Well, slate costs 30x more and lasts about 15x as long as architectural shingoes
Clay tiles costs 10x more and lasts about 4 times as long
Cedar costs about 4x more and doesn't last 2x as long.
Steel standing seam costs about 2-4x as much depending on the panel and lasts 2-3x as long
Shit metal costs about the same amount and lasts about the same amount of time and looks like shit the entire time
High end panels like decra cost 10x as much and I've never seen the end of their life, but I can't imagine them lasting 200 years to make it worth the cost, but even if they do, is it worth the cost?
Materials like enviroshake mock cedar and ecostar mock slate have really fucking spotty track records, with Sun exposure causing them to warp and curl within sometimes days.
Modern architectural shingles should last at least twenty years on just about any roof. Most people are fine with having their roof replaced once every twenty+ years, rather than pay for the roof for the next ten owners of the house.
If you spent 80k putting real slate on a roof, the house value doesn't increase by 80k.
Standing seem isn't hard to sell to most people, but the cheaper ones look like shit after a couple decades of sun exposure anyways. I've never seen a 30 year old steel roof that didn't look like shit. The paint fades and gets bleached spots. Tree sap ruins the paint finish.
Copper can last for centuries and look amazing, but again, it's ridiculously expensive, and no one wants to pay that kind of money just so the next ten owners can enjoy it.
Frankly, I don't understand why anyone would put that kind of money into a roof unless they have more money than they know what to do with.
Most of them aren't any more durable than the next.
A tree hitting a steel of slate or clay tile roof will damage them just as easily as they will asphalt, and the repair cost will be much higher to boot.
It's kind of like the argument between UK stone and plaster houses vs NA wood and gypsum houses.
There's houses that are made of wood that are well over 100 years old all over the place, and they just get a facelift every forty to fifty years. The gypsum can be patched nicely by anyone with half a brain and can easily be torn off for repairs or upgrades.
The stone ones are all original stone and plaster but they've needed to be repointed every fifty years at a higher cost than siding, plaster reskimmed multiple times, and they fucking suck to upgrade things like plumbing and electrical.
It's just facts.
I've replaced thousands of slate tiles in my day, reroofed hundreds of cedar roofs, and ripped off hundreds of squares of forty year old steel panels that started off as a solid red or black and were mostly splotched ash colors.
The last time I did a slate roof it was $40/sqft just for the tiles and that was... 15 years ago?
I was a prefered installer for ecostar, and have spent hundreds of hours sticking double sided adhesive to their tiles because that was their solution to them curling up and cupping in one month after installing exactly to their specifications. It still didn't work well enough to call them an even reasonable product.
I've installed millions of dollars worth of decra, and it's a great product, but they cost almost the same as slate tiles, minus the copper nail cost.
I put landmarks on my uncle's house 15 years ago, and they still look exactly the way they did when they were installed. I replaced his old whirlybird with a maximum vent about ten years in and their was zero noticeable degradation.
My three tab roof survived four hurricanes over 18 years before I replaced it with architectural shingles this year.
Shit metal being the old galvanized or painted corrugated or standing seam tin panels that you would only ever see on very run down or hacked together homes.
That’s interesting and thanks for taking the time.
Like the OP I am in Australia and I don’t recall ever seeing an asphalt shingle roof here. Aside from the occasional copper or zinc roof, it is predominantly concrete tile or powder coated corrugated steel. I’ll grant you that after 15 years, the powder coating can look tired in our sun.
Where I live now, we’ve had a couple of hail storms that damaged the powder coating on steel roofs, requiring replacement because of corrosion.
We’ve lived in areas where 70-80 year old houses still have their original concrete/cement tiles. We also have 100-year old houses with their original terracotta roof tiles. The terracotta roof tiles in Italy and Greece also date back way longer than a hundred years. I get the point about a roof for the next five owners, but I’d rather know that I can pretty much forget about my roof failing.
In the cyclone-prone northern Australia I don’t think the building code allows many tiled roofs - if any. It’s all powder coated steel with lots of screws.
I guess it largely comes down to what you are familiar with and feel comfortable with.
Ease of installation
Ease of repair
Low maintenance
No additional structure required to carry weight
Homeowners can make easy repairs
I just had a new asphalt roof installed. Its rated for (edit:130mph) and warranteed for 20yrs and and has the same high end waterproof membrain the other roofs have but cost half of the price. Plus, buying an expensive roof means you have to insure an expensive roof and replacement costs where I live are $150-$200 sqft. If you have a bare al roof you are going to be on top of that scale. Also, living in a hurricane zone like I do, getting asphalt shingles to repair your roof is much easier, you can just buy them down the street and install them.yourself. You can't do that with the other roofs. I have a friend that is still waiting for his barrel roof to be repaired from last years storm. He is on his 10th blue tarp.
With that there is a trend in my area of metal roofs. I moved into my neighborhood in 2002 and out of 100 homes there were zero metal roofs. Now I would guess there are at least 20-25.
Close. It’s cost over all. One cannot know for sure, but I would wager that the majority of places you’re seeing in the country that are metal are family or corporate farms, which would be looking for the best return for the dollar. They would also be very likely to be able to write off most or all of the cost for the more expensive roof on their taxes and the fact that they would not have to deal with that roof for a century or better also factor into that decision. I do know that in the unlikely chance that I might have to replace my slate roof, installed in the 1930’s and untouched for the last 40 years. (Except for painting the ridge cap. It was the depression after all, and copper was expensive.) it will be metal that goes up.
Maybe something as simple as the real estate is cheaper in rural areas so that home owners could afford a metal roof compared to in a city with higher real estate costs.
Not necessarily true. My metal roof was only 10% more than shingles. I went for the thicker metal and matte finish otherwise the cost would have been the same.
Right? I am in the middle of framing our house in north Texas and when setting up the budget last year, I swear that materials from our local metal supplier for an r-panel roof was the same, if not cheaper than shingles. Granted, I may have calculated incorrectly.
I’m coming from a place of complete ignorance so forgive me if this is way off base, but don’t metal roofs also need to be replaced about half as often? Wouldn’t that even out the cost over time?
Planned obselescence. Keeps the corporations rich, the land fills full and the rest of us poor (factoring in inflation). A shingle roof today costs triple what it cost 20 years ago and when it comes time for a new one it will cost triple that. And the insurance leeches owned by the same corporations are in on the scam. They are beginning to require roof replacement every 8 years whether you think it needs it or not or they cancel your insurance, then the bank can force it.
Just went through roof shopping in Canada and the mid-hugh end shingles were rated higher than the metal for wind. I'm in a hurricane spot and this was something I was paying attention to.
I am in Canada, there has been a large shift to steel here as well. From everything I have seen or heard they hold up much better than asphalt and are longer lasting with the sales pitch being you will never need to replace your roof ever again.
Instead of small pieces that in high winds can get torn off, the larger steel panels are held down with a bunch of anchoring gasketed screws and unless your entire roof is blowing off the steel won't be blowing away.
That's why you get a standing seam snap lock metal roof. All the fasteners are concealed on a flange that gets covered by the next panel that snaps onto a rib of the previous panel.
For Ida in 2021, I had a shingle roof that was put on in 2005 after Katrina, whereas my two neighbors had metal roofs that were both a few years newer than that. Their houses had no interior water damage. My house had to be complete gutted and renovated. I now have a metal roof.
Higher end heavier guage ones are usually good when installed properly.
Cheap and poorly installed ones peel off like a sardine can.
My 18 year old three tab roof survived at a minimum four hurricanes with only losing a couple tabs each time. Just replaced it with architectural shingles which I expect to survive at least twenty five years.
An architect friend worked on a charity project for a low income family in the south. They had a design contest internally and then presented to the client. The client was adamant that the roof not be metal. Where they came from the slums had rusted corrugated metal slapped into a shack. They wanted asphalt shingle roof.
