More Than Roofing: Minnesota Metal Exteriors Is a Licensed General Contractor

Most people know Minnesota Metal Exteriors as a roofing company.

That’s understandable. Roofing keeps us busy, and it’s a large part of what we do every day.

But there is another side of our business that we don’t talk about nearly as much: Minnesota Metal Exteriors is also a licensed general contractor.

That means our experience isn’t limited to shingles, standing seam metal roofing, or metal shingles. We understand construction as a whole, and from time to time we take on other projects for homeowners as well as work for other contractors who need an experienced hand.

Why Don’t We Advertise General Contracting More?

Mostly because we’re usually busy roofing.

Roof installation, roof replacement, storm damage, repairs, and metal roofing projects account for much of our schedule, so we haven’t built our business around advertising every type of construction work we’re capable of performing.

That doesn’t mean we can’t help with other projects.

If a homeowner has a construction project that fits our experience and schedule, we’re happy to take a look. We also occasionally work with other contractors who need additional construction capability on a project.

Sometimes the right contractor isn’t the company with the biggest advertising campaign. It’s simply someone who knows how to do the work correctly and can do it for a fair price.

What Does Being a General Contractor Mean?

A general contractor looks at a building differently than someone who only works within one narrow specialty.

Roofing doesn’t exist independently from the rest of your house.

The roof connects to walls, siding, framing, soffits, fascia, gutters, ventilation, insulation, flashing, windows, decks, additions, and other parts of the structure.

Understanding how those systems work together can be extremely valuable, particularly when repairing an older home or dealing with a problem that isn’t as simple as replacing the material you can see.

Sometimes a Roofing Problem Isn’t Really a Roofing Problem

This happens more often than homeowners might expect.

A leak may appear to be caused by shingles but actually originate around flashing, siding, a wall transition, a chimney, or another construction detail.

Rot discovered during a roof replacement may extend beyond the roof decking into framing or other structural components.

An addition built years ago may have created awkward transitions between different sections of the house.

In situations like these, having construction experience beyond roofing can make diagnosing and correcting the problem considerably easier.

We Can Help Homeowners With Select Construction Projects

If you already know Minnesota Metal Exteriors and have another project in mind, it doesn’t hurt to ask us about it.

Depending on the project and our schedule, we may be able to help with construction work outside of a traditional roof replacement.

We’re intentionally not publishing a giant menu of every possible project we might take on because we don’t want to pretend we’re trying to be everything to everybody.

We’d rather look at the particular job, determine whether it’s something we’re well suited to handle, and give you a straightforward answer.

We Also Work With Other Contractors

General contracting also gives us the ability to work alongside other construction professionals.

Contractors occasionally need experienced help with a portion of a project, additional manpower, specialty exterior work, or someone capable of handling a specific part of a larger construction job.

We’re comfortable working directly with homeowners, but we’re equally comfortable working with another contractor who understands the business and simply needs the job done correctly.

There’s no need to turn every project into a competition. Sometimes the best solution is simply good contractors helping other good contractors get the work finished.

Fair Pricing Without Layers of Sales Overhead

One advantage of the way Minnesota Metal Exteriors operates is that we’re closely connected to the work itself.

We’re not primarily a sales organization generating projects and then passing them through multiple layers before someone eventually arrives to perform the work.

That allows us to keep the process relatively simple.

You tell us what you need. We look at the project. If it’s a good fit, we determine what it will take to do it properly and give you a fair price.

It’s not particularly complicated, and we don’t think it needs to be.

Construction Experience Makes Us Better Roofers Too

Our general contracting background isn’t separate from our roofing work. It makes us better at it.

A roof is part of an entire building system.

Understanding framing, exterior construction, water management, ventilation, siding, flashing, and structural transitions helps us recognize problems that might otherwise be missed.

That’s particularly important when working on older Minnesota homes where additions, remodeling projects, previous roof replacements, and decades of repairs may have created some unusual construction details.

Have a Project? Ask Us.

Roofing will continue to be a major part of what we do at Minnesota Metal Exteriors.

But if you need other construction work completed, don’t assume that the word Exteriors on the truck means that’s all we know how to do.

We’re a licensed general contractor, and when our schedule allows, we’re happy to consider other projects for Minnesota homeowners and fellow contractors.

If you have something that needs to be built, repaired, replaced, or figured out, give us a call. If it’s in our wheelhouse, we’ll tell you. If it isn’t, we’ll tell you that too.