Tamko Or Certainteed?

sandyman720

The roofing supply house sells Tamko and Certainteed. Or I can get Owens Corning at Lowes. Which do you prefer?

indm45

certainteed first, owens corning second, and third i,m at a loss

Grumpy

I sell both. I prefer the Tamko because in my area they have AR standard in their shingles. That's an added benefit at no added cost. The costs per square is basically the same and I don't charge the customer the $1 per square difference. That's too much hassel for me.

I think certainteed has more in the way of sales assistance but if you are looking for a good shingle without the bells, whistles, certifications, and marketing assistance go with Tamko.

Just my $0.02.

After typing this all out I also want to add one more thing. Different plants seemingly put out different quality from each manufacturer. I get my Tamko from the Joplin Mo plant.

One more thing. You will find more dimentional stability with the certainteed, therefore when installing 3-tabs I recommend the certainteed because they look better once installed because they are more square.

Owens corning is Junk builder grade material. It's cheap and flimsy IMO, but again different plants put out different quality. GAF is just over priced so their share holders can re-coup all the expenses of buying every roofing business for sale on the market over the past 5 or so years.

Ed the Roofer

Mr. Sandyman,

I feel you are overstepping your guest priveledges here on this site.

I read through most of your other threads you started on the DIYchatroom site and it seems pretty obvious that you do not have any actual knowledge on how to do anything construction related, but have a lot of motivation to try.

Please refrain from posting all of the same questions here on the ContractorTalk site that you have already posted on the DIY site.

I mentioned this to you one time before, but you do not seem to have gotten the hint.

Your threads will still get answered on the DIY site.

Thank you,

Ed

sandyman720

Sorry Ed, I didnt realize that the same ppl go on both sites. I thought that I could get better advice on this site since this is where the contractors come to talk.

I thought that on the DIY site, that I could get advice from who knows who.

Anyway, I will post on the DIY site from now on.

You really dont have to come across that harshly.

2ndGen

CertainTeed all the way.
Owens Corning? GAF? Not for me. I've had too many problems with them.
Tamko, never used it.

Generally, all basic shingles look the same, but the real test is 10, 15, 20 years down the line. I hear that when CertainTeed had manufacturing problems, they were on point in addressing them.

When installing, CertainTeed seem to take more of a beating when I'm tossing them around. They don't break as easy as other shingles. Great cold weather flexability.

I used to use Bird & Sons exclusively, but switched to CertainTeed and was thrilled when CertainTeed purchased Bird.

I basically trust first what I buy at a contractor's supply.

RooferJim

First choice is GAF they really are the best laminate. Certainteed is a close second .

theroofinggod

tamko ,and gaf are about the same ,w/certainteed bringing up the rear,no O.C. for me,and i don`t really care for certainteeds placement of the sealant on the bottom of the shingle--definitely get the AR (algae relief)

Patrick

I was having the same debate my distributor has branches all over new england and the branch I use they push Tamko really hard and stock almost everything Tamko, Next weekend Im helping my friend do his roof in another state so I went to order tamkos from the branch near him and they were pushing certainteed instead of tamko, I found that odd seeing as its the same distributor

load351

We put on the O.C. Duration 30 yr shingles. We use them alot, I like them, and they lay alot better than the old design. I've also put on IKO's (few years ago). We find a lot of problems with "roofers" nailing high on the Arch, type shingles. We have fixed a ton on blow offs.

I would really like to look into some of the shingles that you guys are talking about, and suggesting for use. I am about to build my next house, and have thought about switching to save some money, but am worried about quality. These run about $52 a square here in WI.

theroofinggod

IKOS ARE NOTHING BUT TROUBLE,although you get to redo it in 10-3 yr.s I am waiting to see if the duration doesn`t come apart where it`s joined to the bitumen nailer