Then underlayment, then flashing at every wall, chimney, valley and pipe, then panels running eave to ridge. Some jobs move quickly because the decking underneath is sound. On others we have opened a roof and spent the better part of a day on structural repair before installation started. We would rather find that then than later.
What we uncover under an old roof is usually water damage nobody inside knew about. Flashing is the common failure: chimney counterflashing that was caulked in place instead of cut into the masonry, or a valley that got shingled over twice. Moisture tracks along the deck and shows up on a bedroom ceiling well away from the actual leak. On those jobs the structural repair comes first, and the panel system goes on over dry, solid material. Metal performs long-term only when what sits beneath it is right.