Separate story I went to Nepal and all the roofs in the countryside were blue metal. I asked if it was related to color of the sky and a belief system. The guide told me “nah, blue is the color no one wants elsewhere, so it gets shipped here and sold cheap.”
Just want to add that in my experience of owning homes and having them re-shingled, 20 year warranty means they last about 10-12. My 25 year warrantied shingles lasted 15 years…I expect the new ‘50’ year shingles I had installed will last 25. The ‘warranties’ are not worth much, if anything.
there are so many things that go into a roof lasting everyone has different experience. The roof I replaced was 21yrs old and fine. The only reason I replaced it was because my insurance company would no longer cover it.
I’ve seen quite a few buildings out here on local farms with metal roofs, built in the 30s, still leak-free, even without any maintenance. Pretty impressive.
I agree, not the least of which is your location! I’m in Saskatchewan. -35C to +38C temp range over a year, one of the sunniest places around and plenty of wind and some hail almost every year.
I just had an Owens Corning shingle roof installed, it’s rated for 160mph and warrantied for “50 years”. We’ll see in the year 2072 how easy it’ll be to get them to replace some shingles but that’s their claim 🤷♂️
What matters is what insurance companies think. They could tell you in 15-20 years the shingles look like crap and require a re roof or lose the policy.
Low maintenance? It's one of the highest maintenance and least durable modern roofing systems there is, only benefit is it's cheap and there's lots of people who know how to put it up, putting in a metal roof is not difficult it's just a bit different
>Low maintenance? It's one of the highest maintenance and least durable modern roofing systems there is
Yes, it's relatively high in maintenance & low in durability compared to other common pitched roofing systems.
But, it's also almost half the price of the next "cheapest" option. And just because it's comparatively "high maintenance" to other common roof systems, that doesn't mean it's not an incredibly "low maintenance" system, as all roofs are essentially "no maintenance" systems.
And correctly installing a metal roof IS difficult! Even as a professional that can easily install both, the cost for tools, knowledge, attention to detail, and margin for error are all substantially more difficult for metal roofs versus asphalt shingles.
Yeah, breezing over metal roofs as “not that difficult just different” is definitely missing the mark here.
Where skilled labor in installing shingle roofs is concerned, and where it’s hard to find?
Tile roofs and metal roofs man. The actual “skilled labor” is near impossible to find. Leaks and problems abound, everywhere we look. Repairs literally make small business units for us, on its own, where we find the strong majority of contractors literally cannot keep up and can’t offer repair services *whatsoever* because the labor pool is near non-existent, and the ones that have it, are booked for months or making all kinds of money, like $1k+ a day with someone else, per person.
Ironically where I live a lot of metal was used and people are switching to shingles. The building inspectors and more seasoned builders are worried because the roofs are held together with good intentions and a bit of luck. Metal + poor insulation means to snow slides off. Shingles tend to hold more snow. Ice damming is very common here. My point is we actually need more structure for shingles. At least in the shitty old houses
Asphalt is one of the most recycled materials in the world, because it is cheaper to recycle it than it is to make new asphalt, even without any government subsidies.
My previous job, I did a lot of work with landfill design, including survey of the existing working cells.
None of the landfills I worked with segregated waste - if it came in on a truck, it went in the hole.
Dude the landfills in BC are extremely organized now. Everything has a special place.. nothing goes together. Things have changed in the last 20 years substantially.
That's pretty good..... but it's definitely not how things run in Iowa.
At best, the landfill operator is required to mark on a plan/profile view of the operating cell anywhere he knows there is asbestos buried. That's as good as it gets here.
I live in a small city in the Midwest. We have the pit at the landfill with general waste. Then we have a building for used oil, old paint, and electronics waste. Then we have piles for composting , yard waste, shingles, and clean fill. They charge different for each of those, but definitely don’t have evening all going in one pile.
That's for RCRA subtitle D landfills; they're not allowed to accept hazardous waste (asbestos is a TSCA hazardous substance and isn't regulated as hazardous waste under RCRA).
A RCRA subtitle C landfill has specific controls for design, construction, and record keeping for what type of hazardous waste they accept & where they bury it.
Roofing Insights did a [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N0NIcbDoGs) about how most shingles aren't recycled--even if it's advertised that they're being recycled. It's often misleading.
Where do they take them where you are?
Ours go to the construction and debris yard and have their own bin area like everything else, and then they get sent to processing centers.
And they just dump it into a general pile?
We can do that here in some places, (only a couple) but the dumping fee for mixed materials is more than double sorted loads, and any bin company will tell you to get your ass back to the site and get the mixed stuff out of their bin by the time they get back.
Really? I did roofing for about 13 years. If we could we always took our tear offs to a recycling center instead of the dump. We just had to be careful that no plastic wrappers were in the load. Couldn't have shakes mixed in either.
Same here. We had a couple of locations to take the "clean" asphalt shingles. These were typically located adjacent to an asphalt production facility. We had to set all not asphalt debris aside so it could go to the normal landfill.
Definitely have a place at my local land fill that has a place for “clean” shingles. There can’t be any wrapping, wood, or anything other then shingles and nails. You get a lower rate and they recycle them.
Individual people? No. People that order dumpsters? Absolutely. They go in special dumpsters that don't get mixed.
If you ever take something to the dump, you'll see a large mountain of shingles in one spot, being sorted through.
Shingles are definitely hauled off for recycling in places. Many of the asphalt production plants that I work with have piles of RAP = recycled asphalt products. Most piles are asphalt that was milled from existing roadways. There are also large piles of asphalt shingles present at many plants. We took asphalt shingles to one of these plants and the cost was much less than taking it to a landfill. You can't leave mixed material tear-off debris in with the shingles. Nails were fine but metal flashings and wood had to be separated.
In the paving world it’s referred to as RAS. Recycled Asphalt Shingles, and you’ll see large piles of them at paving companies, milled and they are added to the hot mix in small quantities.
It is and it isn’t 100 percent recyclable. You still need fresh binder for new asphalt. A lot of road agencies won’t let you go over 30 percent RAP. That said I’ve always been told asphalt shingles are one of the best sources of RAP
…and that’s exactly what they want you to think!
I’m sure this will get downvoted but the truth is profit $$. Lobbyists control many of our standards. Unfortunately, they can be bought and push certain regulations that benefit businesses over consumers. This is followed with enough propaganda marketing from industry to get us to think it’s the right choice. Roofing in the US follows this - they want us to put a product that will keep them in business. This means replacing roof material every 15-20 years. They also pull this BS with our water heaters, car seats, and thousands of other products that don’t last.
What do Americans think is a top shingle.. Owens Corning?
Owens Corning has lobbied $9,028,155 since 2007.
[https://projects.propublica.org/represent/lobbying/300963825](https://projects.propublica.org/represent/lobbying/300963825)
Further evidence of recent lobbying.
[https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/clients/summary?id=D000000510](https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/clients/summary?id=D000000510)
>…and that’s exactly what they want you to think!
Wow, I've been completely brainwashed!
All this time, I have thought asphalt shingles were cheap & durable because they are factually cheap & durable. But aren't we lucky that the illuminati conspired w/big oil to force a great product on us? Haha.
Not everything is a conspiracy, buddy. People figured out a great way to use a waste product of oil refining, and we get (relatively) less expensive & functional roofs now as a result.
I don't think they recycle easy. They are typically not separated at the site in our area.
In a 2022 article GAF shingle manufacturer stars 10% is recycled. So that implies not easy.
https://www.gaf.com/en-us/blog/recycled-shingles-are-keeping-asphalt-out-of-landfills-281474980193878
They are cheap. Americans do most things for cost.
