Roofing Shingle brand advice

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Quoted $8500 for Timberline HD shingles. Another company quoted $7500 for IKO Cambridge shingle. I've read some HORRIBLE things about older IKO but it seems that their new stuff is ok.

I also understand that the life span of a roof really depends on the install.

Thoughts?
 
Install is of course important however the valleys are what will shorten a roofs life.
I can't stand a shingled valley,called a closed valley. It's where the installer weaves the shingle over and uses just a shingle to waterproof the valley.
No matter what shingle you buy a closed valley will cut 10 years off a roofs life.
An open valley uses aluminum flashing instead of a shingle and will last forever.
I only recommend open valleys. It's not much more money,but adds a decade to the roof itself because of how much water gets funnelled into it.
As far as shingle brands go it's like oil brands. All of them have a top tier,middle tier and of course budget.
A 15 year shingle with a closed valley will not last 15 years however if an open valley is used it's entirely possible to last longer than the 15 year threshold.
And the architectural shingle look nice but because you need different products for ridge cap they can add significant cost to the project.
We pay 7 bucks a bundle for install up to an 8/12,then a buck more per pitch over that 8/12 threshold.
Get 3 quotes minimum and go to the subdivisions where they are actually shingling some houses and deal direct with the installer.
You'll save money vs a salesman and showroom.
 
Are you just buying the shingles or are you getting a quote from a roofing company? If just buying shingles, I've noticed that Home Depot has better prices than the commercial guys, and you can get an even better price by going through their bid desk or at least see if they will take a 10% lowes competitor coupon.

Otherwise if it's a bid, it's hard to say what exactly they're doing. I always make sure it's all spelled out with exactly what they're using like Cobra ridge vent with Timbertex caps, F8 drip edge, that tyvek roofing felt instead of 30#, 6 feet grace ice and water, starter strips, etc. Also what's the certification of the installer? With GAF, you need a certified installer in order to benefit from their lifetime warranty. You should go ahead and read the warranty page on their shingle. Otherwise if you just buy shingles and have anybody install it, it's just a two year warranty. Also for roofing, they always like to quote by the job, but the easiest way to compare prices is to ask how much they charge by the square, a square is 100 square feet. Then there's lots of back and forth about why it's going to be more than their per square price.
 
I'm just going with the estimates and brand the companies were using. They would be supplying all the materials. One is certified to install the GAF stuff and would stand behind it for the 30 year etc. I'm to call and get more info on the cheaper quote as my wife handled that one.
 
Shingles are a commodity, I'm paying $81 a sq for GAF 30 year arch now. Timberline are sometimes cheaper, I think they are $10ish more now.

Tamko are junk, stay away from them.

Make sure they are nailed properly, most roofers are hacks and nail the shingles to high.
 
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Use GAF Deck Armor instead of tarpaper.

The price was the same,
10 square Deck Armor was $100,
3 square tarpaper was $30...
 
Brand tends to matter less than the quality of the install.

All shingle manufacturers have had lawsuits and bad products. Around here it was Certainteed Organic 3-tabs that soured a lot of people on Certainteed shingles. That being said, their Architectural shingles (Landmark) are pretty popular here.

More or less, all we see around here are GAF Timberlines, Certainteed Landmarks, Owens Corning Duration or Oakridge, and IKO Cambridge, in that order. (The first three are made locally, the IKO's come from Illinois).

I have an IKO Cambridge roof in Harvard Slate, and I'm happy.
 
I used Timberlines when I reroofed my own house. But I live in a completely different climate than you. I think code in your area requires peel & stick on the lower 4' or so near the fascia to prevent leakage from possible ice dams. Sounds like a good idea to me. Don't allow anyone to use staples. Period. I also used heavy-duty galvalume flashing instead of the cheap, flimsy stuff. Looks much better and runs straight when looking up the rakes.

I agree with the other guy re: open, metal valleys. I did my three short ones (about 6') in galvalume with peel & stick underneath. No nails in the valley metal either. This is where I had the most water damage because the original roofer did such a lousy job or perhaps the contractor [censored] him off and didn't want to pay him enough to do it right.

Good luck!
 
Originally Posted By: Wolf359
Otherwise if it's a bid, it's hard to say what exactly they're doing. I always make sure it's all spelled out with exactly what they're using like Cobra ridge vent with Timbertex caps, F8 drip edge, that tyvek roofing felt instead of 30#, 6 feet grace ice and water, starter strips, etc. Also what's the certification of the installer?


