Fairfax County wrote a design guide for the old Lorton Reformatory buildings, and its roof pages list metal beside slate and asphalt shingle. This page reads that text closely: where it names metal, where only slate, and what it leaves out.
The document
The county's Laurel Hill page links a PDF of Standards and Guidelines for the Laurel Hill Adaptive Reuse Area. Its cover is marked draft, February 2007, and the county links it as a draft. No final version appears on the county's pages, so everything below is the draft's wording.
It covers the Reformatory and Penitentiary complexes and their grounds, not every Lorton street. A 2001 agreement, it explains, has the county Architectural Review Board review work there as in a historic overlay district. The Occoquan Workhouse lies south of it.
Reading the roof pages
Historically, the primary roofing materials used were slate, metal, and asphalt shingles, some of which still exist. Modern replacement asphalt shingle can also be found on the historic buildings.
Standards and Guidelines, Section 2, Roofs (draft).
Guard towers attached to the surrounding wall typically feature octagonal flat seam painted metal roofs.
Same document, Section 3, Roof and Cornice. The site description earlier in the text says the corner towers are "capped by octagonal metal roofs".
Sloped roofs are typically gable end, with historic slate or modern asphalt shingles.
Same document, Section 4, new construction. Its materials standard also lists "slate and asphalt shingles for roofs".
Repair and replacement
First: repair only the worn parts
Removing a whole roof material that can still be repaired is marked not recommended, and sound slate is to be saved and reinstalled when sheathing needs work.
Second: replace in kind
Where the historic material is too far gone, the same material again.
Third: a substitute, only if the same material is not technically feasible
It must be "similar in size, shape, color, texture and reflectivity"; one that does not convey the look of the surviving roof is not recommended.
Whether a given metal profile meets that test is for the review boardColor is part of the test: the guide names slate gray as the predominant roof color.
The Workhouse buildings, on the record
The Workhouse campus is a separate part of the old complex. These are the board's minutes, not the design guide.
For five unoccupied buildings at 8941 Workhouse Road, the county proposed to repair collapsing roofs, with copper fascias and gravel stops to match existing and dark gray slate to match existing.
The presenter described brick buildings with asphalt and slate roofs. The board approved the repairs unanimously.
Neither set of minutes puts a metal roof covering on these buildings. Metal appears only as copper edging.
If metal is on the table
The Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety sorts metal panels into exposed fastener and concealed fastener types, standing seam being one of the latter. "Flat seam painted metal" does not say which family a proposal belongs to.
The federal Building America Solution Center warns against mixing different metals on one roof, because they can corrode each other. With copper edging in play, ask what the fasteners are made of.
A roofing trade magazine explains that metal changes length with temperature and that restricting the movement can cause failures. Ask how panels are free to move.
For panel types in general, see our Northern Virginia metal roofing guide and the materials page.
No county text we opened says metal is required, preferred or barred on an ordinary Lorton house or townhouse, or on the newer Laurel Hill homes outside the adaptive reuse area. Your community's own documents may say otherwise. If the property might sit inside the review area, the Architectural Review Board answers at 703-324-1380; give the street address and the covering you have in mind.
Building permits are separate: Land Development Services, 703-222-0801. Our Lorton page sorts the offices, and the EPDM page covers flat townhouse roofs here.
Questions
It neither allows nor bans one. It lists metal among the historic roofing materials and describes metal roofs on the wall towers. Beyond that, the board reviews the actual proposal.
Only if the property sits inside the adaptive reuse area it describes. It is a guide for the former prison buildings, not for every Lorton mailing address.
The minutes describe asphalt and slate roofs there and ask for slate to match existing. Matching what is already there is the stated aim.
The guide says flat seam painted metal and never equates it with standing seam, so do not assume the two are one.
It names slate gray as the predominant color and asks replacement parts to match the original's color, texture and reflectivity.
The county's Architectural Review Board, at 703-324-1380, for whether the address falls in the review area. Then the permit office, then any association.
Nearby
Close by, see metal roofs in Springfield and metal roofs in Burke, or return to the Lorton page.
Talk through the next step
Share the address, what you are seeing on the roof and the decision you need to make. We will tell you what to expect before anything is scheduled.
9220 Topaz St, Fairfax, VA 22031
Mon to Fri 7 AM to 8:30 PM, Sat 7 AM to 8 PM, closed Sunday