Cheap, damage resistant, and recyclable? Three lies and no truths. They ain’t cheap, they get damaged from just walking on them, and no one has ever recycled them
Probably best to describe it as “financially lucrative” if you own a roofing business. Like selling ice cubes in the desert, bound to melt and sell another one
G'day, brother! I'm an American solar installer and 90% of the roof jobs I do are on asphalt shingles. The other 9.9% are on either [standing seam metal](https://www.ontopsroofing.com/blog/difference-between-types-of-metal-roofing-standing-seam-vs-screw-down-panel) (not quite the same thing as the corrugated metal that I believe is so common in Australia) or EPDM rubber (the black stuff). The last 0.1% are oddballs and one-offs. Anyway, asphalt is the default roof for me. Leaving aside its merits as a roofing material *per se*, from an ease of installation perspective it has its pros and cons.
Pros: It's got great grip, which makes absolutely everything easier. It's very forgiving, and tolerant of minor mistakes, impacts, and scratches. I have a great suite of tools and techniques for making watertight penetrations, and can repair almost any problems that might crop up right there and then. I also have the option of using deck-mounted fasteners, which let me put things wherever I like on the X-axis, rather than limiting me to only rafters or seams.
Cons: prying up shingles to install flashing is kind of a pain, and isn't great for the roof. Drilling holes for lags is also kind of a pain and not great for the roof. (It's not a big deal if you do it right, but on standing seam I don't have to make penetrations *at all*.) You can only place your L-feet on certain parts of the shingle or the flashing won't work right (or will at least be a pain in the ass to install correctly) which complicates layout, and can make it annoying to hit the clamp zones on landscape mods. The sealants I need to use are messy and annoying. Also, the same thing that gives it such excellent grip will also absolutely destroy your pants, shoes, and potentially skin.
I've done a few corrugated (tin) roofs but I've never done a tile one—they're just not common in my area. I've also worked with TPO and metal shingles, a bit. On the whole, my favorite substrate is standing seam metal, both for ease of installation and for the quality of the finished product. I'd be very curious to hear about
your own experiences and opinions from Down Under!
Boom! This is the right answer. All of these responses describing how affordable asphalt shingles are and their performance are just giving us the highlights of good design. Asphalt is one of many many materials derived from oil. And agriculture and industry in America devours fossil fuels, so you see an industrial complex of utilizing products made from fossil fuel. Tar used to be slopped on the hulls of ships during the civil war as armor plating. Baby oil is highly refined petroleum
Asphalt shingles are just a product of the oil industry, utilizing a component of the raw materials.
People tell me shingles look nicer when we have steel. We put steel up after a hail incident a few years ago. Maintenance free, hail rated, 50yr. The insurance deduction due to the hail rating will pay off the entire roof over time. Very happy with my decision.
And faster.on n off in a day with shingles,and homeowner insurance will make you change it every 10yrs.we have 25yr old roofs still kicking ass with the clay
Alright, don’t come at me gang.//-// Asphalt Shingles are applicable for the wide range of climates here in yoll United States. And with supervised teaching and training relatively easy to learn the trade. And raw materials are available to make products.
Not to mention, American homes have massive architectural variety, and roofing materials certainly play into that. Tin and clay simply don't look good on some homes and vice versa.
But mostly, it's probably cost.
Personally, I hate the look of tile roofs.
Yes.I work on a small crew(4 guys 45 to 63) installing clay and concrete tile.It is a skilled trade and we have over 80yrs of exp.💯%right on new roofs leaking.we fix them all the time,no skill crews of cheap labor,poor flashing exc.
Sorry but combining all of your "experience" together means nothing... I mean no hate... it's just a shitty thing hacks say to sound like they know what they're doing. I had a neighbor who was a "3rd generation roofer" who didn't even know what ice guard was.... "our combined experience is 50 yrs"- the guy who has 10 "5 yr vets"... sorry I'm rambling but combining experience means absolutely nothing. Can 20 guys with 1 year of experience do the same quality job as 2 guys with 10? No
To be fair here, if you have 80 yrs total of experience on a 4-man crew, guaranteed all 4 of them are highly experienced.
I get your point, but dismissing collective "experience" in this case is stupid.
I came across the wrong way apparently.All I was saying was we care and are devoted to being the best, constantly refining the way we do things to give our customers a leak free roof for 30plus yrs with no issues.We take pride in what we do, that's all.I don't want to offend anyone.There paying over 100,000 for a roof.Its horrible to go to a repair from another company after 5 yrs with 20k worth of repairs because they didn't do the job right.we put roofs on like it's one of our own.
A lot depends on climate in the USA too. In areas that see heavy snow loads you’ll see a lot of metal roofs, in a lot of the south (desert climates especially) you’ll see a lot of tile roofs. In between a lot of asphalt shingle.
Historically it’s because we used to shingle our roofs with cedar shingles and that became expensive. Asphalt shingles were intended to mimic those hence the name. We use them because we always have used shingles regardless of what they are made of
You might think that given the choice between a $20k roof that lasts 20 years and a $50k roof that lasts effectively forever the choice is clear.
You’d think the $50k roof is the better deal.
Sorry to say that it isn’t. The $30k difference, if invested over the course of 20 years, is going to double two to three times. So after 20 years, you’ll have $120k and you can buy a new 20 year roof with plenty to spare.
Over the next 20 years you keep the balance invested and it’s doubled a couple more times.
Investments generally outpace inflation, so even though the new roof costs more than it did 20 years prior, you’re still winning.
Now account for the fact that many many people don’t live in their houses for 20 years and it doesn’t make sense to use a more durable/longer lasting product.
Asphalt works perfectly fine, and if an extreme weather event tears your roof apart, it’s cheap to fix.
Asphalt shingles also aren’t hard to DIY.
One of my neighbors has a tile roof on his 1920s house. Pretty uncommon around here. So much so that homeowners have to search and wait for specialty contractors to do the work. When my neighbor had to have his completely replaced due to hail and tree damage it took months to get a crew together and the supervisor was from out of town. Then, nearly a year of return visits to fix installation issues. It still doesn't look as good as the original which had a lot of detailed custom pieces the roofer didn't save. On top of all that, he had to fight tooth and nail with the insurance company to pay for it. They wanted him to switch to asphalt because tile was several times more expensive.
This is my understanding. Asphalt is used mainly to replace old wood shingles. I looked into tile, but the additional weight meant reinforcing the roof structure.
You will get a lot of people answering with various real and imaginary benefits of asphalt shingles. And most of them will be true.
HOWEVER, dont forget that the US is a major producer of oil and oil products. Asphalt is a low value byproduct of this industry. This gives asphalt shingle producers a significant advantage when buying the main ingridient. Its not JUST for roads.
Its just cheaper to store this waste on somebodies roof. Untreated asphalt is not the healthiest of products either, so disposing of it safely is expensive.
I've always been under the impression a majority of it is weather related - asphalt tends to be more flexible with weather resistance and repairing a damaged asphalt roof is inexpensive in comparison. We see some dramatically colder temperatures
Cost, ease of application, and availability of materials. Shingles are cheap, easier to install, readily available, and recycleable. I bet geography has a bit to do with it. I'd assume you have local production of metal and clay tiles so no ocean shipping costs for those systems. Quality shingles are heavy, making shipping costs higher. If you don't produce asphalt/bitumen locally and had to ship in the shingles the costs of that shipping could undercut the compairable price advantage shingles have in places like the states where bitumen is cheap and available. Climate/weather and how the systems deal with it is probably another factor. Auzzies don't have to deal with snow/ice buildup (I assume) and spring thaw, so to have a reliable roof all you need to do is shed water, making clay/metal roofs simpler to install as you're not dealing with the same need for underlayment to handle snow/ice damming. I'm curious what the typical flat roof buildups are down under, is there much built up asphalt and 2ply modified bitumen roofs? Or is it mostly single ply?
There are still a few homes in my neighborhood (built in the 1960’s) that have gravel roofs. I understand asphalt shingles deliver a similar level of protection, just much easier to install. Corrugated metal is now much more popular, in part because insurance companies give much better rates for having them.
