Steel Roofing Cost

[cabezaverde]

I am planning to have my barn / workshop reroofed with the painted corrugated steel roofing. Any one have experience on what this would cost installed? The work is a very simple 4 - 12 pitch with no doodads to work around. The barn is 24 x 40.

[felix]

If you can possibly wait 6 to 8 months, I might be able to financially re-roof it for you. Talking about specialized roofing materials which convert the sun's rays into current with about 80 percent efficiency. A novel design. With your dimensions given, provided the roof has proper attitude, you should make all the power you can use, plus have some left over to sell back to the power company. ... felix

[StarMetal]

Felix,

Maybe I should employ you in helping me with building my time machine. Imagine Felix, we could change the world!!!!

Joe

[felix]

What era are you interested in Joe? ... felix

[StarMetal]

All of them Felix, we can go back and get rid of the bad dictators, like Hitler, Stalin, etc., and change the world.

Imagine we could fix some bad first marriages too huh.

Joe

[felix]

Joe, that's the Lord's domain. Not ours to solve. ... felix

[versifier]

Steel roofing is more expensive per square foot than asphalt shingles, but there is much less labor involved, so the total installed prices should be comparable. It can be ordered precut to the proper length. Roofers charge what the local market will bear, so get several quotes.

[Oldfeller]

Felix, deposted on mylar film solar cell technology? Are they actually selling the stuff on the open market now? -- I though Uncle Sam got first dibs on the entire current production capability for all his new self-powering military huts and tents.

Oldfeller

[felix]

Not sure, Kelly, because a shot full of patents are applied for. As far as I know, though, it is something like that. Manufacturing won't start until the patents are solid, as I was told. ... felix

[StarMetal]

Big Eastman plant right here in Kingsport, TN that makes mylar.

Joe

[Jumptrap]

I am planning to have my barn / workshop reroofed with the painted corrugated steel roofing. Any one have experience on what this would cost installed? The work is a very simple 4 - 12 pitch with no doodads to work around. The barn is 24 x 40.

I had my house roofed in red tin a little over a year ago. The house is 28x48....24" overhang, 5-12 pitch...you figure the sq. footage! Cost me $3300 and the best money I have spent on this place in a long time. I had this house built in '81 and had gone through 2 shingle roofs.......windstorm got the first one, second one was crap from the get-go. I learned the tin leson from my garage...built it in '83, used galvanized tin roof and never have had a problem.

[cabezaverde]

Felix,

What is the cost of your system?

[felix]

No idea just yet. Just in negotiation stages, and it might not ever happen on my part. If it does, the cost will be significant for most home folks, so participation would most likely be necessary on my part. Something like I would be responsible for the install, and would get paid back from the power company in terms of sales. After my break even point, then the owner of the barn/house and I would split the profits and repairs (hail, etc). ... felix

[Oldfeller]

The stuff exists now -- but it is still very expensive. Uncle has the total real supply capacity of the existing first TWO actual producing vendors tied up 100% under specialty military contracts. Small helicopter lift portable quanset huts and some personal tents are being made with the stuff as the special forces troups deploying them behind enemy lines can recharge all their radios, laptops and other mission required commo gear off the sunshine wherever they are without running a generator (bad for IR sensors to pick up, makes noise, etc. Notice the desert camo pattern used in the example stuff they show you.)

Go here for some public details

http://www.konarka.com/products/

China is producing some pretty good inexpensive traditional hard glass solar cells more and more cheaply as solar is a large thing for rural China's powerification.

Before I die, you would be able to solarize a house using these materials and achieve what Felix is talking about with about a 10 year pay back on the solar roofing materials. You will never finish paying for the batteries though, as existing battery tech means they die every 3-6 years and must be replaced.

Solar IS NOT less expensive than commerical power grid power -- not even close yet. It will come eventually, eventually it will get much closer. Also, on solar you might as well forget about whole house air conditioners and welders and other high current drain applications -- solar isn't up to those kinds of constant heavy drains unless backed by a WHOLE LOT of expensive storeage batteries. You charge all day for a short "high amp" drain time right now.

Oldfeller

[DanWalker]

I am planning to have my barn / workshop reroofed with the painted corrugated steel roofing. Any one have experience on what this would cost installed? The work is a very simple 4 - 12 pitch with no doodads to work around. The barn is 24 x 40.
Hi,
Up until 4 months ago,I worked at a lumberyard that sold metal roofing. Over the course of 3 years there, I bet I sold over 30 garages, both pole barn type and conventional stick built. I NEVER received one single complaint about the metal roofing and siding I included in the design.
I sold a product called "Pro Panel 2" It's 29 gauge and carries a 30 year guarantee on the finish alone.
If I remember how to figure correctly, you'll need 26 panels 24'6" long. They run around $2.25 per linear foot of length for a 3' wide panel, or about 56 bucks a panel.
You'll also need ridge cap, at around 16 bucks per 10' strip.
Closure strips for top and bottom run around a buck each.
screws are around 10 cents each and you'll need roughly one per square foot.
Installation is REALLY easy. If you're overlaying an existing roof, just run 2x4's for furring strips down your roof, to allow for proper ventilation, and lay the panels over ithem. Got any teenagers around that might want to make a buck? A roof the size you describe could be done easily by two motivated guys in around 12 hours.
(last one I did was in 110 degree heat...)

[Gibbs 505]

Felix, would your system work in the north as well? Think snow conditions and short days!

[cabezaverde]

Thanks Dan, that is the kind of info I was looking for. I have gotten one quote so far, $2700 complete, installed, everything.

How much do you think materials have gone up since you were selling the stuff?

[DanWalker]

Thanks Dan, that is the kind of info I was looking for. I have gotten one quote so far, $2700 complete, installed, everything.

How much do you think materials have gone up since you were selling the stuff?
I actually text messaged a bud of mine that still works there. The prices I quoted you are current, at least for Wyoming.

[felix]

Gibbs, you will sell the power generated to the power company. You will be making money during the summer only by living up north. The idea would be to keep the generation and the comsumption seperate. The question boils down to what Oldfeller said. We will have to calculate things after we know more about the final product capability. The panels are supposed to be extremely efficient, and somewhat cheap when compared to existing stuff out there. That we have to see....if the results are true to what is being discussed to me. I doubt all of this to some extent, so let's wait a while to decipher what we have on the table for real. ... felix

[Oldfeller]

If you have power grid power right now, what Felix mentions about selling 100% of the power generated is the smartest system you can put in. First, you invert the low voltage DC generated by the solar cells into an overvoltage to your input line that is metered by a meter provided by the power company. This is your "supplied power" meter. Then you run everything at your house using your normal power meter to count "power used". The utility detracts the amount generated from the total amount used and bills you for the difference.

This is a smart way to do it for 2 main reasons. First, you don't have to deal with batteries at all (expensive, mildly unsafe and quite maintenance requiring) and second -- you can run what you want when you want to run it.

I tend to track the technology with my dreamed of off-grid mountain cabin in mind -- I bought some undeveloped mountain property a good many years back intending to build a cabin on it. Things get in the way though and dreams like that sometimes never can actually happen. College and stuff like that gets in the way, then your health goes bad.

Oldfeller