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Which Shingle Brand(s) Are Best

54K views 14 replies 8 participants last post by  dougger222 
#1 ·
I am specifying 50 year or lifetime warranty Tri Laminate Architectural shingle in any one of four brands for current project and am seeking professional experience and input on these brands. Is there a better or best or even worst ( one to avoid)? Warranty issues related to brand? Tamko Heritage Vintage, CertainTeed Presidential, Owens Corning Woodcrest, GAF Grand Sequoia are of particular interest. This is for Mountain Town location in Colorado with very heavy snow, very dry in summer with very high UV index. Sun and temperature swings reek havoc with most building materials here. Ceiling is R-50 ventilated cathedral, so hopefully no ice dam issues.
 
#3 ·
I'm not a fan of GAF although I have used many of their luxury shingles with no problems. I prefer CertainTeed. Around here the Vintage will be a little less than the Presedentials or Sequoia. I have never done an owens corning luxury so I can not comment.

Certainteed makes a presidential and a presidential TL. GAF makes a grand canyon and grand sequoia, so be sere to compare apples to apples.
 
#7 ·
I'm not a fan, nor show any special loyalty to any brand.

I have and do install Certainteed, Gaf/Elk, OC, Tamko, Iko and Atlas yearly.

Have had very few material issues, the few I have had were solved with a phone call and a manufacturer inspector, with out delays.

My professional advice to customers, take estimates until you find the contractor/installer you feel confident with 'sometimes that's the first roofer you talk to, sometimes its the 5'th, 6'th, etc' than let him/her walk you through the brands/styles and make your choice from there.

A good roofer can install mediocre materials too last a full life span.

He/She doe's this by paying attention to the brands down falls, Atlas don't seal "self sealer" quite as well as others, but if you increase the number of fasteners used and place them well you will avoid wind damage issues that frequently occur with that brand.
There are dozens of other examples but I think you can see what I'm trying to say.
 
#8 ·
We typically use CertainTeed. We have built a good rapport with them and their company has been responsive to any concerns we have had. A lot of this is dependent on your particular rep in the area as well. Here, CertainTeed is far and beyond the best company to work with, has the best sales rep to deal with, and has typically dealt with all of our warranty concerns immediately. That's why our preference lies with CertainTeed. That said, CT, OC, GAF, and Tamko all make quality products, so you cannot go wrong with any of them.

Our preferences here are to go with CertainTeed then Tamko... but we're doing a GAF job right now and the shingles look real good. We don't do much with OC anymore, but there's a lot of guys around here that work solely with OC.
 
#9 ·
I prefer certainteed because of the tremendous ammount of back end support the company offers my company. Having said that they have a good product too.

Sly said to show no brand loyalty and learn how to work with the product. I wouldn't install an Atlas, and wouldn't install any shingle that caused me to do extra work to compensate for it's short comings. They are cheap chit shingles IMO and what ever I save on the shingle I will lose on the extra time, caulk and fasteners to make them seal. Doesn't make sense IMO, but he is right, a good installer can make a bad product last at least a little while.

For example Tamko Elite 3-tab shingles. They are very dimensionaly unstable meaning there are variances in the dimensiones +- 1/4" sometimes. Sometimes they are not cut square etc... For a 3 tab shingle this is very bad because it means extra time for me cutting, or if I choose not to cut them to fit it means a very piss poor looking roof. Having said that I really like the Tamko Heritage standard Architectural shingles. As for 3 tabs, Certainteed are very dimensionally stable and go down quick because no extra work is required.

Furthermore I find it impossible to know all colors and products from all manufacturers, therefore I pick a few that I am most comfortable with and choose to know their product offerings well. For example I know NOTHING of GAF's new products since they merged with Elk. At that time I stopped offering their product, and when they began to cut the amount of asphalt used in their shingle I flat out refused to install it even on special request. Therefore I really have no idea of the names of their products anymore, or colors etc...
 
#12 ·
Certainteed Yes.
GAF-ELK NO.

All the other brands fall right in between.

Done two roofs with Owens Corning Duration. One with 30 year greeen the other with "50 year" Amber. Both laid out nice and were sqaure and flat but both had mismatched spots on them. From the ground it wasn't bad but on the roof they looked like two different shingles.
 
#13 ·
All shingles are manufactured in the same way, with the same materials and according to the same federal regulations.

It don't take much to stay on top 'information wize' of numerous brands at the same time.

For me, it's never about price 'on my part' when I'm helping a home owner decide on a shingle brand/type, it's always about providing them with what they want.

Far as taking extra steps to install my roofs, I have no problem with that at all, extra work such as six nailing instead of four nailing means additional cost.
That additional cost is one of a couple dozen items listed in my "Extra's" list.
I never place roof cement under the tabs to help seal them, it causes dry-rot after a half dozen years or so that results in premature failure of the shingles.
 
#15 ·
Never had any interest to tour he GAF plant but on a recent Certainteed Shakopee plant tour overheard a fellow contractor comment on how much dryer the CT plant was compared to the GAF plant. Asked him after the tour what me meant and he claimed the GAF shingles are basicly packaged wet while the CT shingles are bone dry when they are packaged.

Today did a repair on a 10 year old Timberline roof and the 30 year shingles sure felt a lot heavier than a new GAF/ELK Timberline shingle. The realtor selling the house is a whiz so within a day had a bundle of vintage Heathers sitting on the front steps! Guess when you make a sale of a $850,000 house you gotta go the extra mile!!! After about two hours of telling him what shingles I needed he called and said he found a full bundle in the original packaging. BTW, the reason for the repair was the 10 year old stucho was shot so the front was stripped of stucho and hardi installed and along the step flashing details on a few spots the shingles tore up really bad.
 
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