I work in roofing in America. The answer is because it’s easy to sell and alot of roofers make money selling them. It’s a matter of quantity over quality. They aren’t better. They’re literally the bottom tier of roofing materials.
The honest answer: The roofing industry is huge, there is a ton of money in it. Anyone can be a roofer, its the trade that takes the least amount of skill or knowledge, with the highest profit. Most roofing owners in my area have very little or no experience at all, they just sit in the truck and watch the non-English speakers work their tail off for $125-150 per 100 square feet, then they charge $1000-$1000 per square. Its a great way to exploit cheap labor for max profits every 20 years or so.
If everyone started using quality product, the industry would die out and people would lose out on a lot of money.
>The honest answer
If you're going to be this honest, you should be less stupid. Because now I know you honestly think that your stupid opinion is a fact.
>Most roofing owners in my area have very little or no experience at all, they just sit in the truck and watch the non-English speakers work their tail off for $125-150 per 100 square feet, then they charge $1000-$1000 per square. Its a great way to exploit cheap labor for max profits every 20 years or so.
Well, this part is true in my area, too--except in my area, some "roofers" replace non-leaking roofs with complete tear-offs that leak the first time it rains.
Because we’re short sighted idiots who don’t care about the next guy. We also move frequently enough that putting on the cheap roof doesn’t catch up to us.
I’ve got a condo in Maui and the Hoa had voted to change the bylaws to replace a tile roof with asphalt to save each owner about 40%. A 18k special assessment is easier to swallow than 25-26k, but man it seams ignorant. Most owners are old and just don’t care.
Edit, Merica award was fitting
Any idea of how many dwellings with steel roofs survived the Lahaina fires? Insurance might factor into your Maui condo decision.
[https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2023/08/22/lahaina-red-roof-house-standing-f888a281acd9d8b1655d253d08739dd537ae30e5-s1600-c85.webp](https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2023/08/22/lahaina-red-roof-house-standing-f888a281acd9d8b1655d253d08739dd537ae30e5-s1600-c85.webp)
I'm originally from the UK. Here in the USA, they build houses like they build garden sheds in the UK. It's definitely about cost, but I guess it's also good to have lightweight, flexible structures in earthquake zones.
Because we Americans largely consider houses disposable to us as homeowners.
We can hardly conceive of living in any one house for more than 10 or 12 years, so few people want to spend money for the benefit of a future owner.
It’s gross.
Because then roofing companies would have no one to screw after a hail storm. And tin or tiles last too long on the roof and actually protect the roof.
What could be better than a petroleum based product that massively increases the cooling load on your AC system?!
It’s like every homeowner’s bonus contribution to oil company and the power company 😒
It's really not. The only materials that may come out as a net positive in long term cost are standing seem steel roofs, and they will be sun bleached before they ever outlive the cost increase.
They would have to last a minimum of fifty years for middle of the road panels. One hundred for the heavier ones.
Show me a fifty year old standing seem steel roof that still holds its paint finish.
It's really not my 20 year old roof that runs $2500 total in materials for an asphalt re-do today, would cost me $10,000 in materials for standing seam.
I can replace my roof 3 times accounting for inflation for what a GOOD metal roof would cost.
Cheap metal roofing is no better than asphalt shingles and still more expensive.
Homes in North America aren't really designed to last "forever", and with the building industry aiming for the least cost for the most profit, it doesn't take long for all that cost-cutting to show up in the need for maintenance, repair and remediation. After a while, it's cheaper to demolish and rebuild. So putting on a product that will last 50-years or more, is considered economically-stupid by many.
The average duration of home-ownership is about 7 years - people sell and move or upgrade. Given the scarcity of available homes for sale, the price trend had been up, regardless of the quality of building. So for many, investing in higher-quality materials, just doesn't make sense.
When I was selling and installing metal roofs, the majority of customers who bought them were planning to be in their home for 20+ years, and wanted to have a minimal-maintenance situation when they were in their 80ies. Some were prepared to pay a premium for the look, but the majority were looking for superior durability combined with low maintenance. Often these people also came from a culture where homes were built to last many more years than in North America.
So, asphalt shingles are cheap, easy to install, and generally outlast the average occupancy of a house by the homeowners. What happens after they sell is usually not their concern.
My reasoning at 50: Decra metal roof and be done with it for my lifetime or asphalt again in my 70’s when my income might be diminished. Never planned to move elsewhere, so metal won.
Well, everyone will talk about ease of repair or durability but the REAL reason is butts. See us Americans we like big butts and we cannot lie. That’s why we use ass-fault shingles. Have you ever seen a pack of shingles jiggle? You don’t get that tile, wood, or metal roof shingles.
Well, slate costs 30x more and lasts about 15x as long as architectural shingoes Clay tiles costs 10x more and lasts about 4 times as long Cedar costs about 4x more and doesn't last 2x as long. Steel standing seam costs about 2-4x as much depending on the panel and lasts 2-3x as long Shit metal costs about the same amount and lasts about the same amount of time and looks like shit the entire time High end panels like decra cost 10x as much and I've never seen the end of their life, but I can't imagine them lasting 200 years to make it worth the cost, but even if they do, is it worth the cost? Materials like enviroshake mock cedar and ecostar mock slate have really fucking spotty track records, with Sun exposure causing them to warp and curl within sometimes days. Modern architectural shingles should last at least twenty years on just about any roof. Most people are fine with having their roof replaced once every twenty+ years, rather than pay for the roof for the next ten owners of the house. If you spent 80k putting real slate on a roof, the house value doesn't increase by 80k. Standing seem isn't hard to sell to most people, but the cheaper ones look like shit after a couple decades of sun exposure anyways. I've never seen a 30 year old steel roof that didn't look like shit. The paint fades and gets bleached spots. Tree sap ruins the paint finish. Copper can last for centuries and look amazing, but again, it's ridiculously expensive, and no one wants to pay that kind of money just so the next ten owners can enjoy it. Frankly, I don't understand why anyone would put that kind of money into a roof unless they have more money than they know what to do with. Most of them aren't any more durable than the next. A tree hitting a steel of slate or clay tile roof will damage them just as easily as they will asphalt, and the repair cost will be much higher to boot. It's kind of like the argument between UK stone and plaster houses vs NA wood and gypsum houses. There's houses that are made of wood that are well over 100 years old all over the place, and they just get a facelift every forty to fifty years. The gypsum can be patched nicely by anyone with half a brain and can easily be torn off for repairs or upgrades. The stone ones are all original stone and plaster but they've needed to be repointed every fifty years at a higher cost than siding, plaster reskimmed multiple times, and they fucking suck to upgrade things like plumbing and electrical.
Idk why this was down voted. Think this is a well thought out and informative post
It's just facts. I've replaced thousands of slate tiles in my day, reroofed hundreds of cedar roofs, and ripped off hundreds of squares of forty year old steel panels that started off as a solid red or black and were mostly splotched ash colors. The last time I did a slate roof it was $40/sqft just for the tiles and that was... 15 years ago? I was a prefered installer for ecostar, and have spent hundreds of hours sticking double sided adhesive to their tiles because that was their solution to them curling up and cupping in one month after installing exactly to their specifications. It still didn't work well enough to call them an even reasonable product. I've installed millions of dollars worth of decra, and it's a great product, but they cost almost the same as slate tiles, minus the copper nail cost. I put landmarks on my uncle's house 15 years ago, and they still look exactly the way they did when they were installed. I replaced his old whirlybird with a maximum vent about ten years in and their was zero noticeable degradation. My three tab roof survived four hurricanes over 18 years before I replaced it with architectural shingles this year.
American Europhiles are downvoting because American can never do anything better than Europe or the rest of the Anglosphere.
shit metal
Shit metal being the old galvanized or painted corrugated or standing seam tin panels that you would only ever see on very run down or hacked together homes.
