On Apr 20, 12:56 am, wrote:
On Thu, 19 Apr 2007 23:18:14 -0400, trainfan1

....
Steel: Usually warranted 25 years will last 50.
Aluminum: Usually warranted 50 years will last 100.

My aluminum roof is 51 years old now. It take about 1-2 hrs.
maintenance every 4-5 years.

Rob

Your experience is different from mine.
When I bought my farm, my 50+ year old barn had a corrigated
galvanized steel roof. The steel was original. Aside from some rust
and a few popped nails, the roof was still good. A little re-nailing
and a cost of aluminum paint, and some silicone around the loose nails
made it good for another 20 years or more.

My garage roof was built almost exactly the same. The differnce was
they used corrigated aluminum. The farm was vacant for quite a few
years. This aluminum garage roof about 25 years old. The sheets were
torn, some actually had half a sheet ripped off the roof, many nails
pulled right thru the sheets. Hail dents were obvious, and because of
the poor roofing, the entire rear of the roof structure was rotten and
there was significant damage to the walls in the rear.
....
You know how easily an aluminum can rips. Same as this roof.
Now try to rip a tin can.... You get the picture !!!

I'd do lots of research before buying aluminum roofing....

We put AL corrugated roof on hoghouse and addition to the elevator leg
(overhead grain storage facility in early 50s over plank roofing.
Installation used the lead-headed nails. It is still fine even in an
area of weather extremes and high wind (SW KS). I'm sure if checked
it would show some hail dents, but really haven't looked. They're not
obvious enough to be a problem unless one were especially persnickety
is my point.

The key imo as you basically point out isn't so much whether the
material is steel or aluminum, but the quality (which is the gauge and
particular alloy used). As you note, research is key in any selection
process -- there's poor quality steel available, too. Probably a key
is cost (there is no free lunch and one (mostly) gets what one pays
for) and reputation of the supplier/installer.