Metal Roofing in Ferndale

Ferndale is the opposite problem to Bellingham. Where Bellingham roofs sit in shade and stay wet, Ferndale roofs sit in the open and take the weather head on.

Most of the town is flat ground and floodplain along the Nooksack, with very little tree break. That means wind driven rain arrives at an angle, and it arrives on the north and west elevations of the house rather than falling neatly on the roof. Water that would run off a sheltered roof gets pushed sideways, up under panel edges and into end laps that were never designed to hold water travelling uphill.

The housing stock matters too. There is a lot of 1990s and 2000s subdivision building here, and a good deal of it has the shallower pitches that were fashionable then. Shallow pitch and driven rain is the combination that punishes a lazy lap detail, so panel layout and lap treatment get more attention on a Ferndale roof than they would three miles into the hills.

Then there are the outbuildings. Ferndale properties frequently come with a shop, a barn or a large detached garage, usually with a long simple metal roof on it, and usually with exposed fasteners that are older than the house owner thinks.