Tin Roof Photo Gallery

Richmond Virginia Tin and Metal Roofing Details and picture essay of a Historical Tin Roof installation. Without being in any particular order, I've taken these pictures of a roof I just completed. Tin over plank. Every board re-nailed. A bit of space between the cleats and the panels for movement. Panels fully seamed before cleating. All tin joints fully seamed without need for soldering. The panel bottoms were primed before installation. The panels were primed at the end of each day. The coating on them is the primer, not the finish coat. Color hasn't been selected.

The hips were formed as a unit so the top did not require any solder. All 3 sections are fully double-locked. I may have been able to straighten that last seam, but it couldn't have been done without exerting lots of pressure. It may have caused a tear in the hip seam. That would have been a disaster! This is a roof, not a table piece. I chose function over form.

Click on the tin roof thumbnails to enlarge!

This picture is of an awkward tin roof intersection.     This picture shows the awkward intersection and a ridge coming together.     A close up.    Now, here, you can see that I'm also dealing with a hip on this tin roof.      This is as far as I can go at this point. Now, I have to go to the bottom of the other hip and run the tin panels from other corner.    Two pictures of the hip from the finished side.     Now, the hip has been run and you can get an idea of how involved the intersection is.      The hips aren't finished for a reason.     The wall terminations and ip have to be blended.   The tin head termination.      A look at how the tin was formed at the head termination.      

Here is how it all comes together. Now, I have to do the other roof projection.    

The tin hip, ridge and wall terminations have to become 'one' with each other.   It's coming together.     One hip got formed, and turned in to the ridge.      No tin was cut!          This is how 'Olde Style' Tin is done!  The head metal, the ridge, and hip are all blended together! No cuts, no caulk, no solder!     A wider view.    

More Olde Style Tin Roof Details

 Here is how the planks are re-nailed. If the new tin roof is supposed to last 100+ years, there is no reason to let the boards pop and shorten it's life!   You have to look hard at the first picture to see the 8CC nails driven in at an angle, in adjacent grains to re-tighten the old nails.    This next picture is a close-up of a tin panel abutting a wall. What you are looking at is an oversized cleat, nailed to the roof deck, and longer than the wall side of the panel is tall. This keeps the panel where you want it.    Here's the wall panel and you can see the 'back-cleat' and the tin roof cleats.    Though the cleats are tight to the panel, there is plenty of play; The back of the panel is 1/2" away from the wall. You must always have 1/116" to 3/32". or even 1/8" between the panels for expansion and contraction.  The tin roof cleats.    The tin extends past the primed drip-edge. Notice how the wall panel has been primed before installation. 2-3 coats of primer! Don't neglect his step! The panel will rust along the wall and leak within a few years.     

Along the edge, even though the tin drip-edge has nails every 4", the cleats are placed closely together for added strength against high winds.     

Here's another angle of that wall panel. The upper end has been formed to become one with the drip-edge on that piece of shed roof to the right.      The tin  running along the hip.     The tin along the wall and shed roof.      A different angle. You can see the gap between the panels and the cleats.  You'll have to look close. The hip metal has been folded over backwards and the tin from the opposing hip is crossing it.      The tin from two sides, and the drip-edge.   The hip metal is ready for final forming.

    The gets primed before folding so paint gets into all the crevasses.  A close-up of the hip.   A semi-formed hip, joining a ridge. To the right is the existing tin.    The tin hip and eaves.    Finished hip corner.   Here, you can see the trimmed metal of the eave at the bottom, and as you look upwards, you can see how it's being bent over to lock onto the drip-edge. The seams are bent over and locked in place also.   

The finished product! A nice clean Ole Style Tin Roof with that funny step and corner cleanly tied together. No soldering

was necessary and the roof should easily last 100+ years. Leaves kept falling so I quit trying to get clean shots. Roof will

be cleaned off before final color coat. Discolorations was caused by touching up the primer here and there.

 Here's a wide view. You can see the 'upper' roof projection.   A side view of the projection. You can see the counter-flashing in the background, and the termination flashing below the projection and where it butts into the wall above.   The lower termination flashing.   The roof juncture.    The wall, hips, and ridge all came together finely for a seamless roof.   

The Competition's Tin Roof Photo Gallery

 They didn't re-nail the roof deck. Nails are popping up all over. Seams 1/2 done. B-I-G is shot after the 4th. year. Tin roofs are capable of lasting 100+ years. This one is shot. My brother is re-doing the B-I-G now.  Look at the 6th. and 7th. pictures. Underside of gutter. Seams nailed into instead of cleated in place. Edge soldered seams busting loose. Look at the close-up in 8. The metal is stressed and a crack has started too. All 6 chimneys leaked. My brother redid one of them.  The roof is 8-10 years old. My 20 year old roofs look just like the one above with no leaks or broken seams..

I get inquiries about "accessory" cleats I use sometimes to attach something to the roof without penetrating the roof. So here are 7 pictures of the detail.

I used tin and brown aluminum for contrast to show the 2 types of cleats. The last one just shows how they would appear under the roof where they attach to the wood deck. By attaching something to the tab, if it ever got destroyed, it wouldn't affect the integrity of the roof itself. And 1/2" doesn't give it a lot of play. It holds the object tightly. And it's securely attached to the substrate, not the roof itself so the odds of high wind lifting it and the roof is greatly reduced and possibly eliminated altogether.

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