Everybody likes a deal and Neal Strickland has one for his re-roofing customers.

Strickland formed Strickland Roofing of San Mateo, Fla., in 1982. His target market was — and remains — residential re-roofing. The major change is that now he’s doing it with metal roofing as opposed to asphalt shingles. His sons, Austin and Morgan, each run an efficient crew. Those two crews accounted for 17 residential re-roofing projects in a two-week span in June.

“We can put metal over a single layer of shingles for less than we can tear off a shingle roof and put down another shingle roof,” Strickland says. “If customers have an estimate for a new shingle roof, we’ll match the price with metal, even if we have to do a tear-off. The cost of shingles is going up, so there’s not that much difference anymore. It’s pretty doggone close.”

So with price eliminated as an objection, the No. 1 issue Strickland runs into is the look of metal. “To a lot of people, it’s a new product,” he says. “They’re not sure metal will look good on their home, but I’ve got a lot of pictures of homes with stucco and brick, everything. Metal looks great on any style of home. At least I think so.”

Strickland says the project featured here was for a general contractor in Fruitland, Fla. Strickland installed a metal roof on a new construction residence a year ago. “He liked the look on the new home, but wasn’t sure how it would look on his home,” he says. “I assured him it would look great.”

The 18-year-old asphalt shingles on this home were leaking at the flashings and valleys. For this project, Strickland installed Fabral’s Grandrib 3 in Light Gray. Grandrib 3 is an exposed fastener panel that provides 36 inches of coverage and has an anti-siphon side lap. Strickland has been installing Fabral metal roofing panels for 15 years, purchasing them at B&B Metals in Palatka, Fla. “We use a lot of Fabral metal and have found they have quality products and stand behind them,” he says.

“Many of our jobs are located from the East coast of Florida to about 40 miles inland,” he says. “In Florida this area receives a lot of high winds, not only during hurricane season, but throughout the year. Those homes that lie along the coastline lose shingles over the course of a few years and their roofs begin to look very patched. Metal roofs continue to look good and hold up to high winds. Today, most of our work is still residential re-roofing, but our customers are changing their shingle roofs to metal. I feel metal roofing has become very popular in our area because of its appeal, the variety of styles and colors, but most especially for its ability to withstand high winds. Our customers have been pleased with the metal performance versus shingles that can be easily blown off in many of our windstorms, especially along the beaches.”