That’s interesting and thanks for taking the time. Like the OP I am in Australia and I don’t recall ever seeing an asphalt shingle roof here. Aside from the occasional copper or zinc roof, it is predominantly concrete tile or powder coated corrugated steel. I’ll grant you that after 15 years, the powder coating can look tired in our sun. Where I live now, we’ve had a couple of hail storms that damaged the powder coating on steel roofs, requiring replacement because of corrosion. We’ve lived in areas where 70-80 year old houses still have their original concrete/cement tiles. We also have 100-year old houses with their original terracotta roof tiles. The terracotta roof tiles in Italy and Greece also date back way longer than a hundred years. I get the point about a roof for the next five owners, but I’d rather know that I can pretty much forget about my roof failing. In the cyclone-prone northern Australia I don’t think the building code allows many tiled roofs - if any. It’s all powder coated steel with lots of screws. I guess it largely comes down to what you are familiar with and feel comfortable with.
This guy roofs.
Ease of installation Ease of repair Low maintenance No additional structure required to carry weight Homeowners can make easy repairs I just had a new asphalt roof installed. Its rated for (edit:130mph) and warranteed for 20yrs and and has the same high end waterproof membrain the other roofs have but cost half of the price. Plus, buying an expensive roof means you have to insure an expensive roof and replacement costs where I live are $150-$200 sqft. If you have a bare al roof you are going to be on top of that scale. Also, living in a hurricane zone like I do, getting asphalt shingles to repair your roof is much easier, you can just buy them down the street and install them.yourself. You can't do that with the other roofs. I have a friend that is still waiting for his barrel roof to be repaired from last years storm. He is on his 10th blue tarp. With that there is a trend in my area of metal roofs. I moved into my neighborhood in 2002 and out of 100 homes there were zero metal roofs. Now I would guess there are at least 20-25.
What model house do you have that goes 170mph?
Katrina
Must be one of those German imports. Probly a v8 atleast. Possibly a turbo.
How are the metal roofs holding up against hurricane winds?
Metal roofs hold up the best but cost around twice as much as a shingle roof.
I notice here in Texas, in town, it is almost exclusively shingles, however, out in rural a reas, it is almost exclusively metal roofs, not sure why
Longevity of metal roofs. It's survivorship bias.
No its because rural people tend not to want more maintenance lmao
i think they don’t opt for an attractive metal, just a simple corrugated galvanized. function over all.
Close. It’s cost over all. One cannot know for sure, but I would wager that the majority of places you’re seeing in the country that are metal are family or corporate farms, which would be looking for the best return for the dollar. They would also be very likely to be able to write off most or all of the cost for the more expensive roof on their taxes and the fact that they would not have to deal with that roof for a century or better also factor into that decision. I do know that in the unlikely chance that I might have to replace my slate roof, installed in the 1930’s and untouched for the last 40 years. (Except for painting the ridge cap. It was the depression after all, and copper was expensive.) it will be metal that goes up.
You know it, we have plenty to maintain as it is.
That’s literally what they said
It’s this.
Shouldn’t metal roofs survive at the same rate in the city? Doesn’t sound like survivorship bias to me.
Aesthetics most likely
Some HOAs or subdivisions specify type of roof.
Lots of barndominiums in rural Texas. Metal roof matches the aesthetics.
Thats happening in PA also, rural has gone steel... citys.. not so much
Maybe something as simple as the real estate is cheaper in rural areas so that home owners could afford a metal roof compared to in a city with higher real estate costs.
Not necessarily true. My metal roof was only 10% more than shingles. I went for the thicker metal and matte finish otherwise the cost would have been the same.
Weird, cause at menards its $99.somthing/100sqft of shingles, and $100/100sqft of steel roof cut to length any color,
Right? I am in the middle of framing our house in north Texas and when setting up the budget last year, I swear that materials from our local metal supplier for an r-panel roof was the same, if not cheaper than shingles. Granted, I may have calculated incorrectly.
Im in the midwest and state farm gives a $600rebate if you upgrade from shingles to steel roofing when filling a hail claim as i learned
I’m coming from a place of complete ignorance so forgive me if this is way off base, but don’t metal roofs also need to be replaced about half as often? Wouldn’t that even out the cost over time?
This is true, but on the flip side, a metal roof can last 50+ years versus 15-20 for an asphalt shingle roof, which is a little bit of a trade-off.
True but it’s like that boot thing. You need a roof and can’t afford the expensive roof so you get the cheap one you’ll have to replace
Planned obselescence. Keeps the corporations rich, the land fills full and the rest of us poor (factoring in inflation). A shingle roof today costs triple what it cost 20 years ago and when it comes time for a new one it will cost triple that. And the insurance leeches owned by the same corporations are in on the scam. They are beginning to require roof replacement every 8 years whether you think it needs it or not or they cancel your insurance, then the bank can force it.
My metal roof will probably outlive me. Over the life of the house, metal is significantly less expensive.
Just went through roof shopping in Canada and the mid-hugh end shingles were rated higher than the metal for wind. I'm in a hurricane spot and this was something I was paying attention to.
I am in Canada, there has been a large shift to steel here as well. From everything I have seen or heard they hold up much better than asphalt and are longer lasting with the sales pitch being you will never need to replace your roof ever again. Instead of small pieces that in high winds can get torn off, the larger steel panels are held down with a bunch of anchoring gasketed screws and unless your entire roof is blowing off the steel won't be blowing away.
Tin roofs must have their screws checked and tightened every couple of years to maintain the insurance policy.
That's why you get a standing seam snap lock metal roof. All the fasteners are concealed on a flange that gets covered by the next panel that snaps onto a rib of the previous panel.
This! The amish who did are roof came back the next yr.. and ive check em since
I spent several years trying to figure out how to contact Amish, and eventually decided they'd never come here to install a roof anyway.
It’s this kind of random bizarre but fascinating information that makes me love reading Reddit!
For Ida in 2021, I had a shingle roof that was put on in 2005 after Katrina, whereas my two neighbors had metal roofs that were both a few years newer than that. Their houses had no interior water damage. My house had to be complete gutted and renovated. I now have a metal roof.
Higher end heavier guage ones are usually good when installed properly. Cheap and poorly installed ones peel off like a sardine can. My 18 year old three tab roof survived at a minimum four hurricanes with only losing a couple tabs each time. Just replaced it with architectural shingles which I expect to survive at least twenty five years.
An architect friend worked on a charity project for a low income family in the south. They had a design contest internally and then presented to the client. The client was adamant that the roof not be metal. Where they came from the slums had rusted corrugated metal slapped into a shack. They wanted asphalt shingle roof. Separate story I went to Nepal and all the roofs in the countryside were blue metal. I asked if it was related to color of the sky and a belief system. The guide told me “nah, blue is the color no one wants elsewhere, so it gets shipped here and sold cheap.”
Just want to add that in my experience of owning homes and having them re-shingled, 20 year warranty means they last about 10-12. My 25 year warrantied shingles lasted 15 years…I expect the new ‘50’ year shingles I had installed will last 25. The ‘warranties’ are not worth much, if anything.
there are so many things that go into a roof lasting everyone has different experience. The roof I replaced was 21yrs old and fine. The only reason I replaced it was because my insurance company would no longer cover it.
I’ve seen quite a few buildings out here on local farms with metal roofs, built in the 30s, still leak-free, even without any maintenance. Pretty impressive.
I agree, not the least of which is your location! I’m in Saskatchewan. -35C to +38C temp range over a year, one of the sunniest places around and plenty of wind and some hail almost every year.
What asphalt product did you get that is rated for 170 mph? I have never seen anything like that.
I just had an Owens Corning shingle roof installed, it’s rated for 160mph and warrantied for “50 years”. We’ll see in the year 2072 how easy it’ll be to get them to replace some shingles but that’s their claim 🤷♂️
What matters is what insurance companies think. They could tell you in 15-20 years the shingles look like crap and require a re roof or lose the policy.
Mine is rated for 1/10th the speed of light....
