Two climates, two offices
We work Indiana out of two offices, in two different roofing climates.
Fort Wayne is home. From there we cover the northeast corner — farm ground, the lake country along the Michigan line, and the older towns around their courthouse squares. Winter up here is freeze and thaw over and over between December and March, with more lake-effect snow the closer you get to the state line. The single most common source of the interior stains I get called about is an ice dam: snow melting against a warm deck, refreezing at the cold eave, and backing water up under the roofing.
Noblesville covers the Indianapolis metro, where hail and straight-line wind matter more than freeze and thaw. Central Indiana catches spring storms that put down enough hail to total an asphalt roof, and a lot of Hamilton County roofs have already been through one insurance claim.
What that does to a roof, and what metal changes
Asphalt in this climate is generally a 12-to-20-year roof. It fails from repetition — freeze, thaw, heat, wind, hail — until the mat gives up, and each replacement costs more than the last.
Metal does not make ice dams impossible and it does not make hail harmless. Anyone who tells you either is selling. What it changes is the consequence. A mechanically seamed standing seam roof has no horizontal seam and no exposed fastener for backed-up water to find. Hail that would start an asphalt roof's failure clock leaves a cosmetic dent on metal, and the roof stays watertight. The eave membrane and the attic ventilation still do the real work against ice.
The housing stock, north and south
Up north it is older in-town houses with steep pitches and additions — flashing work, and plank decking that has sometimes been wet — plus postwar ranches, lake cottages, and farmsteads where the barn already wears screw-down panel. That panel is a fair trade on a barn; on the house you plan to keep, the washers under the screws wear out around year ten to twelve, and I steer people to a concealed-fastener system. We do not install exposed fastener under 4/12.
Around Indianapolis it is mostly 1990s-onward subdivisions on their first or second builder-grade asphalt roof, and a lot of HOAs with guidelines written before metal looked the way it does now. An interlocking metal shingle reads as a slate or shake roof from the street and is usually what I bring to a board; it wants a 3/12 pitch or steeper. Get color and profile approved in writing before anything is ordered.
When I tell Indiana homeowners not to do this
If you are selling in the next few years, a metal roof will not return what it costs, and good asphalt is the rational choice. If one flashing or one pipe boot is leaking on a roof with life left in it, that is a repair — we do not take repair calls, and a repair contractor is the right answer. If you want shingles again, you want a different contractor; we install metal only. If the smallest number this year is the question, metal loses that comparison. Where metal earns its cost is the long hold.
Where we are coming from
Indiana does not require a roofing license in most areas; we carry general liability, workers' comp, auto and umbrella insurance on every project, and every installer is manufacturer-certified, which is what lets the warranty cover the work and not just the steel. The communities we serve are listed below.
