Steel is the preferred material for custom homes and metal building roofs. It’s durable, weather-resistant and, in the right hands, can last a lifetime. It looks beautiful and, according to Roger McElroy of Bridger Steel in Kalama, is incredibly cost-effective compared to composite materials. It’s also environmentally friendly and, in the right colors, can blend seamlessly with the surrounding landscape.
A critical part of enclosing a steel building’s roof is the ridge cap, which runs along the peak where two slopes meet. RHINO uses premium die-formed metal ridge caps that match the steel panels exactly for perfect fit and seal. They are made of the same gauge and tensile strength as the roof panels and rolled using the same equipment that shapes the steel roof panels. They’re then coated with Kynar 500, a long-lasting weather-resistant finish.
Many Steel Ridge Metal board and batten buildings use flat ridge caps, which cannot seal tightly against the ribs of the roof panels because they’re flat and not curved like the panels. Wind-driven rain blows through the gap between the ridge cap and roof panels, dripping on insulation and other contents of the structure. Some companies offer foam closure strips to fill the gaps, but they quickly deteriorate and mice, rats, birds, and other wildlife chew holes in them.
The ridge cap is then locked in place with z bars, which are pieces of metal bent into the shape of a “Z” to fill in the spots between the ribs of the metal panel and the ridge. They’re installed at the same time as the ridge capping and are the same color as the metal panels.