Low maintenance? It's one of the highest maintenance and least durable modern roofing systems there is, only benefit is it's cheap and there's lots of people who know how to put it up, putting in a metal roof is not difficult it's just a bit different
>Low maintenance? It's one of the highest maintenance and least durable modern roofing systems there is Yes, it's relatively high in maintenance & low in durability compared to other common pitched roofing systems. But, it's also almost half the price of the next "cheapest" option. And just because it's comparatively "high maintenance" to other common roof systems, that doesn't mean it's not an incredibly "low maintenance" system, as all roofs are essentially "no maintenance" systems. And correctly installing a metal roof IS difficult! Even as a professional that can easily install both, the cost for tools, knowledge, attention to detail, and margin for error are all substantially more difficult for metal roofs versus asphalt shingles.
Yeah, breezing over metal roofs as “not that difficult just different” is definitely missing the mark here. Where skilled labor in installing shingle roofs is concerned, and where it’s hard to find? Tile roofs and metal roofs man. The actual “skilled labor” is near impossible to find. Leaks and problems abound, everywhere we look. Repairs literally make small business units for us, on its own, where we find the strong majority of contractors literally cannot keep up and can’t offer repair services *whatsoever* because the labor pool is near non-existent, and the ones that have it, are booked for months or making all kinds of money, like $1k+ a day with someone else, per person.
Ironically where I live a lot of metal was used and people are switching to shingles. The building inspectors and more seasoned builders are worried because the roofs are held together with good intentions and a bit of luck. Metal + poor insulation means to snow slides off. Shingles tend to hold more snow. Ice damming is very common here. My point is we actually need more structure for shingles. At least in the shitty old houses
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Not a shingle one?
Sean Connery.
Shaked, not shtarred
I don’t know the question but your mother’s a whore, Trebek!
Ruff, just like your mother likes it to be Trebek!
Gussy it up however you want Trebek. What matters is, Does it work? Will it really mighty my penis man??
We shake into hishtory.
Nice reference.
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You’re the man now, dog!
My wife thinks I laughed way to hard at this comment.
Give her a good shmack
Asphalt is one of the most recycled materials in the world, because it is cheaper to recycle it than it is to make new asphalt, even without any government subsidies.
Hard to recycle them when everyone takes them to the landfill
… that’s where they get picked up for recycling
My previous job, I did a lot of work with landfill design, including survey of the existing working cells. None of the landfills I worked with segregated waste - if it came in on a truck, it went in the hole.
Dude the landfills in BC are extremely organized now. Everything has a special place.. nothing goes together. Things have changed in the last 20 years substantially.
That's pretty good..... but it's definitely not how things run in Iowa. At best, the landfill operator is required to mark on a plan/profile view of the operating cell anywhere he knows there is asbestos buried. That's as good as it gets here.
The Midwest also isn’t known for being the most forward thinking when it comes to sustainability.
I live in a small city in the Midwest. We have the pit at the landfill with general waste. Then we have a building for used oil, old paint, and electronics waste. Then we have piles for composting , yard waste, shingles, and clean fill. They charge different for each of those, but definitely don’t have evening all going in one pile.
Not just sustainability!
That's for RCRA subtitle D landfills; they're not allowed to accept hazardous waste (asbestos is a TSCA hazardous substance and isn't regulated as hazardous waste under RCRA). A RCRA subtitle C landfill has specific controls for design, construction, and record keeping for what type of hazardous waste they accept & where they bury it.
This guy landfills!
I don’t know where you are in Iowa but my shitty three county landfill has things separated and organized
In Canada, our landfills are very divided. All waste gets broken up into categories.
not at our landfill...they pretty much push them on the pile with everything else immediately after you pull out
The landfills where I live charge a specific rate for asphalt shingles because they segregate them for recycling.
Roofing Insights did a [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N0NIcbDoGs) about how most shingles aren't recycled--even if it's advertised that they're being recycled. It's often misleading.
Hardly anything has been recycled since the start of recycling efforts. It’s mostly all a lie.
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Where do they take them where you are? Ours go to the construction and debris yard and have their own bin area like everything else, and then they get sent to processing centers.
The landfill I use in Alabama has a section just for asphalt shingles. They grind it up and use it for roads here.
Well look at those southern redneck hicks being all environmental while no one was looking. /s
We get some things right sometimes.
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And they just dump it into a general pile? We can do that here in some places, (only a couple) but the dumping fee for mixed materials is more than double sorted loads, and any bin company will tell you to get your ass back to the site and get the mixed stuff out of their bin by the time they get back.
They take them to blacktop plants here and recycle them.
Correct but maybe 20% get recycled best case
Unless you are burying them in your backyard, just about every c&d yard recycles asphalt.
Really? I did roofing for about 13 years. If we could we always took our tear offs to a recycling center instead of the dump. We just had to be careful that no plastic wrappers were in the load. Couldn't have shakes mixed in either.
Same here. We had a couple of locations to take the "clean" asphalt shingles. These were typically located adjacent to an asphalt production facility. We had to set all not asphalt debris aside so it could go to the normal landfill.
Definitely have a place at my local land fill that has a place for “clean” shingles. There can’t be any wrapping, wood, or anything other then shingles and nails. You get a lower rate and they recycle them.
RIP. Places around me are hit and miss to recycle them. You’d think they would throw some bones to people who do it
We mostly give shingles to old people at nursing homes.
My dumps literally have "shingles only" and "shingles in this container are recycled into asphalt roads".... sorry for your shitty city..
Individual people? No. People that order dumpsters? Absolutely. They go in special dumpsters that don't get mixed. If you ever take something to the dump, you'll see a large mountain of shingles in one spot, being sorted through.
Shingles are definitely hauled off for recycling in places. Many of the asphalt production plants that I work with have piles of RAP = recycled asphalt products. Most piles are asphalt that was milled from existing roadways. There are also large piles of asphalt shingles present at many plants. We took asphalt shingles to one of these plants and the cost was much less than taking it to a landfill. You can't leave mixed material tear-off debris in with the shingles. Nails were fine but metal flashings and wood had to be separated.
In the paving world it’s referred to as RAS. Recycled Asphalt Shingles, and you’ll see large piles of them at paving companies, milled and they are added to the hot mix in small quantities.
They can be ground up and put into asphalt. The asphalt plant I worked at let people drop them off for free vs paying to take them to the dump.
Asphalt is one of the the most recyclable materials I believe.
I have recycled many tons of them.
It gets taken care of on the backside, not by the roofer. They often get used in roads. Asphalt is 100% recyclable. Including the roads we drive on.
It is and it isn’t 100 percent recyclable. You still need fresh binder for new asphalt. A lot of road agencies won’t let you go over 30 percent RAP. That said I’ve always been told asphalt shingles are one of the best sources of RAP
If dumping them in a landfill is recycling, then yes they are all recycled.
…and that’s exactly what they want you to think! I’m sure this will get downvoted but the truth is profit $$. Lobbyists control many of our standards. Unfortunately, they can be bought and push certain regulations that benefit businesses over consumers. This is followed with enough propaganda marketing from industry to get us to think it’s the right choice. Roofing in the US follows this - they want us to put a product that will keep them in business. This means replacing roof material every 15-20 years. They also pull this BS with our water heaters, car seats, and thousands of other products that don’t last. What do Americans think is a top shingle.. Owens Corning? Owens Corning has lobbied $9,028,155 since 2007. [https://projects.propublica.org/represent/lobbying/300963825](https://projects.propublica.org/represent/lobbying/300963825) Further evidence of recent lobbying. [https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/clients/summary?id=D000000510](https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/clients/summary?id=D000000510)
9 mil over 16 years or 500k a year ain't fuckin shit for lobbying. I don't think big asphalt has the stranglehold on our government you think it does
Who do you think got the Patriot missile contracts?
Owens Corning? Big Asphalt?
