Metal roofs on older Glens Falls houses and two-families
Walk the side streets off Glen Street and Warren Street, past the Hyde Collection, and you'll see the roofs this city is built on: tall, steep main roofs, front porches with their own low roofs, dormers, and a lot of up-and-down two-families. Many have been reshingled more than once. That's the case for metal here. A steep roof is expensive to get onto, so you want the next one to be the last one you think about for decades.
Houses this age bring a few things to check before anyone orders panels:
- The deck. Older homes often have plank boards instead of plywood. Gaps and soft spots get fixed or overlaid before metal goes on.
- The layers. Two or three layers of old shingles usually means a full tear-off.
- The chimneys. Old brick chimneys need new flashing, not a bead of caulk around the old stuff.
- The porch roofs. They're often too low in pitch for the same panel as the main roof, so expect a different detail there.
Snow guards for metal roofs on tight city lots
This is the part people forget. Metal sheds snow, and on a Glens Falls lot the snow has nowhere harmless to land. The driveway runs right under the eave. The front steps sit a few feet from the sidewalk. The house next door is a driveway's width away.
Put snow guards above every entry, above the driveway side, above porch roofs that sit under the main roof, and along any eave that faces a neighbor. On a steep roof they matter more, not less: snow leaves a steep pitch faster and harder.
Steep pitch and ice dams on Glens Falls roofs
Older houses here leak heat into the attic. Snow melts on the upper roof, runs down, and refreezes at the cold eave, and that ice dam pushes water back under shingles. Metal helps because snow doesn't sit on it as long, but it isn't a cure by itself. A good install still puts ice and water barrier along the eaves and in the valleys, and it's worth asking whether the attic needs better ventilation or insulation while the roof is open.
The steep pitch also shows up in the price. Steeper roofs need more staging and safety gear, and dormers and valleys add hours. That's why two Glens Falls houses with the same footprint can get very different quotes.
Tear-off or metal over shingles in the city
Some roofs can take metal over one layer of shingles. Whether yours can depends on the condition of the deck and on local code, and the installer or the Glens Falls building department confirms it. Our page on putting a metal roof over shingles explains how that decision gets made.
On a narrow city lot, a tear-off also needs a plan: where the dumpster goes, how the neighbor's siding and your shrubs get protected, and how debris comes down without landing on the sidewalk. Ask about that when you compare quotes.
Standing seam or metal shingles for a Glens Falls home
Standing seam gives you clean vertical lines and hidden fasteners, and it's the usual pick for a steep main roof that sheds a lot of snow. Metal shingles are stamped to look like slate, shake or asphalt, which suits an older house on a street where you'd rather the roof didn't stand out. Either works on a two-family.
We also cover homes just over the river in South Glens Falls and out in Queensbury. When you're ready, request a free quote with a few photos of the roof and we'll pass it to a local installer.