# Out of square metal roof install help



## Island boy

I have been a roofer for the last 19 years mostly doing comp,flat roofs,tile valley repairs etc. I have just started getting into the metal roofing side of things and had a question on how to correct a severely out of square roof. By severe I mean that on a roof that measures 17 feet from eave to ridge and a little over 29 ft wide I snapped my lines for starting out square (using multiples of the 3-4-5 method) and found out that the roof was basically a trapezoid being 5 inches out of square at the top left of the roof and approximately the same on the right hand lower corner of the roof. I want to know what is the best way to get it to look like a nice even panel on the right and left sides of the roof instead of a tapered panel look on either end. Should I square up jobs like this before I order the panels or just order panels long and shift the panels out of square and trim the eave? By the way this is an old owner builder home that had comp on it .


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## mrcharles

Is it going to be standing seem? corrugated? what type of metal, what size?


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## 4 seasons

I would just go with the roof, generally speaking if you try to square it up it will look worse.
What type of system?


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## mrcharles

4 seasons said:


> I would just go with the roof, generally speaking if you try to square it up it will look worse.
> What type of system?




I agree.... There is not a whole lot you can really do about it. 5" on a decent size roof should not show up too bad.


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## Randy Bush

I would go with the roof. Kind of a pain trimming edge, but only way to make it look half way right so it does not stand out like a sore thumb.


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## Tom Struble

me too, stay square with the eave


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## OldNBroken

Golden rule of metal roofing and will make your future in the field much easier...*ALWAYS* square up to the eave. Start it right and the rest is so much easier.


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## Red Adobe

Yup keep the overhang at the eave right, unless your doing gutter trim and wont see it
you can trim the rakes some and a standard rake trim has enough overlap to fudge some more just remember that when putting eave trim on and let it run long and trim to fit later


.......we use string line to attach the eave trim and shim as needed, then tack 3 sheets and string to other end, adjust and were good. Most people will notice the overhang first if its stairsteped or uneven then your gonna have complaints


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## Island boy

Thanks for all of the input. I always square to the eave and the metal is 12 inch wide standing seam. I would like to know if anyone recommends doing a square up on the roof when doing the bid to see if I should order longer panels than necessary to accomodate for the out of square condition. My concern is that if I don't run square to the eave and shift panels I would think that by the time you get across the roof you would possibly be short on panel length or at least have alot of trimming to do. Any more input is greatly appreciated, and a big thanks to all who have responded.


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## Island boy

@ renegade: thanks for your help,what do you do in the event that you are going to have a badly tapered panel at one or both ends of the roof if you are square to the eave?


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## Aframe

You ask the customer if he wants tapered panels or fix roof frame to square. 

Depending on how bad the taper is and what your rake end panels work out too, you may want to wider panels, 16" in this case, to have a matching 12" at center. You just want to make it look good from the ground.

____ ______
Edit: After rereading your OP I would handle a trapazoid /____\ vs: a parallelagram /_____/ which is what I think you have differently. Depending on what other items you need to work around dormers etc. would also come into play.


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## OldNBroken

We do one of two things:

Cut and field hem the last panel to the profile so our rake trim fits over it or make a wider rake trim to cover if it's not too far out. If it's only an inch or so out top to bottom your rake trim should cover it fine. 

If it means your rake trim will be over four inches it's not a very good look to fab the trim to fit so we will cut the panel to fit and fold it up approx the same height as the seams. 

Tapered rakes are much less noticeable than a saw-toothed eave. Also your installation will go soooo much easier if you start off square with the eave.

BTW the Malco ER3 is a very usefull tool for this.


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## roof-lover

i intentionally do not order/make the ending rake pieces so we can later custom fabricate the width if neccesary as renegade said.


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## Island boy

Thanks man I have gotten some good responses on here thus far. What part of Fla. are you from I used to live there in the Tampa Bay Area for a long time.


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