Proper Extension: Metal Roof Overhang Over Drip Edge

Rainwater slides off a properly installed metal roof in Nassau County best when the panels extend three-quarters of an inch to one and a quarter inches past the drip edge, a range I’ve nailed down after fixing storm failures up and down Long Beach and Merrick for nineteen years-because our wind off the bay doesn’t blow politely downward. Too short, and repeated nor’easters drive water back under the edge until your fascia turns black; too long, and a March gale catches that overhang like a sail and peels sections back, leaving you with bent panels and emergency tarp calls on a Tuesday night.

That measurement might sound narrow, but it’s the result of hundreds of jobs where I’ve seen what happens when someone eyeballs it or uses whatever their last roofer told them without adjusting for Nassau’s sideways rain. I learned metal roofs the hard way-on hot August days when every mistake cooked under the sun-and the overhang-to-drip-edge connection is where most of those mistakes show up first during a storm.

The Right Overhang for Nassau County’s Metal Roofs

On most Nassau County homes I work on, I’m aiming for that three-quarter to one-and-a-quarter-inch overhang measured from where the drip edge bends down over the fascia to where the metal panel actually ends, not where the panel’s edge starts to curve or bend. That’s the horizontal distance, taken when you’re standing at the eave looking straight at it, and it changes a bit depending on your drip edge profile-some bend sharper, some have a longer horizontal leg-but the basic target holds.

Here’s the part a lot of roofers rush through but I refuse to: you can’t just set the panel overhang without first checking that your drip edge is positioned correctly on the fascia and that it kicks out far enough to clear the gutter. If your drip edge sits flush or tilts back toward the house, even a perfect one-inch overhang won’t stop water from sneaking behind the trim during heavy rain. I’ve pulled off enough five-year-old roofs to know that edge details matter more than the brand of panel you pick.

What “Proper Overhang” Really Means

When we talk about proper overhang for metal roofs over drip edge, we’re really talking about the horizontal distance the metal panel extends past the point where the drip edge folds down, creating a small gap between the panel’s edge and the fascia so that water drops cleanly into the gutter instead of running back along the underside of the panel or dripping behind the trim. It’s not about the panel sticking out into open air for looks-it’s about managing the path rainwater takes once it leaves the roof surface, especially when wind is shoving that water in directions gravity alone wouldn’t send it.

Why That Measurement Keeps Your Nassau Home Dry

If you’ve ever watched rain roll off your roof in a heavy storm, especially during one of those October nor’easters that hit the south shore at a weird angle, you’ve probably noticed water doesn’t just drip straight down-it clings, it runs sideways along edges, and it finds every little gap between metal and wood. That’s exactly why the overhang and drip edge have to work as a team, not just sit next to each other hoping for the best.

Back on a job in Atlantic Beach one October, I tore off a five-year-old metal roof where the panels only overhung the drip edge by about a quarter inch, and repeated nor’easters had driven water back under that edge, rotting the fascia on the ocean-facing side so badly the wood crumbled when I pulled the first panel. I still remember showing the homeowner the blackened wood at the eave and explaining how another half inch of overhang and a properly positioned drip edge would’ve saved thousands in repair costs-because that tiny gap let capillary action pull water up and backward instead of forcing it to drop free.

Your roof pitch plays into this too, though not as much as people think. A steeper pitch-say, seven-in-twelve or more-sends water off faster, so you might get away with three-quarters of an inch in a pinch, but anything below a four-in-twelve pitch means water moves slower and has more time to wick or blow backward, which is why I push closer to the one-and-a-quarter-inch mark on low-slope metal roofs around here. And if your house sits near the water or in an open lot where wind has a clean run at your eaves, add another eighth inch as insurance.

Gutters complicate the picture even more, because if your gutter lip sits too high or too far back, even a perfect overhang dumps water behind the gutter instead of into it, which defeats the whole system. During a humid July in Merrick, I helped a homeowner who kept getting staining on their new white gutters, and I traced the problem to improperly aligned drip edge and metal panel overhang that dumped rainwater behind the gutter instead of into it-adjusting the overhang and adding a small kick-out at the drip edge solved both the water issue and the cosmetic problem, and I often reference that job when people think overhang is just about keeping water off the siding.

