Metal Roof Network is a copper roofing specialist, and we've been fortunate to supply material for all kinds of interesting and exciting residential and commercial projects. One of the inherent qualities of real copper is the dramatic change in color it experiences over time - the patina process. While there are treatments that can be applied to keep the copper shiny and looking like new, but without them, it's that distinguished and unique patina that makes each copper roof truly custom. Here's what you should understand about copper roofing and the patina process.

Copper roofing tops some of the most famous buildings in the world. What began as a striking orange-brown shade develops a distinctive and highly unique patina - that unmistakable greenish blue of aged copper. And while many of these buildings have undergone extensive renovations, the roofs remain. What does that tell you about the durability of this particular roofing material? These days, it's little surprise that copper continues to be highly prized, specified by architects and desired by homeowners and builders alike. If you're investigating roofing options for a renovation or new build, this is everything you need to know about copper roofing.

No matter how many times I write on the topic, I still hear the same questions regularly. One of the most common questions is some variation of: what’s the advantage of metal roofing? There are many advantages of metal roofing over other options on the market today - enough that I've written a re-roofing booklet and several comparison guides (free for download here). But to quickly summarize, here's a metal roofing for dummies guide.

Since we are a supplier of metal roofing systems and not an installation contractor, we get variations of this question all the time:  Is a metal roof difficult to install? The answer is no. That's especially true if you’ve done rudimentary sheet metal work and are even superficially familiar with installation of most any type of sloped roof material.

Among our most beautiful metal roofing systems are our pre-aged copper tiles, shingles, and diamonds. While there are a myriad of “fake” aged copper finishes now coming onto the market, you know if you’ve read many of my previous posts on the topic that my problem with them all is that they are just completely too regular to be convincing. One of the features of actual copper, whether naturally or artificially aged, is that it’s just so irregular. Copper doesn’t age consistently over an entire roof, because trees, exposure, prevailing winds, and drainage patterns all impact the way a roof “sees” the weather and all of these elements affect the rate of patina of any given section of roof.  One of the things we try to do when we artificially age copper roofing is to vary the amount of the acid that gets applied to different sections or even individual tiles.  This helps accelerate the variability that will come naturally to a copper roof over time.

I was asked this question the other day and it made me think of how obvious and conditional the answer would be - but at the same time how mysterious it must be to someone outside the industry. Here's an example of a possible exchange.

We were contacted a few years ago by a church group in South Dakota. They needed to replace the aging asbestos diamond shingle roof on their historic stone structure, and they wanted a re-roofing product that would offer at least as long a lifespan as the original asbestos roof. They also something that could offer a similar appearance so as to preserve the architecture of the beautiful original structure. So, they started researching their options online.

We love answering questions, and recently, we were asked a good one. A fellow reached out to express interest in our copper diamonds for a project on his home. He wanted to know if we could recommend an installer capable of installing the diamonds in his ZIP code, and how challenging they would be for the average roofer. Here's what we had to say.

We get many comments on our blog that we don't always publish, but we always try to contact folks directly to offer feedback. When it's a topic that will benefit others, we like to share. And that's what we're doing here. Recently, a blog subscriber left a comment regarding siding that had literally melted in the hot Indiana summer last year, and the homeowner wondered whether the reflection off the shiny galvanized roof wasn't helping. The question to which he needed an answer was, effectively, would painting the galvanized roof black make sense in this situation, or just compound the problem?

We got an email recently from the board member of a condo homeowner's association inquiring about faux copper roofing, and specifically whether it can resist dents from hail and offer level four strength and durability. Here's what we shared.