#10 – Cell Phone Reception Under Metal Roofing
February 21, 2017 | Filed under: Metal Roofing 101 Series, Roofing Help Videos
Chances are that you currently use your cell phone in metal roofed buildings on a regular basis. Think of the restaurants where you eat, the stores in which you shop, your bank, your church, etc. Many of those buildings have metal roofs or metal decks beneath flat roofs. Over the years and tens of thousands of roofs, we have had no more than five people tell us that their metal roof did seem to affect their cell phone reception.
If you currently have very, very weak or spotty cell phone reception inside of your home, a metal roof may be the “straw that breaks the camel’s back.” Adding a cell phone signal booster in your house would have been helpful before the metal roof and certainly would be helpful after your metal roof is installed. However, if you have good to excellent cell phone reception now, the metal roof should not have any noticeable effect.
Todd Miller has spent his entire career in the metal building products manufacturing industry. He is president of Isaiah Industries, an organization recognized as one of the world’s leading metal roofing manufacturers. Todd is currently Vice President of the MRA (Metal Roofing Association) and a Past Chair of MCA (Metal Construction Association). Through his website, he strives to raise the bar on standards and practices to provide property owners with the best possible products for successful roofing projects.
You may pull quotes from this article provided you include a link back to the original article on this site. You may not reprint this full article, or even a significant amount of the article, without explicit permission. To gain permission, click here.
We installs a steel roof on our bungalow and now cell phone reception is so bad that now I take my phone outside to get reception. This suggests that if your home is a typical bungalow (and our roof overhang is 18″ all around the house) it is more likely to not get reception. Wish I had known to check into this before getting the steel roof.
Have you tried contacting your cell phone service provider about getting a booster to put in your home? They often will provide them at no charge.
Verizon told me it would cost me over 300.00 to get a cell phone booster. and that is minimum cost. They didn’t offer to provide one for free
I am sorry to hear that. Apparently some policies have changed. Do you currently have a metal roof that is limiting your cell phone coverage?
Had perfect reception with shingle roof until had metal roof replace it. Now my iPhone won’t work on calls at all.
Had same problem at school that had metal roof.
Very disappointing!!!!
I am very sorry to hear this. This is not what I normally hear from folks, nor my own experience.
I used to have horrible cell phone service, constantly dropping.
If you good Wifi speeds and coverage, a free solution would be to enable Wifi calling on each phone. This will then use your existing Wifi coverage and internet provider for your telephone calls.
Your Wifi equipment will dictate where in the home or how far your Wifi coverage will work.
In my home I have a Wifi Mesh network, which means that all of the different pieces (I have 4) work together as ONE single network. I even have a Wifi Mesh external waterproof device which extends the coverage outside of the home.