Turns out he had one of the "Dish" companies come out to install his dish and they refused to mount it on his roof because it was metal. He ended up having the dish mounted on a 10 foot tall pole in his yard. Now he has to figure out how to hide it!
Well, the solution to mounting anything to a metal roof is easy, but first a couple of things regarding satellite dish mounting.
I contacted both of the major "Dish" companies here in the US and tried to get an explanation as to why the wouldn't mount a dish on a metal roof. I could get no answer. They simply won't address it. One of the companies actually told me the installer could discuss it with me when he came out to install my new dish!
Well, I did some more research. Spent quite a bit of time on the internet trying to determine why the dish companies won't allow installation on a metal roof and this is what I came up with:
1) Metal roofs are are more slippery than shingle roof and are unsafe for their installers to walk on. Well....
Metal roofs actually tend to be easier to walk on than a shingle roof because they have a uniform smooth surface that rubber soled shoes can grip, while shingle roofs are covered with gravel that is more or less sort of attached to the asphalt part of the shingle.
2) Metal roofs aren't properly grounded and therefore the dish can't be properly grounded.
Why do metal roofs need to be grounded? They don't. No more than any other type of roof. First of all, lightning is no more or less attracted to a metal roof than a clay tile or asphalt shingle roof. Lighting almost always strikes the tallest object in the area, which is usually a tree. If your home is on top of a hill, you really should consider investing in some lightning rods, even if you have a wood shake roof. For more information about lightning and metal roofing read this technical bulletin put out by the Metal Construction Association:
MCA Lightning & Metal Roofing Technical BulletinGrounding the dish. The dish companies require that the dish be grounded to the house electrical ground, which is a copper rod driven 6 or 8 feet into the ground. If the dish is mounted on any kind of roof, it has to be attached to this ground rod.
3) Mounting satellite dishes on a metal roof causes them to leak.
It kind of makes sense you know. Then again, doesn't attaching something to any kind of roof with big screws cause the potential for a leak?
Actually, mounting anything to a metal roof can be done without creating the potential for a leak, as long as the right methods and products are used!
The most common type of metal roofing is standing seam.
Standing seam has vertical legs (seams) that fit over a hidden clip, then the panels are locked together to created a water proof roof with no exposed screws (and potential screw hole leaks).
How do you mount something (like a satellite dish) on a standing seam roof without putting a hole in the panel you ask?
S-5! seam clamps.
These are simply aluminum blocks (some are brass for copper roofing) that fit over the roof panel seam and are fastened in place with stainless steel set screws. The set screws won't put a hole in the panel, and the holding power of S-5! seam clamps is tremendous (Several companies are using these things for fall protection, which requires 5,000lbs of resistance).
A couple S-5! clamps are more than adequate to hold that satellite dish in place without damaging the roof, and they cost a heck of a lot less than the pole the installer wants to put in the middle of your yard!
And yes, they also have a solution for screw down roof panels.
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