Underlayment and a Quality Installation
Underlayment is part of what separates a quality metal roof installation from a cut rate one, and a Plum Creek homeowner benefits from understanding this. Here is how underlayment fits a quality job.
A Mark of Quality
Including proper, quality underlayment is a mark of a quality metal roof installation, since a contractor doing the job right does not skimp on this important layer. The underlayment, though unseen, reflects the care and quality of the installation. A quality roof includes quality underlayment as a matter of course. Its presence and quality indicate a job done correctly. It signals a proper installation.
Proper Installation of the Underlayment
Beyond choosing a good underlayment, installing it properly matters, with correct overlap, fastening or adhering, and detailing so it performs as intended. A quality underlayment installed poorly would not deliver its protection. So the underlayment must be both a good product and correctly installed. Proper installation of the underlayment is part of a quality roof. It must be done right to work right. Correct installation matters.
Part of a Complete System
The underlayment works as part of the complete roof system, with the panels, fasteners, flashing, and other components, all of which must be done correctly for the roof to perform. A quality installation addresses every component, including the underlayment, as part of a watertight whole. The underlayment is one piece of a properly built system. It contributes to the complete, functioning roof. It works with the rest.
Why It Is Worth Caring About
Even though homeowners never see the underlayment, it is worth caring about because it affects the roof's protection and longevity, and a contractor's approach to it reflects their overall quality. Asking about the underlayment is a reasonable way to gauge whether an installer does things right. The underlayment is worth caring about for what it indicates and provides. It matters despite being hidden. It reflects the installer's standards.
Choosing a Quality Contractor
The way to ensure quality underlayment, properly installed, is to choose an experienced, reputable contractor who builds metal roofs correctly, including the underlayment. A quality contractor handles the underlayment and every other component the right way. Choosing such an installer is the surest path to a roof done right from the deck up. It ensures the whole roof, underlayment included, is quality. It is the key to a proper job.
Quality Installation, in Short
Proper, quality underlayment, correctly installed, is a mark of a quality metal roof and part of a complete, watertight system. Though hidden, it is worth caring about, and choosing an experienced contractor ensures it and the whole roof are done right.
One point worth making clear for Plum Creek homeowners is that the underlayment, although it is a layer you will never see once the roof is finished, is a genuine part of what makes a metal roof perform and last, and it is worth understanding for what it tells you about the quality of an installation. The underlayment is the material that goes down over the roof decking, the plywood or sheathing that forms the roof's surface, before the metal panels are installed on top. Its primary job is to serve as a secondary barrier against moisture, a backup to the metal panels themselves. The metal is the roof's main defense against water, and a properly installed metal roof sheds rain and snow effectively, but the underlayment provides insurance, so that if water ever does get past the panels, from wind driven rain forcing moisture under an edge, from ice, or from any other cause, the underlayment helps keep that moisture from reaching the deck and the home below. By keeping the deck dry, the underlayment also helps protect the structural sheathing the roof is built on, which supports the roof's and the home's longevity over the decades a metal roof serves. Underlayment also provides a smooth, consistent surface over the decking for the panels to be installed on. For metal roofs specifically, there is an added consideration, because metal panels can get quite hot in the sun, the underlayment beneath them needs to be able to withstand that heat, which is why high temperature rated products matter. A quality installation includes proper, appropriate underlayment as a matter of course, so it is a reasonable thing to ask a contractor about when gauging whether they do things right.
It also helps Plum Creek homeowners to know that underlayment has evolved, and that modern synthetic underlayments have largely become the standard for quality metal roof installations, which is worth understanding when comparing what different contractors propose. For many years, the traditional underlayment was felt, an asphalt saturated material that provided a basic moisture barrier and served adequately, and felt is still used in some applications. But synthetic underlayments, made from durable engineered materials, have become the common choice for quality metal roofing because they offer real advantages, they are generally more durable and far more resistant to tearing than felt, they hold up better over time and under the conditions beneath a roof, and they handle the heat that builds under metal panels well when a high temperature rated product is chosen. In addition to synthetics, there are self adhering membranes, sometimes called peel and stick, which adhere directly to the deck and form a sealed barrier, providing especially strong moisture protection and the ability to seal around fasteners, and these are often used in particularly vulnerable areas or wherever extra protection is warranted. The practical takeaway for a homeowner is not that they need to become an expert in underlayment products or specify them personally, but rather that an experienced, reputable metal roofing contractor will select an appropriate, quality underlayment for the roof, commonly a durable, high temperature synthetic, with added protection where it makes sense, and will install it correctly with proper overlap and detailing. The underlayment a contractor uses and how they install it is one of the quiet indicators of whether they build metal roofs to a high standard or cut corners on the parts that do not show.
One point worth making clear for Plum Creek homeowners is that the underlayment, although it is a layer you will never see once the roof is finished, is a genuine part of what makes a metal roof perform and last, and it is worth understanding for what it tells you about the quality of an installation. The underlayment is the material that goes down over the roof decking, the plywood or sheathing that forms the roof's surface, before the metal panels are installed on top. Its primary job is to serve as a secondary barrier against moisture, a backup to the metal panels themselves. The metal is the roof's main defense against water, and a properly installed metal roof sheds rain and snow effectively, but the underlayment provides insurance, so that if water ever does get past the panels, from wind driven rain forcing moisture under an edge, from ice, or from any other cause, the underlayment helps keep that moisture from reaching the deck and the home below. By keeping the deck dry, the underlayment also helps protect the structural sheathing the roof is built on, which supports the roof's and the home's longevity over the decades a metal roof serves. Underlayment also provides a smooth, consistent surface over the decking for the panels to be installed on. For metal roofs specifically, there is an added consideration, because metal panels can get quite hot in the sun, the underlayment beneath them needs to be able to withstand that heat, which is why high temperature rated products matter. A quality installation includes proper, appropriate underlayment as a matter of course, so it is a reasonable thing to ask a contractor about when gauging whether they do things right.
Choose a Quality Installer
Plum Creek Metal Roofing builds metal roofs correctly, including quality underlayment, across Plum Creek and Hamilton County. Call (765) 676-3491 for a free consultation on a metal roof done right from the deck up, by experienced installers who do not cut corners.