“There have been some neighbors come look at it because they like the idea that it’s maintenance free. More folks are definitely considering it for their homes. My brother is even going to go with it when his shingles need to be replaced.”
In 2005, Illinois Farmer, John Louis was thrilled to move back to the family farmstead when his parents made the move to town. Since he was operating the family farm, it just made logical sense. But of course, it was also great to “go home” again. Given the rich family history of the property, he made a commitment to keep it maintained for future generations to enjoy.
So in the summer of 2017, he embarked on a major update to the home's exterior. He recalls, “Our old roof wasn’t leaking but it was definitely time to replace it. It was 25 years old, which is pretty rare for a shingle roof but it has a pretty steep slope that helped it last longer.”
Since he had strong community ties, he reached out to two local contractors before starting his fieldwork in the fall. John recalls, “I asked them to come out and give me a bid on a shingle roof. I jumped into harvest and quite honestly didn’t give it much more thought.”
Fall proceeded, John finished another successful harvest and the season soon changed to winter. He recalls, “My wife and I were watching television one night and saw an advertisement for a contractor about 90 miles away. I wouldn’t normally have considered working with someone that far away but my local contractors just hadn’t responded. And. someone locally had worked with them and had positive things to say.”
The company in the ad that night was called Cool Roofs. They are a company that specializes in residential metal roofing and owner, Todd Meinhold has a slogan that just made sense to John. He recalls, “When he said ‘One and Done’, it just made sense to me. I’ve been around metal roofing all my life on the farm and knew it lasted longer than shingles or anything else I could use. I didn’t even compare the price to shingles. I’ll never have to worry about it again. Being a two-time cancer survivor that was worth a lot to me.”
Besides the long life span, metal roofing also offers several panel styles, paint systems and colors and even substrates to choose from. But for John, those choices came easy. He shares, “There’s hidden fastened and concealed fastened styles. I went with exposed fastened because the concealed style is quite a bit more money. And. you don’t notice the fasteners at all. I think the only ones that would notice are contractors.”
Two years later, John and his wife, Wendi, have been thrilled with their decision to skip the typical asphalt shingle replacement cycle and instead move to a long-term product. In fact, John sees growing interest from others in the community. He shares, “There have been some neighbors come look at it because they like the idea that it’s maintenance free. More folks are definitely considering it for their homes. My brother is even going to go with it when his shingles need to be replaced.”
There’s no doubt that the interest in metal roofing is on the rise. But as you might expect with any new product, consumers have some questions too. John was quick to debunk some of the common myths about metal roofing though. “We don’t hear the rain at all. We do hear snow slide because it comes off the roof down onto the roof where we watch TV. I don’t have snow guards but I’d recommend them for folks that have a higher roof over a lower roof. And we’ve never had any issue at all with using our cell phones in the house.”
As for parting advice for homeowners considering the move to metal roofing, John offers the following: “As with anything else, pick your contractor carefully. Todd @ Cool Roofs and his entire crew were very good. He always had our best interest in mind and even came up with some ideas to fix little issues we hadn’t noticed. For example, we had a post on our carport between my wife's car and pickup truck and he had a beam put in there to do away with that. I would highly recommend him.”
%20(002).png)
