A free connecting service linking homeowners with local roofing providers across Lancaster, York and Dauphin counties. What follows starts with the question this valley asks before any other: what is already on the roof?
- 1 The ridge cap. On metal it is a separate piece with closures under it. Blown snow finds the joint that was never closed.
- 2 The seams. A standing-seam roof lives at its seams and clips, not at its surface. The panel outlasts what holds it.
- 3 The valley. One channel taking what two slopes shed — and on the north side, holding snow long after the field is clear.
- 4 Where the ell meets the wall. A lower wing dying into the main house. Two roofs, one wall, and nobody sure whose seam it is.
- 5 The fasteners. Exposed screws through the panel, each with a rubber washer. The washers age; the screws work loose.
- 6 The eave. Drip edge, gutter, and the question every metal roof asks: where does a slab of snow go when it lets go?
Half the roofs here are not shingle
In most of the country a metal roof is an upgrade someone chose. In this valley it is what is already up there — on the farmhouse, the barn, the garage and the back wing, often four different ages of it on one property. That changes the first question entirely. A shingle roof is judged by how old it is. A metal roof is judged by what has been done to it since, because the panel almost always outlives the coating, the sealant and the fasteners.
The work
Eleven markets, three counties
From the brick rows of Lancaster and York to the boroughs at Lititz and Ephrata and the farm properties around Mount Joy: eleven markets sharing a river valley and a winter, and not much else. A row house downtown and a farmstead ten miles out are two different jobs with two different quotes, and the biggest single difference between them is what a container can reach.