Bob Hastings
Wood and Hastings
Construction Co.
Birmingham, Alabama
Small Custom Builder
Metal Roof
Hastings' new home in The Preserve, a Traditional Neighborhood Development in Hoover, Alabama. Homes in the Preserve are designed in classic styles of the 1750s to the 1920s. |
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 Bob Hastings has been building custom homes since 1983, but he had his first encounter with metal roofs in 2005, when he was building his own home.
"The main reason I used a metal roof was because this is a 'Traditional Neighborhood Development.' It features classical homes, all styled after historical homes from the 1750s to the mid-1920s. My home's location is near the Village Green, which is the central part of the community. The architect strongly encouraged the builders to use metal roofs there, mostly to recreate the appearance of an old house," Hastings says.
"If these type of roofs continue to be in demand, it will open up some opportunities for me, particularly in this development. In fact, we are already planning another home there with a metal roof."
"One of the problems I faced was that I had never done a metal roof before, other than a front porch overhang. There is a big difference doing an entire roof. Going in, I knew the basics about metal roof construction, such as how things should be flashed and the basic theory behind it. But I didn't know how metal roofs work with other components of the home, and how it all comes together. As a result, I was much more reliant on the subcontractor than I am used to," Hastings says.
"It can be hard to find people to do metal roofs. I was fortunate that the subcontractor, Affordable Metal Roofing, was very open. Any time I had issues, they were quick to answer my questions."
"Besides being very helpful, Affordable Metal also gave me a good deal on a standing seam metal roof. Normally, the more common 5-V metal roof is more fiscally competitive than a standing seam, but Affordable Metal rolls its own metal for the roof, which reduced the cost. Besides, from a maintenance and longevity standpoint, the standing seam is a great roof because it is clipped down, and then the adjacent panels' seam actually hoods over where the one panel is attached. So water can't get to the fasteners where you are making the penetration into the roof."
"The end result is that I have a roof that should last forever and require practically no maintenance. I probably won't have to look at that roof again for another 50 years." |
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With more than 20 years in home construction, Bob Hastings builds 16 to 20 upscale custom homes a year, selling from $400,000 to $900,000, in Birmingham, Alabama.
Why he used a metal roof:
To meet the requirements of the development's architect, Hastings used a standing seam, sheet metal roofing system without striations to encourage "oil canning," an architecturally appealing feature that reveals the visible stressing of the metal and is more historically accurate for this style than other metal roofs. |