How to Check and Measure Your Metal Roof Overhang

Before we even touch a tape measure, you need to know what you’re looking at, which means getting a ladder up to an eave-preferably on the side that takes the most wind and rain, usually the south or east face on Nassau properties-and looking at how the metal panel sits relative to the drip edge underneath. Don’t do this during a storm, obviously, but pick a day after a decent rain when you can see water stains or rust patterns that show where water actually traveled, not where you think it should’ve gone.

Let’s strip this down to the numbers for a second. Grab a tape measure and extend it from the fascia board’s front face-the vertical surface-out to the very edge of the metal panel, and read that horizontal distance. Then measure from that same fascia face to the outer edge of the drip edge’s downward bend, the point where it kicks away from the building. Subtract the second number from the first, and that’s your actual overhang past the drip edge. If you’re landing between three-quarters and one and a quarter inches, you’re in the safe zone for most Nassau County setups.

Now imagine a specific storm-say, a February nor’easter blowing steady rain at forty miles per hour from the southeast, soaking your eaves for six straight hours while the temperature hovers just above freezing. Picture that scenario and ask yourself three quick questions:

Does water have a clear path off the panel edge and into open air or the gutter?
Is there any gap or seam where wind could push water back under the panel?
If ice forms at the edge, does your overhang still keep melt away from the fascia?

That’s storm-day thinking in action-you’re not designing for a sunny July afternoon, you’re designing for the ugliest weather Nassau throws at you, and that’s when overhang mistakes show up as leaks, rot, or peeled metal.

Measuring Your Overhang: A Simple Walkthrough

Stand at the eave with your tape measure, and first confirm your drip edge is actually fastened tight to the fascia with no gaps or waves-loose drip edge makes any overhang measurement useless because the reference point moves in wind. Next, hold the tape hook against the fascia’s front vertical surface and pull the tape straight out horizontally until it reaches the outermost edge of the metal panel, not the bent hem if your panel has one but the actual final edge where metal ends. Write that number down. Then measure from the same fascia point to the outer edge of the drip edge, where it bends down and away from the building, and write that down too. Subtract the drip edge measurement from the panel measurement, and the difference is your working overhang-aim for that three-quarter to one-and-a-quarter range, adjusting up for low pitch or high wind exposure.

What Goes Wrong When Overhang Is Off?

Where most folks get nervous is right here at the edge, because this is where contractor mistakes turn into real damage, and honestly, I’ve seen more sloppy edge work in Nassau County than I care to count-partly because crews rush the eaves to finish a job, and partly because some roofers just don’t think about storm-day performance, only about getting the panel to hang past the drip edge “enough” without defining what that means.

In a late-winter project over in Rockville Centre, I corrected a contractor’s mistake where the metal panels stuck out nearly two inches past the drip edge, catching wind like a sail, and after a strong March storm peeled a few panels back at the corners, I re-installed the system with a tighter overhang and added extra fasteners at the edge, using that job ever since as my go-to example of why “more overhang” isn’t always better-because once you go past about an inch and a half, you’re creating leverage for wind uplift, especially on standing seam or ribbed profiles that give the wind something to grab.

And that’s exactly why I refuse to just extend panels as far as possible and call it safe-you’re balancing two failure modes, water intrusion on the short side and wind damage on the long side, and the sweet spot for Nassau’s conditions lands right in that three-quarter to one-and-a-quarter window. Miss it in either direction, and you’re either replacing fascia boards or re-fastening torn panels, sometimes both.

