A handy guide to replacing damaged metal roofing

If a section of your metal roof is showing signs of damage, you can replace select roofing sheets easily. Just follow this handy guide.

• Tape measure
• Screwdriver or pinch bar
• Work gloves
• Hand brush
• Straightedge and pencil
• Drill and drill bits
• Screws or nails
• Lumber for battens (if required)
• Multi-grip pliers (if required)
• Soft mallet (if required)

• Measure up the area of your roof that needs to be replaced, allowing for overlaps, and calculate the number of sheets of roofing you need to order.
• Once you have the replacement material on site, take the old nails and screws out of the existing sheet.
• You may also need to remove nails and screws from adjacent sheets where there is an overlap.

• Put on a pair of thick gloves to protect your hands from sharp and corroded metal edges, then lift the free edge of the old sheet and slide it downwards to remove it.
• Sweep away loose dirt and debris and check the exposed roof battens to ensure that they're sound.
• Replace any damaged or rotten lumber with new battens.

• Place a straightedge across the gap where your new sheet will go and line it up with the centreline of the exposed mounting batten.
• Mark that centreline on the adjacent sheets with a pencil.
• You can use this line as a guide to the line you'll take with the screws or nails that will fix the new sheet in place.

• If your new sheet is going under the roof ridge, use multi-grip pliers to bend up the valleys in the corrugations along the new sheet's edge.
• If the sheet is low-angled and overhangs the guttering, turn down the lower section of each corrugation so that water doesn't flow back up underneath the sheet.
• Take care not to tear the metal when bending it.

• With gloves on, slide your new sheet into place.
• Drill fixing holes in the top of every second corrugation, using the pencil marks made in Step 3 as a guide, then insert roofing nails or screws to hold the sheet firmly in place.
• If you're replacing a sheet at the ridge of the roof, refit the ridge capping, shaping it to match the profile of the roof sheet if required.

Follow this handy guide and it'll help you replace select roofing sheets with ease.