Aluminum Roofing

johnjbc · April 20, 2006, 09:35:54 PM

I went to an auction Saturday and got a good buy on some Aluminum Roofing. I plan on building a saw shed and a cabin next year so I need to store it for a while. I was going to store it at the site but have been told that if water gets into the stack it will eat holes in it.
Has anyone ever stored Aluminum Roofing outside. Thought about spraying oil on it but it would make installing it unsafe.

isawlogs · April 20, 2006, 09:40:38 PM

I dont know of that .. but there wont be much more water on the sheets then the humidity caused by condensation in between the metal ... What if you where to put them down on an angle so that the water can run out ;) ( one end higher then the other )

red · April 20, 2006, 09:52:47 PM

yup it will never last til next year

so I will have to come pick it up this weekend .....

ok if I borrow the trailer too....

isawlogs · April 20, 2006, 10:00:02 PM

Nice of you to offer to help him out , see ya wont even have to deal with pilling it .. Red will take care of all that for you . :D :D

red · April 20, 2006, 10:03:17 PM

just trying to help

always good to have friends who go to auctions

scsmith42 · April 20, 2006, 10:04:06 PM

Condensation will cause oxidation between the sheets, and it definitly will occur in locations that experience dew.

To store it, stand it up against a wall where it will be out of the wind, leaving a tiny gap between the sheets so that the condensate can drain and dry. You can also store it standing on it's side, but this is usually more difficult to manage.

johnjbc · April 21, 2006, 06:12:02 AM

Red
Thanks for the offer its good to have friend ready to help you out when you need it. :D :D

scsmith42
Standing it up will be a problem, it's 26 foot long and I don't have any place that high :

Going to auctions is always fun. And this one a lot off was fun. Good thing I have a sawmill or I would still be hauling wood. 8) 8) The sale was at an Amish farm that specializes in tearing down farm buildings. There were hundreds of piles of lumber, timbers, roof trusses, and wire. Almost bought a couple fans for a kiln but I have enough to store now.
Got to get dressed for work . Down to 9 & 9 but whose counting.

TW · April 22, 2006, 01:16:04 AM

One good way to store corrugated roof sheets is horizontally stacked with sticks between each sheet like a lumber pile. At least in our climate. If your snow loads are not too big you can stack them outside in a place where the ground slopes so that the water that finds it's way in between them runs off as fast as it enters.
I checked this out before I bought a secondhand roof for dismantling yesterday.

bitternut · April 22, 2006, 09:42:36 PM

Are you sure its aluminum and not galvanized steel ( galvalum)? In any event if you just stored it with some pitch to it water won't lay in the sheets. Seems to me if water would destroy it why would you want to use it for a roof? Are you next to the ocean where you have salt water dew?

johnjbc · April 22, 2006, 11:26:27 PM

It is Aluminum, except for the 10 shorter sheets on top, that's galvanized.
It also is > 200 miles to the ocean
I'm afraid that putting it on stickers would damage the bottom sheets. All the weight would be on the ribs. There are 102 sheets with 1 inch stickers and 1 inch ribs the pile would be 17 feet high.
I wouldn't have though that Aluminum would rust with just water, but they warned me at the sale not to store it wet. Must be some sort of electrolysis.
I was hoping for a way to store it outside but at this point I think the best plan is to separate it till dry and keep it in the barn. Guess something else has to go outside :

etat · April 23, 2006, 12:53:04 AM

I've only seen aluminum roofing like that once. It was off of a commercial building that my old boss had reroofed before I started working for him. The origional building was too flat for the sheeting was why he replaced it with a flat built up roof. It had laid out in the weather probably for about 3 or 4 years and by the time I got a good look at it the sheets were still usable and in fact he did give a bunch of it away for 'somebody' to use on a old barn. What I remember mostly about it was that there was some pitting in the aluminum and lots of what looked like a whitish powder on it and I never knew if it was taken off that way, or if it was pitted from, now as I suspect, being stored uncovered out in the weather. There wasn't holes in it, it was just a small amount of pitting and actually the metal looked pretty old. I understand it had been on that building quite a few years before it was replaced too.

If I had a barn to put it in heck knowing me I'd probably just wrap some visqueen around it, especially if I knew I wasn't going to store it for more than a year. I would want to make sure it was dry when I stacked it up. Being aluminum I would expect that it could get bent up pretty easily if a person wasn't careful. I'd sure want my laths close together to help support it too when it was installed.

Anyways, that's probably not the best way to store but it's probably what I'd do.

Furby · April 23, 2006, 12:29:05 PM

Sell it for scrap, buy sheathing and shingles and go out to dinner with the left over $. ;D

SwampDonkey · April 23, 2006, 02:36:16 PM

Alot of homes around here put aluminum roofing on over 30 years ago, even my siding is aluminum painted white. None of it has ever come loose over the years, but I have a one slant over the garage that is a more gentler slope so the snow will hang there in a big storm. That section has some blackening going on but no holes. I never looked real close, but there is probably some micro pitting because that blackening in corossion of some kind. All I ever seen anyone do about it was to paint it. My uncle got conned into having it painted by a drifter who charged him $450 for a gallon of aluminum paint and 2 hours work. :

I think Ctate has mentioned this activity in one of his roofing threads/posts.

johnjbc · April 23, 2006, 06:44:03 PM

Furby
I'm 62 in 20 years when the shingles need replaced I will be to old to replace them. >:( The Aluminum could conceivably make the next century and for sure I won't have to replace it. :D Plus I like hearing the rain on the roof.
Got a spot in the barn cleaned out and the trailer backed in now all I have to do is get it unloaded.
Only had to move the mill, plow, planter, 4wheeler,sink, some windows, and a pile of lumber. :

:

I will be glad when its on the roof.

red · April 23, 2006, 07:13:50 PM

dont even bother unloading it ! !

just a few more days and you will be tired of looking at it :D

wiam · April 23, 2006, 07:58:50 PM

johnjbc, that makes me think of what my grandfather told me about 25 years ago when I helped him roof a porch with fiberglass shingles. He told me he would not have to do it again. :D He was in his mid 70's. He was right, but now it needs it again.

Will

Furby · April 23, 2006, 09:15:39 PM

Get the 50 year shingles, end of story! ;)

Tom · April 23, 2006, 09:23:54 PM

The idea is to make everything come out even, Furby. With 50 year shingles, a bunch of years would get wasted. :D

Furby · April 23, 2006, 09:27:35 PM

Well they have 30, 35, and 40 year ones....... does that help ???

Tom · April 23, 2006, 09:40:16 PM

yeah, that should help. :D

wiam · April 23, 2006, 10:04:35 PM

He did not need 50 year shingles. ;D

Will

johnjbc · April 24, 2006, 11:41:58 AM

We already talked about 20 year shingles
30 year shingles aint gona cut it either cause I plan to make 100 8) 8) 62 + 30 = 92
After all I been working for 40 years its only fair I get to play for 40