Standing Seam Metal Roof Systems

Standing seam metal roofing is the longest-service-life commercial roof system available in Atlanta - 40 to 60 years with proper maintenance. We install concealed-fastener standing seam for commercial, institutional, and industrial applications where metal is the right system choice.

Standing seam metal roofing - concealed-fastener panel systems where the structural attachment is hidden within the raised seam profile - occupies a specific and growing niche in Atlanta's commercial roofing market. For building owners who are optimizing for the lowest 40-year lifecycle cost rather than the lowest first cost, standing seam metal is the honest long-term answer: 40 to 60-year service life, no re-roofing cycle within the economic life of most commercial buildings, manufacturer warranties up to 40 years on Kynar-coated panels, and a thermal performance profile that matches or exceeds single-ply systems when installed over proper insulation.

Atlanta's climate is a reasonably favorable environment for standing seam metal. The city's temperature range - lows occasionally below 20 degrees Fahrenheit in hard winters, highs reaching 95 to 100 degrees in July and August - creates thermal expansion cycling that standing seam systems are specifically engineered to accommodate through the floating clip attachment. The metro's high rainfall is also appropriate for standing seam geometry; the raised seam profile keeps water well above the panel joints in standard rain events, and the smooth panel surface sheds debris and biological growth better than granule-surfaced or single-ply systems.

Standing seam is not the right answer for every Atlanta commercial building. The higher first cost - typically 2 to 3 times the installed cost of TPO on the same footprint - requires a building with a long enough capital horizon to capture the lifecycle advantage. Buildings on 10 to 15-year ownership cycles often get more value from quality single-ply. But for

Architectural commercial and institutional: The Buckhead Class A office and retail corridor, Georgia Tech's campus facilities, the Emory University campus and medical facilities, major hotel properties along the Peachtree corridor, and government and civic buildings across Fulton and DeKalb Counties represent the primary architectural standing seam market in Atlanta. These buildings are often selecting metal for appearance as much as performance - standing seam Kynar panels in appropriate profiles are the most durable architectural roofing available, and their color and profile stability over 40 years eliminates the maintenance and re-coating cycles that other architectural systems require.

Industrial and manufacturing: Large-footprint industrial buildings in the Marietta-Dobbins corridor, the Norcross and Duluth industrial zones in Gwinnett County, and the Forest Park and College Park industrial ring around Hartsfield-Jackson often carry low-slope or moderate-slope standing seam metal on structural steel frames. Many of these systems are original to the building - 1970s and 1980s vintage exposed-fastener through-fastened panels that are now leaking at fastener holes or have lost their original sealant at end-laps. Retrofit standing seam over-roofing - installing a new concealed-fastener standing seam system over the existing through-fastened panels on a sub-framing system - is a proven and durable solution that eliminates the penetration problem while adding insulation and meeting current energy code.

Retrofit over-roofing: Over-roofing existing low-slope commercial buildings with standing seam on a sub-framing system is a growing market segment in Atlanta. The retrofit approach avoids full tear-off, improves slope from low-slope to positive-pitched (eliminating ponding), adds insulation to current Georgia energy code, and produces a 40-year service life on a building that would otherwise be looking at a conventional membrane replacement. The structural analysis for over-roofing requires confirming that the existing structure can carry the additional dead load - we work with structural engineers for this analysis on Atlanta projects where the original structural drawings are unavailable or where the added load is near the structural limit.