Any Preferences Iko Or Certainteed

Morning Wood

Options are architectural shingles. Going to use Iko or Certainteed on next job. Anyone have a preference? Also, are the LT shingles worth the extra cost?

Grumpy

I prefer certainteed. I have used IKO on occasion and really am not a fan. They used to have an inferior product for sure. Around here, Chicago, they closed down their plant and compeltely re-tooled it. I'm told everything's brand new. I don't know if that's good or bad, what about working out the bugs? I foresee some failures on the horizon, or maybe I am being overly cautious.

Around here IKO is using low price to gain market share. They are about $10 a square cheaper than Certainteed. Certainteed is very much in line with other major manufacturers, IKO is on the very very low end of price. That makes me worry what they are cutting to achieve said price. Maybe they are cutting profit, and not quality, I really don't know... but I do know if/when there are any failures I am the front line to having to deal with the mess and the last thing I want is a call back, especially due to someone elses mistake.


In regards to LT, do you mean TL, as in CertainTeed Tri-Laminate? Me personally, I don't think they are worth the added cost. They seem to be a much much nicer shingle however, unless you have to worry about hurricane winds I don't see the point IMO.

Slyfox

Certainteed was in the same boat as IKo through out the late 80's and all the 90's and they managed to straighten out the majority of their mistakes,
they produce a fair quality material and some of their lines are of top quality like the Landmarks and Presidential Shakes.

In my area IKO never sold in high volume and still don't, but every IKO shingle I installed since 1994 is still in tact except for two, one was a proven material failure and one was re-roofed after a fire destroyed a good portion of the home.

I don't have the time nor patients to type out all the addresses of homes that had Certainteed installed in the 90's and have all ready been replaced.

I'm not trying to speak poorly of Ceretainteed or good about IKO,
just stating the facts about both companies rather than simply giving my personel preference.

I would not be concerned with giving the same workmanship warranty on IKO as on any other shingle I install.

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JTW

Hands down certainteed. Iko just has a small line of products and my customers want more than vanilla. As for quality, get up on a 5 year old Iko roof and be the judge for yourself. Agreed they are cheaper, they became big in these parts after a big hail storm a couple of years. Most yards are stcoking these and pushing certainteed out. Very few certainteed suppliers left around here as compared to years back.......Definetly really like the quality and variety across the certainteed line, something for every project.....