InstaBidsHow long does a metal roof last?
On the multifamily planning table of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), a sloped metal roof has a standard estimated useful life of 50 years in the Family and Elderly columns, not a measured life (structured on the ASTM E2018-08 outline, no issue date, read 2026-10-17, national, multifamily, n not published by the source).
Source: HUD CNA e-Tool EUL table, read 17 October 2026.
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From the public microdata of the 2020 home energy survey by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), 9.6% of US households other than those in apartment buildings with 5 or more units had “Metal” as the major roofing material of their home (EIA RECS 2020, read 2026-10-17, n = 16,057, SE 0.2 points). By housing type, that share was 45.1% for US households in a mobile home (EIA RECS 2020, read 2026-10-17, n = 974, SE 1.8 points) and 7.6% for US households in a single-family house detached from any other house (EIA RECS 2020, read 2026-10-17, n = 12,319, SE 0.3 points). EIA imputed (filled in statistically) the roofing answer for 7.9% of all those US households counted, 7.7% of the mobile-home households counted and 4.3% of the detached-house households counted. These are InstaBids' own shares of homes by roof material in 2020: how common metal roofs were, never how long one lasts.
In our own counts, n is the number of surveyed households behind a share and SE is its standard error, a measure of sampling error, in percentage points.
How long it lasts, by source
Fannie Mae's estimated useful life tables give 40 years for “Metal” among roof systems, in the “Multifamily / Coop” column (table version 10/14, read 2026-10-17, national, multifamily, n not published by the source). It is a planning life for multifamily property condition assessments and not a measured life of a metal roof on a house. HUD's figure is a planning life for multifamily capital needs assessments, so the two stay side by side rather than averaged.
In Florida
In the Florida sample of the same survey, 11.6% of Florida households other than those in apartment buildings with 5 or more units had a roof whose major material was “Metal” (EIA RECS 2020, read 2026-10-17, n = 547, SE 1.3 points). Among Florida households in a mobile home the share was 47.5% (EIA RECS 2020, read 2026-10-17, n = 40, SE 8.8 points). EIA imputed that answer for 7.7% of all those Florida households counted and 10.0% of the Florida mobile-home households counted.
Get written bids
The cost of a new roof is a separate question, priced for all roofing materials together (no split by material) on our national cost page, with its own sources: How much does it cost to replace a roof?
Contractors in your trade see the scope card, your photos and your 5-digit ZIP code. Contact details stay hidden until the homeowner picks a contractor and they confirm the connection.
Sources for the figures on this page
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, CNA e-Tool Estimated Useful Life Table, read 17 October 2026. U.S. government work, public domain.
- U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2020 Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS), public-use microdata file v7, read 17 October 2026. U.S. government work, public domain; EIA credited as the source. Microdata file: recs2020_public_v7.csv.
- Fannie Mae, Form 4099.F, Instructions for Performing a Multifamily Property Condition Assessment (Version 2.0), Appendix F, Estimated Useful Life Tables (10/14), read 17 October 2026. (c) 2014 Fannie Mae; one figure cited with attribution.