News from Cardinal Steels

Cold bridging is what happens when a conductive element carries heat straight through an otherwise insulated build-up. In a steel roof there are plenty of candidates, and the consequences are not only wasted heat but localised condensation exactly where you least want...

The honest answer is that profiled steel roof sheets are a weathering skin, not a working platform. They are engineered to carry wind and snow loads spread across their surface, not the concentrated point load of a person. Treating a roof as walkable because it feels...

Shed roofs leak for a small number of predictable reasons. Working through them in order will normally find the cause in an afternoon, and most are inexpensive to put right. 1. Fixings This is the most common cause by some distance. Screws driven at an angle,...

It is a common and frustrating sight: a roof covering still in sound condition, dotted with rust stains running down from every fixing. The sheet has outlasted the screws holding it on. There are a few reasons this happens, and most are avoidable at specification. The...

Water dripping from the underside of a steel roof is alarming, and the usual assumption is a leak. More often than not it is condensation, and the two need completely different remedies. Chasing a leak that does not exist wastes a good deal of time. Telling...

It is one of the questions we are asked most often, usually by someone weighing up a steel roof for a garage, workshop or garden building. The short answer is that a metal roof is not inherently noisy. What makes the difference is not the sheet itself but what sits...

Every profiled roof sheet has a minimum pitch, and it is one of the specifications people most often try to argue with. The number is not arbitrary and it is not a manufacturer being cautious. It comes from how water behaves on a sloping metal surface, and from what...

Fixings are the cheapest component on a steel roof and the one most likely to cause a callback. A sheet is a simple thing that sheds water reliably. Every fixing is a deliberate hole punched through it, and each one is only as good as the washer, the placement and the...

A roof that drips in cold weather but stays dry in the rain is not leaking. It is condensing, and the fix is completely different from the fix for a leak. Understanding why it happens makes the solution obvious. The mechanism Air holds water vapour, and warmer air...