Metal Shingle and Stone-Coated Roofing in San Antonio, TX

The Roof for a Committee That Says No

Some of the strictest architectural review in the metro sits on the Hill Country side: Fair Oaks Ranch, with a city ordinance and a homeowners association on top of it; Cordillera Ranch outside Boerne; sections of Stone Oak and The Dominion inside San Antonio. A number of those covenants were written when a metal roof meant a barn, and they will not approve a panel roof in any colour. Metal shingle and stone-coated steel are for those houses: a stamped, interlocking steel panel in a shake, slate or tile profile, fastened with concealed screws, carrying the same UL 2218 Class 4 impact rating as standing seam. The committee sees shake. The hailstorm sees steel.

Stamped Shingle Versus Stone-Coated

Stamped metal shingle is a 26- or 24-gauge steel panel pressed into a shake or slate profile and finished in Kynar 500, installed directly on the deck over underlayment. It is lighter, lies flatter and comes in the same muted colours as standing seam. Stone-coated steel is a steel panel with a granular stone finish bonded to it, usually installed on battens; the profile is deeper, it reads more like tile or heavy shake from the street, and the granular surface hides small hail dents better than any flat finish. It is also the system that most closely matches the concrete tile roofs already on the street in parts of Stone Oak and Helotes, at a fraction of the weight. Both are Class 4; both are Class A fire rated as an assembly; neither leaks from a dent.

Getting It Approved

We prepare the ARC submission: a sample panel you can hold against the stone, a colour chip, the manufacturer's spec sheet and profile drawings, and a photo of the product on a house in the same style. Most committees that reject "metal" approve a shake-profile stone-coated roof once they have seen it, because what they are protecting is the look of the street. We do not order material until the approval is in writing. The same packet goes to a historic district review inside San Antonio, where a slate-profile metal shingle has cleared street-facing slopes that a panel roof would not.

Hail, Heat and the Endorsement

On the north side of the metro, where the 2016 storm crossed, stone-coated steel has one specific advantage: after a hailstorm the granular finish shows almost nothing, which matters when your policy carries a cosmetic damage endorsement and a dented roof is yours to live with. A stamped shingle shows dents on the flats the way a panel does. In heat, both behave like any metal roof: reflective finish, a ventilated air space under stone-coated on battens, and an attic that runs cooler than it did under dark asphalt. If the roof does take functional damage, the hail page covers the inspection and the claim.

Where and How Long

Three to five days on most homes, a day longer for stone-coated on battens, tear-off included. We install these across the ring, from the newer HOA communities in Schertz and Cibolo to the river lots in New Braunfels and the acreage around Bulverde, and on a house that currently has shingles the conversion page covers what we look for in the deck first.

How long does it take? Three to five days on most homes. Stone-coated systems with battens take a day longer than stamped shingle.

Frequently asked questions