Two Ways Overhang Fails

When your overhang runs too short-say, half an inch or less-water doesn’t break cleanly away from the panel during heavy rain; instead, it clings to the underside due to surface tension and capillary action, then migrates back toward the fascia or gets blown back under the panel by wind, soaking the wood behind your drip edge and starting rot that you won’t notice until the damage is structural. On the other end, when overhang stretches past about an inch and three-quarters, especially on exposed eaves facing open sky or water, wind gets underneath that extended edge during storms and generates uplift force that pulls fasteners loose or bends the panel back, sometimes ripping the drip edge off with it if the two are interlocked-and once that failure starts at one corner, the next gust often propagates it down the entire eave, leaving you with a mess that requires full edge replacement instead of a simple fix.

Overhang Numbers and Local Adjustments for Nassau

Back on a job in Baldwin a few winters ago, I worked on a house that sat about four blocks from the bay with basically no trees blocking the prevailing southeast wind, and the old roof had that classic one-inch overhang that would’ve been fine in a sheltered neighborhood but wasn’t enough for that exposure. We bumped it to one and an eighth inches, tightened the drip edge fastening, and added a small continuous cleat behind the panel edge for extra hold-not because the math required it, but because storm-day thinking told me that particular house would see the worst of every coastal gale, and an extra eighth inch of overhang plus a stronger edge attachment would pay off over twenty years.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the numbers I use depending on what I find on a Nassau roof: for standard residential pitch-say, four-in-twelve to six-in-twelve-with typical L-style or T-style drip edge and moderate wind exposure, I’m installing panels with a one-inch overhang past the drip edge, measured horizontally. For low-slope roofs below four-in-twelve, or for any home within a quarter mile of open water or sitting on a corner lot with no windbreak, I push that to one and a quarter inches. If the house has a steep pitch above seven-in-twelve and sits inland with good tree cover, I’ll drop to three-quarters of an inch, but I rarely go below that in Nassau because our storms are just too unpredictable, and I’d rather have a little extra insurance than save a quarter inch of metal.

One insider tip I picked up after years of coastal work: if you’re using a drip edge with a longer horizontal leg-some of the commercial profiles extend a full inch out from the fascia before they bend down-you can tighten your panel overhang to three-quarters of an inch and still get excellent performance, because that longer drip edge leg is doing part of the work of kicking water away from the building. But if you’ve got a short, stubby drip edge that barely clears the fascia, you need the full one-and-a-quarter-inch panel overhang to compensate, or you’ll end up with water running down the fascia face during every storm.

Recommended Measurements for Typical Nassau Setups

These numbers aren’t arbitrary-they’re the result of storm-day thinking applied to hundreds of Nassau County roofs, and they account for the fact that our weather comes at us from the ocean, not from some predictable inland direction, which means your edge needs to handle rain that’s blowing nearly horizontal during the peak of a nor’easter.

Getting It Right with TWI Roofing

When you’re standing in your driveway after a storm, watching water pour off your roof and wondering if everything’s working the way it should, you’re basically doing what I do on every job-testing the system against real conditions instead of trusting that someone got the details right the first time. The boring stuff like drip edges, overhangs, and flashing is what actually keeps you dry, not the color of the panel or the brand name stamped on the box.

At TWI Roofing, we’ve spent years dialing in these edge details for Nassau County homes, because we know that a metal roof is only as good as its worst transition point, and the eave is where most water enters a building when things go wrong. I’d rather spend an extra hour getting your overhang and drip edge positioned correctly than rush through it and get a callback six months later when you’ve got fascia rot starting behind the trim.

If you’re looking at a new metal roof install or you’re seeing signs that your current edge setup isn’t handling storms the way it should-water stains on the fascia, gutters overflowing at the corners, or ice dams forming right at the eave-reach out to us at TWI Roofing and we’ll come take a look with a tape measure and a realistic assessment of what your particular house needs, not a one-size-fits-all answer that ignores your exposure and roof pitch.

Storm-day thinking means imagining the worst weather Nassau can throw at your home and making sure every edge detail, every fastener, and every inch of overhang is positioned to handle that specific scenario-not the calm sunny day when the roof gets installed, but the February nor’easter or August thunderstorm that tests whether the system actually works.