Historic Metal Roof Shingles

Roofing for historic buildings national park service preservation briefs.

Historic metal roof shingles.

Enduring protection for your roof. As early as the 18th century fear of fire caused many wood shingle or board roofs to be replaced by sheet metal or clay tile. Metal roofs generally can run from 120 to 900 per 100 square feet one 10 foot by 10 foot area or a square of material while asphalt shingles will be between 100 and 200 per 100. The berridge victorian shingle can be used in residential or commercial applications over solid wood sheathing on both roofs and walls.

Victorian is water shedding with a hidden fastened design and provided in a traditional galvalume mill finish. After the civil war the victorian era encouraged bold statements in their architecture. The search for alternative roofing materials is not new. Embossed tin shingle roofs with their whimsical designs complimented this frame of mind.

A bit scared because our roof is steep and has a few eves and valleys that are prone to ice dam and leak which we had to repair over the years. It used to be that the only type of roof metal available was the flat panel or corrugated standing seam roof. We were looking to install solar on the roof. The traditional design and historic appearance of the berridge victorian shingle is ideal for restoration projects or new construction.

Some historic roofs were failures from the start based on overambitious and naive use of materials as they were first developed. In the 1860 s the options for metal roofs were copper lead tin coated iron and terne coated steel. Tin coated malleable iron was disappearing at the time. Now you can get nearly any style of roof shingle manufactured from metal.

We are considering metal roofing to replace our current asphalt shingles which is 16 years old. Metal roofing has come a long way.