Classic Metal Roofs is a premier metal roofing company known for delivering top-tier, energy-efficient roofing solutions throughout the Northeastern United States. With decades of industry experience, the company specializes in high-performance aluminum, copper, and zinc roofing systems designed to last a lifetime. Their mission is to provide homeowners with sustainable, low-maintenance roofs that enhance both the beauty and durability of their homes.

Lead and copper have played a significant role in architecture for thousands of years (see: copper in architecture). Lead was one of the first and easiest metals to smelt and with a low melting point, it could be easily formed to be watertight. As a by-product of silver smelting, in Roman times it was readily available and relatively cheap.

In the 3rd century BCE, copper roof shingles were installed atop the Lovamahapaya Temple in Sri Lanka. The Romans used copper as roof covering for the Pantheon in 27 BCE.Centuries later, copper and its alloys were integral in European medieval architecture. The copper roof of St. Mary's Cathedral, Hildesheim, installed in 1280 CE, survived until its destruction during bombings in World War II.The roof at Kronborg, one of Northern Europe's most important Renaissance castles (immortalized as Elsinore Castle in Shakespeare's Hamlet) was installed in 1585 CE.The copper on the tower was renovated in 2009.

When iron smelting became widespread in the early 19th century, although the smelting process was complicated, ore was so plentiful that iron became cheaper than lead, and much cheaper than copper. It was later determined that iron corrosion (rust) could be stopped or at least slowed by dipping the hot iron sheets into molten tin or zinc, forming a metallurgically bonded coating which protected it. Terne, an iron plate dipped into a solder of 80-90% lead with only the remainder tin, was cheaper than tinplate made in the same way, and the lead was more resistant in long-term outside use than tin or zinc alone. Terne became popular for roofs and weather-resistant farm items.

In 1829, Henry Palmer, engineer of the London Dock Company, patented "indented or corrugated metallic sheets" which added additional stiffness to bending in one direction in the manner of a beam. This allowed the sheet iron to be self-supporting when used as a roof; a contemporary account praised the material as "the lightest and strongest roof (for its weight) since the days of Adam".

After Palmer's patent expired in 1843, corrugated galvanized iron (CGI) became a world-wide favorite roofing material.In the later 19th century, steel mills replaced iron works, and the product using steel could be made thinner for the same span and stiffness performance, but the term CGI remains in the UK and Australia. In the early 20th century, after being used for military purposes in the trenches and for Nissen or Quonset huts, CGI roofs were widely used but had low status.After architects such as Walter Gropius and Buckminster Fuller used the material, and with shiny and streamlined "desert modernist" designs such as Pierre Koenig's Stahl House (with an interior exposed metal roof, but not actual CGI), it recovered status.Albert Frey's 1964 Palm Springs house used actual corrugated steel as roofing, as well as corrugated aluminum exterior siding.