Sloped roofs
Metal Roofing in Calgary
Metal roofing covers a roof with formed steel or aluminium panels rather than individual shingles. It handles Calgary hail better than asphalt and it sheds snow rather than holding it. Its failure points are different from a shingle roof's: metal fails at fasteners, at seams, and at flashings, almost never in the middle of a panel.
- 24/7 emergency line
- Licence BL272564
- WCB 9892020
- $5M liability
- Free written estimate
Free written estimate
Kristjan will come and look at it
Tell him what it is doing. You get back a written scope and a price, not a range.
City of Calgary licence
BL272564
WCB Alberta account
9892020
General liability
$5,000,000
Written estimate
Free, itemised
Marku Roofing Repair Ltd. repairs metal roofs in Calgary.
Call 403-700-7542 for a free written estimate.
01
The two systems
Exposed fastener panels. Screws go through the face of the panel into the substrate, with a neoprene or EPDM washer under each screw head to seal the hole. Cheaper and faster to install. Every fastener is a potential leak, and there are a lot of them.
Standing seam. Panels interlock at raised vertical seams and are held by concealed clips. No penetrations through the water plane. The clips allow the panel to expand and contract along its length. More expensive, and the correct choice on a roof that will see Calgary's temperature range.
02
What fails, and why
Fastener washers
The neoprene washer under an exposed fastener degrades under ultraviolet exposure and thermal cycling. It hardens, cracks, and stops sealing. A twenty-year-old exposed fastener roof in Calgary usually needs a full re-screw, not spot repairs.
Over-driven and backed-out screws
Over-driving crushes the washer and dimples the panel, which holds water at the fastener. Under-driving leaves the washer uncompressed. Both leak. Thermal movement backs screws out over time on roofs where the substrate has softened.
Thermal movement at the panel ends
Steel expands and contracts measurably along a long panel run. On an exposed fastener roof, the fastener holes elongate. On a standing seam roof, the clips are designed to absorb it, but only if the panel was installed with the correct fixed point and free ends.
Oil canning
Visible waviness in the flat of the panel. Usually cosmetic, caused by stresses from coil manufacturing, forming, or over-tight fastening. It is not a leak. It is worth naming so a homeowner is not sold a roof they do not need.
Flashing and penetration failures
Valleys, ridge caps, sidewall and headwall flashing, and pipe boots. Metal roofs concentrate a large volume of fast-moving water into valleys, so a valley detail that is short on width or overlap will overshoot.
Snow slide
Metal sheds snow in slabs. Over a doorway, a walkway, or a gas meter, that is a hazard. Snow retention bars are the fix and they have to be engineered to the panel and the roof's snow load, not just screwed on.
Cut edge and coating damage
Field-cut edges on steel panels need treatment or they corrode. Panels scratched during installation corrode at the scratch.
Stop guessing
Have Kristjan price metal roofing in writing
He gets on the roof, photographs what he finds, and hands you a scope with a number on it. If a repair is the right answer, he says so rather than quoting you a replacement.
Kristjan does the estimates himself. Free, written, and not a range.
03
Metal and Calgary hail
Metal panels dent under hail. A dent is cosmetic unless the coating is fractured, and most metal roofs remain fully watertight after a hail event that would total an asphalt roof. Insurers treat cosmetic denting of metal differently from functional damage, and some policies specifically exclude cosmetic loss on metal roofing. Read the wording before assuming a dented metal roof is a claim.
04
Repair, re-screw, or replace
Repair isolated leaks at penetrations and flashings on a panel field that is otherwise sound.
Re-screw an exposed fastener roof where the washers have generally failed. Larger diameter screws into fresh substrate, with new washers.
Replace when the panels have corroded through, when the substrate under the fasteners will no longer hold, or when the coating has failed across the field.
Our own photographs
Work on Calgary roofs
Every photograph on this site is taken on a job we did. No stock libraries.
Checkable, not claimed
Credentials you can verify before we set a ladder up
Marku Roofing Repair Ltd. was incorporated in Alberta in 2022, corporate access number 2024249985. City of Calgary business licence BL272564. WCB Alberta account 9892020. $5,000,000 commercial general liability through Sandbox Mutual Insurance.
No awards, no rankings, no "best in Calgary". A licence number, a WCB account and a policy limit are things you can check yourself.
More about the company
Answers
Frequently asked questions
Still unclear? A five minute phone call usually settles it faster than reading.
Ask Kristjan directlyIs a metal roof noisy in rain?
Over a solid deck with underlayment and an insulated attic below, no more than asphalt. The noise reputation comes from metal over open purlins with no deck.
Will a metal roof shed the snow off my roof entirely?
Yes, and that is a design consideration, not only a benefit. Plan snow retention above entries and walkways.
Can metal go over existing shingles?
Sometimes, over furring, if the deck and the structure allow it and the local requirements permit it. It hides deck condition, which is the same objection as layering shingles.
Does a metal roof attract lightning?
No. Metal roofing does not increase the likelihood of a strike. It is non-combustible, which is a benefit if one occurs.
Related
Where this leads next
Further reading
Before you decide anything
Free written estimate
Get Kristjan on the roof before the next chinook
Freeze-thaw turns a small opening into a large one faster here than almost anywhere else in Canada. Have him look at it while it is still a repair.
Serving Calgary, Airdrie, Cochrane, Okotoks and Chestermere.