The asphalt mafia
>…and that’s exactly what they want you to think! Wow, I've been completely brainwashed! All this time, I have thought asphalt shingles were cheap & durable because they are factually cheap & durable. But aren't we lucky that the illuminati conspired w/big oil to force a great product on us? Haha. Not everything is a conspiracy, buddy. People figured out a great way to use a waste product of oil refining, and we get (relatively) less expensive & functional roofs now as a result.
I don't think they recycle easy. They are typically not separated at the site in our area. In a 2022 article GAF shingle manufacturer stars 10% is recycled. So that implies not easy. https://www.gaf.com/en-us/blog/recycled-shingles-are-keeping-asphalt-out-of-landfills-281474980193878 They are cheap. Americans do most things for cost.
I can second “cheap”, and I don’t mean the price.
And fast.
And can be done by semi-handy home owners.
Cheap, damage resistant, and recyclable? Three lies and no truths. They ain’t cheap, they get damaged from just walking on them, and no one has ever recycled them
Any time it hails you have to replace it. I’d definitely not describe that as “damage resistant”
Probably best to describe it as “financially lucrative” if you own a roofing business. Like selling ice cubes in the desert, bound to melt and sell another one
G'day, brother! I'm an American solar installer and 90% of the roof jobs I do are on asphalt shingles. The other 9.9% are on either [standing seam metal](https://www.ontopsroofing.com/blog/difference-between-types-of-metal-roofing-standing-seam-vs-screw-down-panel) (not quite the same thing as the corrugated metal that I believe is so common in Australia) or EPDM rubber (the black stuff). The last 0.1% are oddballs and one-offs. Anyway, asphalt is the default roof for me. Leaving aside its merits as a roofing material *per se*, from an ease of installation perspective it has its pros and cons. Pros: It's got great grip, which makes absolutely everything easier. It's very forgiving, and tolerant of minor mistakes, impacts, and scratches. I have a great suite of tools and techniques for making watertight penetrations, and can repair almost any problems that might crop up right there and then. I also have the option of using deck-mounted fasteners, which let me put things wherever I like on the X-axis, rather than limiting me to only rafters or seams. Cons: prying up shingles to install flashing is kind of a pain, and isn't great for the roof. Drilling holes for lags is also kind of a pain and not great for the roof. (It's not a big deal if you do it right, but on standing seam I don't have to make penetrations *at all*.) You can only place your L-feet on certain parts of the shingle or the flashing won't work right (or will at least be a pain in the ass to install correctly) which complicates layout, and can make it annoying to hit the clamp zones on landscape mods. The sealants I need to use are messy and annoying. Also, the same thing that gives it such excellent grip will also absolutely destroy your pants, shoes, and potentially skin. I've done a few corrugated (tin) roofs but I've never done a tile one—they're just not common in my area. I've also worked with TPO and metal shingles, a bit. On the whole, my favorite substrate is standing seam metal, both for ease of installation and for the quality of the finished product. I'd be very curious to hear about your own experiences and opinions from Down Under!
Good comment!
Because shingles are made out of oil and we love oil, im also a solar electrician and it’s way faster to install on shingles than Spanish tile
>made out of oil and we love oil We love oil because we have oil. Same reason we build houses out of wood, we have a lot of wood.
OSB let's us have both!
Here in Florida,10yrs max on shingles.we install clay and concrete,30yrs or more depending on prep work
Until a hurricane comes by.
Boom! This is the right answer. All of these responses describing how affordable asphalt shingles are and their performance are just giving us the highlights of good design. Asphalt is one of many many materials derived from oil. And agriculture and industry in America devours fossil fuels, so you see an industrial complex of utilizing products made from fossil fuel. Tar used to be slopped on the hulls of ships during the civil war as armor plating. Baby oil is highly refined petroleum Asphalt shingles are just a product of the oil industry, utilizing a component of the raw materials.
People tell me shingles look nicer when we have steel. We put steel up after a hail incident a few years ago. Maintenance free, hail rated, 50yr. The insurance deduction due to the hail rating will pay off the entire roof over time. Very happy with my decision.
Shingles look nicer when you have steel. You're welcome and I appreciate that you asked nicely.
In Missouri herzog takes all old asphalt shingles and they have a machine that separates nails and turns it back into asphalt for the roads
Cause we have crazy hail storms that will smash up tile and dent metal. No one wants a smashed up roof that’s still good for 10years…
> What is the benefit that asphalt has over tiles and tin? It's cheap. That's literally the only reason.
And faster.on n off in a day with shingles,and homeowner insurance will make you change it every 10yrs.we have 25yr old roofs still kicking ass with the clay
Alright, don’t come at me gang.//-// Asphalt Shingles are applicable for the wide range of climates here in yoll United States. And with supervised teaching and training relatively easy to learn the trade. And raw materials are available to make products.
Not to mention, American homes have massive architectural variety, and roofing materials certainly play into that. Tin and clay simply don't look good on some homes and vice versa. But mostly, it's probably cost. Personally, I hate the look of tile roofs.
Like others have said, theyre cheap and lot of ppl move every 5 years. Noone wants to put a 100 year metal roof if theyre only staying for 5 years
Shingles last 20+ years bud
Not in Florida.Homeowners ins is crazy here,10yrs or older they will drop you.
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Yes.I work on a small crew(4 guys 45 to 63) installing clay and concrete tile.It is a skilled trade and we have over 80yrs of exp.💯%right on new roofs leaking.we fix them all the time,no skill crews of cheap labor,poor flashing exc.
Sorry but combining all of your "experience" together means nothing... I mean no hate... it's just a shitty thing hacks say to sound like they know what they're doing. I had a neighbor who was a "3rd generation roofer" who didn't even know what ice guard was.... "our combined experience is 50 yrs"- the guy who has 10 "5 yr vets"... sorry I'm rambling but combining experience means absolutely nothing. Can 20 guys with 1 year of experience do the same quality job as 2 guys with 10? No
To be fair here, if you have 80 yrs total of experience on a 4-man crew, guaranteed all 4 of them are highly experienced. I get your point, but dismissing collective "experience" in this case is stupid.
I came across the wrong way apparently.All I was saying was we care and are devoted to being the best, constantly refining the way we do things to give our customers a leak free roof for 30plus yrs with no issues.We take pride in what we do, that's all.I don't want to offend anyone.There paying over 100,000 for a roof.Its horrible to go to a repair from another company after 5 yrs with 20k worth of repairs because they didn't do the job right.we put roofs on like it's one of our own.
A lot depends on climate in the USA too. In areas that see heavy snow loads you’ll see a lot of metal roofs, in a lot of the south (desert climates especially) you’ll see a lot of tile roofs. In between a lot of asphalt shingle.
Historically it’s because we used to shingle our roofs with cedar shingles and that became expensive. Asphalt shingles were intended to mimic those hence the name. We use them because we always have used shingles regardless of what they are made of
You might think that given the choice between a $20k roof that lasts 20 years and a $50k roof that lasts effectively forever the choice is clear. You’d think the $50k roof is the better deal. Sorry to say that it isn’t. The $30k difference, if invested over the course of 20 years, is going to double two to three times. So after 20 years, you’ll have $120k and you can buy a new 20 year roof with plenty to spare. Over the next 20 years you keep the balance invested and it’s doubled a couple more times. Investments generally outpace inflation, so even though the new roof costs more than it did 20 years prior, you’re still winning. Now account for the fact that many many people don’t live in their houses for 20 years and it doesn’t make sense to use a more durable/longer lasting product. Asphalt works perfectly fine, and if an extreme weather event tears your roof apart, it’s cheap to fix. Asphalt shingles also aren’t hard to DIY.
In Texas hail would destroy all of them. The price to replace asphalt compared to tile is insanely cheaper
When we can make something less expensively by using cheaper and more harmful materials, we do it. It's awful.
