How complicated of a roof is practical with steel sips?  I will have a number  of hips, valleys and varying ridge heights due to building offsets.  Can these pieces be prefabricated like the walls or is there a lot of field fitting?

 thanks,  John

John;

We field cut all ours, the rammetta job has 8 sided gazebos at each end of porch.
The hart job is a 3/12 pitch hip with cement tile roof

and the boltin job has a lot of different valleys and 9/12 & 7/12 pitches

Hips are no more difficult than valleys

We prefer to cut onsite to compensate for any foundation errors


LINK

LINK

LINK

Chris,

Steel SIPs seem to have several interesting advantages, but, out of near total ignorance, I cannot envision how they work:

I'd thought that the steel SIPs used a rolled, snap joint together joint; wouldn't that preclude anything but parallel edge butt joints?  If the panels are field cut, how do you join them without the factory edge?

With a "traditional" shingle roof, when the outer surface fails, I can reshingle for a reasonable price.  As I understand your postings, the stock surface of a steel SIP can act as the finished roof.  But I see finish failures in less than 10 years on cars left in the sun.  How long will the SIP finish hold up, are upgrades available with longer life, and -- most importantly to me -- how is the finish repaired when it fails?

Very respectfully,
Larry

Larry;

I must re-iterate that they can be successfully used bare when there are no valleys.
the panel field cuts are always done on the last ouside panel, so that all the interior joints are male to female factory joints. you do need to seal the joints with seam tape that is guaranteed for ten years.
The 26. ga. galvalume steel skin is the same as high quality standing seam roofs used all along the salt water coasts .  ( not like 5-V crimp barn roofing)
 
I personally do not see any beauty to the roof but they are very functional and economical.

Long term maintenace would include: replacing seam tape as needed after ten years. Skin itself should be good for 30-50 years depending on how harsh the enviroment. After that could be coated with liquid membrane or covered with conventional roof by screw attachment if you decided you wanted amore astheticly pleasing roof.

Attached link is a 2000 sq. ft. garage, with exposed walls and roof, the owner eventially covered the walls with 1/2 logs and painted the roof green to match his log home
LINK
The next is a warehouse addition with walls and roof exposed, roof is at 1/2" per foot pitch and spanning 24 ft. clear
LINK

Attached are panel profiles

Chris,

Click -- the light came on.   
No valleys. . .  I'd missed that.

And your reply on maintenance makes perfect sense.

Thank you. 
(And thank you for your patience.)

Very respectfully,
Larry