Yes, spell it out. I wanted my house covered 100% with Grace Ice and Shield, as I had ice damming and wanted it nipped in the bud. I tend to hang around when I have someone working on my house (or furnace or septic), but for some reason I took off for a bit (probably a bicycle ride). Came back, house half shingled, but they skipped the couple feet from the eves. I mean, the lower 4' was done properly, I'm talking about the eves as you go up the roof.

I would have gladly paid $100 more to have it done my way! My loss. At least it hasn't leaked yet.

Since then I've done more reading on the subject, and now I'm not sure it was wise to have it done this way. Regardless, spell it out, and perhaps stick close to home to do your own inspections.
 
Last time we had the roof replaced the contract used Certainteed including all the necessary vents etc. Looked to be good quality and has handled 4 years of tough New England winters
 
Don't get the asphalt paper shingles if they even still make them. The heavier the shingle the longer it last. Is wind a factor?

I worked at IKO for a year. They only used fiberglass for the shingle base there though.
 
A lot depends upon the length of time you're planning to stay in the house, the quality of the home, and what you expect out of the roof.

If you're planning only a few years in the home before moving on, use whichever is least expensive (assuming the installer knows what they are doing). If you're planning on staying in the home long term, a high quality product is well worth it. Our nearly 20 year old, 50 year warranty shingles still look great. I have no doubt they'll last me the rest of my life (and then some).

Another option, if you're planning to stay for a very long time, are metal shingles. I don't care for the metal sheets that look like they belong on a machine shed, but there are a couple homes that have been built in the county that have a metal shingle roof and they really look good. They should last for an extremely long time.
 
And be sure to get some that have a cooper based anti algae compound in then to avoid those unsightly dark streaks.
 
Before roofing my house, I researched which shingles are best from the guys at roofing.com. I went with Certainteed landmark architectural shingles, and upgraded from the 30-yr to 40-yr product, which is thicker. I doubt they'll last an extra 10 years, but they will be more wind- and hail-resistant.

The Certainteed product is formulated with algecide, good for 10 years.

When it comes to valleys, I don't think open valleys are better, with the exception of roofs that see a lot of leaf litter. I believe concensus is that close valleys are better. For the valleys on my home, I first laid the ice & water shield, then a layer of galvanized sheet steel, 24" wide, followed by shingles in the valley with the trim edge cut at the high side of the valley.

BTW, I did all the work myself, including removing three layers and redecking the soft wood with thicker decking.
 
Architectural shingles used to be offered in 30, 40 and 50 year products by most of the manufacturers. A few years ago, that changed, and now they are virtually all sold as 50 year or limited lifetime warranty shingles (all at what used to be sold as a 30 year shingle mind you).

If interested in hail resistance, some of the manufacturers do offer a line specific to that - IKO sells a Cambridge IR (Impact Resistant). Not sure if you can get that with AR (Algae Resistance) though...

As far as Valleys go, standard practice here is open valleys. With color options on the sheet metal, they are generally not so visible.
 
I had three houses with certainteed shingles on. They had a bad batch which caused me to have to replace all of them. After a class action suit they made a sweetheart deal with the FTC . Instead of sending a rep to see all of my curled shingles, I was supposed to send in samples from my roof, prove that you owned the home, show adequate ventilation and qualified installer. What a worthless company... No certainteed on.my house ever ever ever again , they suck.
 
After reading more we're going to go with our first companies estimate. My mom worked there 10 years ago and they treated her and their customers well. They offer a better warranty and have been around for a long time.

GAF timberline HD
 
GAF timberline is good, as per most of the brand name ones.

Fibreglass impregnated asphalt shingles now last at least 25+yrs or more, some high end GAF offers 40+yrs of warranty on them.

IKO Cambridge offers 25 yr on their shingles. My house is now 10yrs old on the older IKO shingles, and I hope that it will give me another 10 to 15 yrs of service life on them.

Manufacturers typically offer very competitive warranty on their shingles...citing that my parent's shingles were 15 yr warranty---and they started to fail around 14yrs (I had to go up that gable style roof top to do patch work until we could schedule a roofer to re-do them).

Q.
 
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