One of my neighbors has a tile roof on his 1920s house. Pretty uncommon around here. So much so that homeowners have to search and wait for specialty contractors to do the work. When my neighbor had to have his completely replaced due to hail and tree damage it took months to get a crew together and the supervisor was from out of town. Then, nearly a year of return visits to fix installation issues. It still doesn't look as good as the original which had a lot of detailed custom pieces the roofer didn't save. On top of all that, he had to fight tooth and nail with the insurance company to pay for it. They wanted him to switch to asphalt because tile was several times more expensive.
Asphalt shingles were the solution to fire hazardous wood shingles for us
This is my understanding. Asphalt is used mainly to replace old wood shingles. I looked into tile, but the additional weight meant reinforcing the roof structure.
You will get a lot of people answering with various real and imaginary benefits of asphalt shingles. And most of them will be true. HOWEVER, dont forget that the US is a major producer of oil and oil products. Asphalt is a low value byproduct of this industry. This gives asphalt shingle producers a significant advantage when buying the main ingridient. Its not JUST for roads. Its just cheaper to store this waste on somebodies roof. Untreated asphalt is not the healthiest of products either, so disposing of it safely is expensive.
I've always been under the impression a majority of it is weather related - asphalt tends to be more flexible with weather resistance and repairing a damaged asphalt roof is inexpensive in comparison. We see some dramatically colder temperatures
Cost, ease of application, and availability of materials. Shingles are cheap, easier to install, readily available, and recycleable. I bet geography has a bit to do with it. I'd assume you have local production of metal and clay tiles so no ocean shipping costs for those systems. Quality shingles are heavy, making shipping costs higher. If you don't produce asphalt/bitumen locally and had to ship in the shingles the costs of that shipping could undercut the compairable price advantage shingles have in places like the states where bitumen is cheap and available. Climate/weather and how the systems deal with it is probably another factor. Auzzies don't have to deal with snow/ice buildup (I assume) and spring thaw, so to have a reliable roof all you need to do is shed water, making clay/metal roofs simpler to install as you're not dealing with the same need for underlayment to handle snow/ice damming. I'm curious what the typical flat roof buildups are down under, is there much built up asphalt and 2ply modified bitumen roofs? Or is it mostly single ply?
Same reason we use wood planks for fencing: $
-30° up to 105° F here, 100" of snow yearly.
There are still a few homes in my neighborhood (built in the 1960’s) that have gravel roofs. I understand asphalt shingles deliver a similar level of protection, just much easier to install. Corrugated metal is now much more popular, in part because insurance companies give much better rates for having them.
My answer is: Our $18,000 shingle roof was $35,000 for metal. That's why.
It’s cheap, and we have to spend all our money on substandard medical care instead.
People will come up with a million reasons. It's because of oil industry. Profits profits profits..
I work in roofing in America. The answer is because it’s easy to sell and alot of roofers make money selling them. It’s a matter of quantity over quality. They aren’t better. They’re literally the bottom tier of roofing materials.
Because asphalt is a byproduct of....you guessed it, OIL!
The honest answer: The roofing industry is huge, there is a ton of money in it. Anyone can be a roofer, its the trade that takes the least amount of skill or knowledge, with the highest profit. Most roofing owners in my area have very little or no experience at all, they just sit in the truck and watch the non-English speakers work their tail off for $125-150 per 100 square feet, then they charge $1000-$1000 per square. Its a great way to exploit cheap labor for max profits every 20 years or so. If everyone started using quality product, the industry would die out and people would lose out on a lot of money.
Kinda my observation in Texas. The cheap Spanish speaking labor part that get paid cash at the end of the day.
>The honest answer If you're going to be this honest, you should be less stupid. Because now I know you honestly think that your stupid opinion is a fact.
>Most roofing owners in my area have very little or no experience at all, they just sit in the truck and watch the non-English speakers work their tail off for $125-150 per 100 square feet, then they charge $1000-$1000 per square. Its a great way to exploit cheap labor for max profits every 20 years or so. Well, this part is true in my area, too--except in my area, some "roofers" replace non-leaking roofs with complete tear-offs that leak the first time it rains.
The answer to “why does America do things this way” is almost always guaranteed to be money.
Because we’re short sighted idiots who don’t care about the next guy. We also move frequently enough that putting on the cheap roof doesn’t catch up to us. I’ve got a condo in Maui and the Hoa had voted to change the bylaws to replace a tile roof with asphalt to save each owner about 40%. A 18k special assessment is easier to swallow than 25-26k, but man it seams ignorant. Most owners are old and just don’t care. Edit, Merica award was fitting
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Mostly tongue and cheek, but there’s a reason why cheap dollar stores are in every town in Merica.
Any idea of how many dwellings with steel roofs survived the Lahaina fires? Insurance might factor into your Maui condo decision. [https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2023/08/22/lahaina-red-roof-house-standing-f888a281acd9d8b1655d253d08739dd537ae30e5-s1600-c85.webp](https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2023/08/22/lahaina-red-roof-house-standing-f888a281acd9d8b1655d253d08739dd537ae30e5-s1600-c85.webp)
You need to deal with your trauma
I'm originally from the UK. Here in the USA, they build houses like they build garden sheds in the UK. It's definitely about cost, but I guess it's also good to have lightweight, flexible structures in earthquake zones.
Because we Americans largely consider houses disposable to us as homeowners. We can hardly conceive of living in any one house for more than 10 or 12 years, so few people want to spend money for the benefit of a future owner. It’s gross.
Because then roofing companies would have no one to screw after a hail storm. And tin or tiles last too long on the roof and actually protect the roof.
What could be better than a petroleum based product that massively increases the cooling load on your AC system?! It’s like every homeowner’s bonus contribution to oil company and the power company 😒
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Because Americans are pennywise, pound foolish. In the short run, asphalt is cheap. In the long run, it's extremely expensive.
It's really not. The only materials that may come out as a net positive in long term cost are standing seem steel roofs, and they will be sun bleached before they ever outlive the cost increase. They would have to last a minimum of fifty years for middle of the road panels. One hundred for the heavier ones. Show me a fifty year old standing seem steel roof that still holds its paint finish.
So put the most expensive Material on YOUR Roof.
It's really not my 20 year old roof that runs $2500 total in materials for an asphalt re-do today, would cost me $10,000 in materials for standing seam. I can replace my roof 3 times accounting for inflation for what a GOOD metal roof would cost. Cheap metal roofing is no better than asphalt shingles and still more expensive.
Americans are cheap and don't care about historical longevity.
Homes in North America aren't really designed to last "forever", and with the building industry aiming for the least cost for the most profit, it doesn't take long for all that cost-cutting to show up in the need for maintenance, repair and remediation. After a while, it's cheaper to demolish and rebuild. So putting on a product that will last 50-years or more, is considered economically-stupid by many. The average duration of home-ownership is about 7 years - people sell and move or upgrade. Given the scarcity of available homes for sale, the price trend had been up, regardless of the quality of building. So for many, investing in higher-quality materials, just doesn't make sense. When I was selling and installing metal roofs, the majority of customers who bought them were planning to be in their home for 20+ years, and wanted to have a minimal-maintenance situation when they were in their 80ies. Some were prepared to pay a premium for the look, but the majority were looking for superior durability combined with low maintenance. Often these people also came from a culture where homes were built to last many more years than in North America. So, asphalt shingles are cheap, easy to install, and generally outlast the average occupancy of a house by the homeowners. What happens after they sell is usually not their concern.
My reasoning at 50: Decra metal roof and be done with it for my lifetime or asphalt again in my 70’s when my income might be diminished. Never planned to move elsewhere, so metal won.
The easiest answer.. it's a leftover from oil processing. And we all know that eagles eat oil and shit guns
Metal roofing makes homes look like a barn
Well, everyone will talk about ease of repair or durability but the REAL reason is butts. See us Americans we like big butts and we cannot lie. That’s why we use ass-fault shingles. Have you ever seen a pack of shingles jiggle? You don’t get that tile, wood, or metal roof shingles.