With so much involved in metal building, some remodelers won't touch a roof installation with their own crews.

In New Hampshire, for example, where heavy snow loads have made metal popular for years, Tom Avallone's Cobb Hill Construction has remodeled and built a number of commercial and residential metal-roofed projects. But he never does the install himself.

“Sub it,” Avallone says. “Don't do it yourself. If you don't know how to do it, don't get involved.”

For full-service companies that do want to learn and control the process, Les Deal - a veteran remodeler from Cedar Rapids, Iowa - recommends focusing on a limited range of products and choosing a steel building manufacturer that has an established track record, one that can provide factory or on-site training.

Each manufacturer's installation process is proprietary and unique, so experience with one isn't necessarily transferable to another. Moreover, brands with a long history of producing a certain product often discover best practices that aren't necessarily intuitive.

“Don't assume you know one product because you've worked with another. You have to respect every brand's material and how it functions,” says Deal, who uses aluminum shingle and standing seam products by Classic Metal Roofing Systems.

Deal says he prefers aluminum because it's lightweight and won't rust under any conditions. And because steel building requires galvanization, carrying it means an additional layer of variables to consider in selecting a product.

“You have to know how that steel is made, how it's coated, how thick the galvanizing is, and whatever else is on it,” Deal says. “Steel is totally dependent on the coatings. So you must know a lot [about the product].”

Steel is also more sensitive to scratching than aluminum, which makes it susceptible to rust because protective coatings can be scratched off. However, Biyevetskiy says, “steel is the most widely used roofing material in the industry because [steel building prices are] more affordable and still provides really good quality and longevity given a proper installation.”