Why Metal Roofing is on the Rise

MCS Influencer Haley Iselin says specializing in metal roofs opens a world of opportunities in roofing. 

Editor’s note: The following consists of a conversation between MCS Multimedia Manager Megan Ellsworth, and Metal Roof Specialties’ Vice President Haley Iselin. 

Megan Ellsworth: Okay, so this is June's question and it is why is metal a great segment of the roofing industry? 

Haley Iselin: So I think that metal is a great segment of the roofing industry. For a lot of reasons. One of those being for contractors who are looking to expand what they currently offer. Metal is a great opportunity with some good margins. So there's opportunity to make money when selling metal roofing. And there's a huge demand for it. That portion of the roofing industry is growing every single year by percentages.  

So there's a lot of people out there that want metal. And also if they're interested in it and it turns out not to be something in their budget, at least you're offering it and then have some other things you could probably turn back on. But again, the demand for it is so high. I think that is a great reason to offer it. I think some of the contractors we've seen work with it, have a dedicated crew though, and that may be a challenge for some, but I think it's important that the skill level that's required to do metal really well is different than other roofing. 

And so finding the right team to do that and being prepared before it becomes part of their offering is also important. It's definitely an art. It's a skill that not everybody has. We see a lot of carpenters do really well with metal, as opposed to sometimes a roofer who's done a lot of other types. So it's just something to know going in that it is a very specialized. It's not dealt with. It's not ordered, the same as asphalt or composition. There's a lot of differences, but really great opportunity there.  

Some of the things that are most attractive about it to people, it's kind of checking every box, I guess. The environmental factors that people are interested in, the longevity, aesthetics of metal roofing, the sustainability, all those things are things that people are getting more and more interested in and metal solves. So it’s really, really great to offer metal for everybody. 

Haley Iselin is the vice president at Metal Roof Specialties. See her full bio here.