Tapered Panels and Custom Chimney Cricket on Standing Seam Metal Roof

Not every roof is a simple rectangle. Some buildings have complex geometry - changing pitches, angles that converge in unexpected places, chimneys sitting right in the path of water drainage. That's where a lot of roofers run into trouble. The details get sloppy, or they just avoid taking the job altogether.

This one had a few things going on at once. We were working with 13-inch wide standing seam metal panels, tapered cuts to follow the geometry of the roof, a seamless pitch change, and a custom-fabricated chimney cricket. Each one of those elements takes real skill to execute cleanly. Stack them all on the same roof and you're dealing with a job that demands precise layout work from the very first panel.

The chimney cricket is worth talking about for a second. A cricket is a small peaked structure built behind a chimney to divert water around it rather than letting it pool and eventually leak. On a metal roof, that cricket has to be fabricated and flashed in a way that ties seamlessly into the standing seam panels on both sides. Get it wrong and you've got a leak point that's hard to trace and expensive to fix. We built and integrated ours so the transition is tight and water moves the way it should - away from the structure.

The tapered panels are another layer of complexity. They have to be cut so the seams stay parallel and the surface reads as intentional, not forced. Out here in Viola and the surrounding north Idaho area, we see a lot of custom builds with rooflines that require this kind of hand work. It's not unusual for us, but it's not something every crew is set up to handle.

What you end up with is a roof that performs as well as it looks. Standing seam metal done right is one of the most durable roofing systems available - and when the detailing is executed at this level, it holds up for decades without giving you headaches.