Copper and Zinc Roofing Projects
On a South Florida house, copper usually means a small roof attached to a bigger one. Here is what the work looks like at each scale, plus zinc and the copper trim that often comes with it.
Copper Accent Roofs
Copper over a porch, a dormer, a front entry or a bay window is the most sensible way to use the metal on a Hollywood house. The area is small, so the material bill stays manageable, and the copper stands out against white or cream stucco. National cost guides put copper accents at about $200 to $7,500 depending on size, with bay window roofs around $1,500 to $7,500 and cupolas around $700 to $5,000 (HomeGuide).
Accent roofs are mostly handwork. The sheet metal worker bends pans to fit a curved or faceted shape, and the joint where the copper roof meets the main roof or the stucco wall takes the most care. When the main roof is aluminum or coated steel, that joint is also where the metals have to be kept apart, which the section below explains.
Full Copper Roofs
A whole house in copper is rare, and the price is the reason. It can make sense on a historic restoration or a house designed around it. Copper is soft and easy to form, which is why it suits curved roofs and complicated details, and it's installed as standing seam, flat-seam or batten-seam panels, or as copper shingles.
Guidance from the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety describes the usual build: felt underlayment with a rosin paper slip sheet on top, and copper or 300-series stainless steel nails, or stainless or brass screws (IBHS). Copper standing seam systems have held Miami-Dade Notices of Acceptance for High-Velocity Hurricane Zone use, but those approvals expire, so the contractor should show a current one for the exact system on your roof.
Copper changes color as it weathers, from bright metal through browns and eventually to green. In coastal or damp climates the final patina tends toward a grayish blue-green, and the metal usually settles into a stable color within 10 to 30 years (Professional Roofing). If you want the new-penny shine to stay, it has to be sealed, and most owners decide they'd rather let it turn.
Zinc Roofing
Zinc shows up on modern houses: long standing seam runs in a flat, matte gray that suits concrete, glass and wood. It costs less than copper, but it is the harder metal to justify on a Hollywood house near the beach. One national cost guide lists zinc as not recommended in coastal areas where salt can damage it, and says few U.S. contractors have much zinc experience (HomeGuide). A major zinc manufacturer notes that salt can travel well inland and that zinc surfaces rain doesn't rinse, such as soffits, will show some staining near the sea; it calls that staining superficial and offers finishes meant for coastal use (VMZINC).vmzinc.com/us-en/technical-support/basic-principles/zinc-in-different-environments)).
Zinc also needs its underside kept dry, so it goes over a breathable underlayment made for it. If you love the look, ask the installer how the manufacturer's coastal guidance applies to your address. On the barrier island we'd look hard at aluminum roofing first.
Copper Gutters and Flashing
Copper half-round gutters, downspouts, chimney caps and flashing are a common add-on to a copper accent roof. National guides price copper gutters at about $15 to $40 per linear foot installed. Copper gutters pair best with a copper roof. They can hang under an aluminum or coated-steel roof, but the gutter and its hangers can't touch the drip edge or the panels, and a copper downspout must never empty onto a lower metal roof.
Why Hollywood homeowners call Hollywood Metal Roofing
- Free written estimate
- Panel, gauge and product approval listed in writing
- City of Hollywood permit and inspections
- One local metal roofing contractor, not a call list
- No charge to homeowners for the referral
Keeping Copper Away From Other Metals
Copper is more noble than the aluminum, zinc and coated steel on a typical roof, and that's the problem. When copper and a less noble metal are joined by water, the other metal corrodes. The Metal Construction Association's technical bulletin on the subject says copper does well with lead or stainless steel but has a very severe corrosive effect on steel, aluminum and zinc (MCA). Water running off copper can do the damage without any direct contact. The bulletin's own example is a copper roof or pipe draining onto a Galvalume-coated steel roof.
Salt air makes all of this worse, because seawater chlorides turn rain into a stronger electrolyte. On a Hollywood house, that shapes the details:
Fasteners
Copper or stainless steel only. The bulletin names 316L stainless as generally the minimum in marine settings.Where copper meets the main roof
Where a copper bay roof ties into an aluminum or steel roof, the flashing has to keep the metals apart and send the copper's runoff somewhere other than the lower roof.Downspouts and drip lines
Copper gutters or a copper canopy should never drain onto an aluminum patio roof, a coated-steel roof or galvanized trim.Other trades
A plumber's copper line or an AC condensate drain dripping onto a metal roof causes similar trouble. Point it out when the contractor visits.
A contractor who plans to fasten a copper accent with the same screws used on the aluminum roof next to it has missed the point of copper. Ask how they'll separate the metals before you sign.
Copper and Zinc Roofing Cost
These are the most expensive residential roofing metals, and the national figures show it (HomeGuide). None of them are Hollywood-specific:
Copper roof
About $13 to $30 per square foot installed.Zinc roof
About $10 to $20 per square foot installed (HomeGuide zinc).Copper accents
About $200 to $7,500, depending on how much copper the piece uses.
Labor is a big share of the bill, because the work is custom and fewer crews do it. Steel standing seam, by comparison, is priced nationally at roughly $8 to $13 a square foot, so a copper accent over the entry and a standing seam metal roof on the rest of the house gets most of the look at a fraction of a full copper roof's price.