Roofing Contractor in Dillsburg, PA

Farmhouses, bank barns and borough homes

The agricultural buildings are the distinctive part. Bank barns with enormous roof areas, equipment sheds, and farmhouses that have been added to across a century and a half — each addition intersecting the original roof at a slightly different pitch and creating another flashing detail.

Metal is the practical standard on the agricultural buildings, and for good reason: the roof areas are too large for asphalt to be economical, the buildings are frequently unheated so ice damming is not the same concern, and metal handles the spans.

The borough itself holds older singles and twins with conventional roofs and the usual age-related issues.

• Bank barns and agricultural buildings with large metal roofs
• Farmhouses with layered additions and multiple pitch transitions
• Open-country wind exposure with no natural break
• Older borough housing with conventional shingle roofs

Agricultural metal, done right

On a barn roof, the fasteners are the job. Exposed-fastener panels work well and last decades when the screws are driven to the correct depth into sound purlins with washers that seat without crushing. Overdriven screws start leaking almost immediately; underdriven ones leave a gap.

So we inspect the substructure before quoting. On buildings this age the purlins are frequently the actual work, and a panel run over rotted framing will pull out in the first serious wind no matter how good the metal is.

On farmhouses the priority is the addition tie-ins. Every intersection between a nineteenth-century original and a twentieth-century addition is a flashing detail, and those are where the leaks are.