The Advantages of Choosing Asphalt Shingles for Your Roof

Asphalt shingles cover roughly four out of five homes in the United States. That’s not because they’re the best roofing material by any measure except one: they’re the best combination of price, appearance, lifespan and repairability that most homeowners will ever be offered.

Here’s what they actually are, what you’re choosing between, and where they genuinely fall short.

What Are Asphalt Shingles, Exactly?

Three layers doing three jobs.

At the core is a fiberglass mat, which gives the shingle its shape and tear strength. That mat is saturated and coated with asphalt, which is what makes it waterproof. Pressed into the top surface are ceramic-coated mineral granules, which take the UV hit and give the shingle its color. When roofers talk about a shingle wearing out, they usually mean the granules are gone and the asphalt underneath has started to break down.

You may still see references to organic shingles, made with a paper felt mat instead of fiberglass. Those have been off the market for years. Anything you buy today is fiberglass, and that’s an improvement: lighter, more fire resistant, and less prone to warping.

The Three Types You’ll Choose Between

Manufacturers use their own product names for these, but every asphalt shingle on the market falls into one of three categories.

3-Tab

Flat, uniform, one layer. The cheapest option and the shortest-lived, typically rated around 60 to 80 mph for wind. You’ll see them on older houses and on rental and investment properties where the budget drives the decision. Most manufacturers have scaled back their 3-tab lines as architectural shingles have gotten cheaper.

Architectural, also called dimensional or laminate

Two layers bonded together, cut so the roof reads with depth and shadow instead of flat lines. Heavier, better wind ratings, longer warranties, and now the default choice for most replacements. If someone quotes you a roof without specifying, this is almost certainly what they mean.

Designer, also called luxury or premium

Heavier multi-layer shingles shaped to imitate slate or wood shake. They cost more than standard architectural and they look considerably better on the right house, particularly steep roofs where you actually see the roof from the street.

What Do Asphalt Shingles Cost?

Materials are the smaller half of the number. On most residential jobs, labor, tear-off, disposal, underlayment, flashing, ventilation and any decking repair add up to more than the shingles themselves, which is why two quotes on the same shingle can differ by thousands.

Relative to the alternatives: metal typically runs roughly double asphalt, and slate or clay tile several times that. That gap is the single biggest reason asphalt holds the market share it does.

Be careful comparing quotes on shingle price alone. A quote that’s cheaper because it skips the ice-and-water shield at the eaves, reuses old flashing, or leaves the ventilation alone isn’t a better price. It’s a different job.

How Long Do They Last?

Plan on 20 to 30 years for architectural shingles in Middle Tennessee, and understand that the range is wide for reasons that have little to do with the shingle.

What actually decides where you land in that range:

• Attic ventilation. An under-vented attic cooks shingles from underneath and can take years off a roof. It’s the most commonly overlooked factor and one of the cheapest to fix.
• Installation quality. Nail placement, starter strip, and flashing detail decide whether the shingle performs to its rating or well below it.
• Sun exposure. South and west slopes age faster than north slopes on the same house.
• Tree cover. Shade slows algae drying and overhanging limbs abrade the surface.
• Storm history. One serious hail event can end a roof that had a decade left.

The number on the wrapper is a warranty term, not a life expectancy. A 30-year shingle is a shingle whose manufacturer will prorate a material defect claim for 30 years, which is not the same promise as 30 years of service.

What Are the Real Advantages?

Cost, obviously

It’s the reason four out of five roofs are asphalt. For most houses, spending two or three times as much buys durability the house will never need.

They’re repairable

This is underrated. A wind-damaged section of asphalt shingles can be replaced for a few hundred dollars by anyone in the trade. A cracked slate or a dented standing-seam panel is a specialist job, and on metal, a replacement panel often won’t match the sun-faded panels around it.

Algae-resistant granules

Most current shingle lines include copper in the granule mix. As the ceramic coating weathers, the copper oxidizes and the runoff suppresses the blue-green algae that causes black streaking. You can see the same effect for free on almost any older roof: the clean stripe running down from a metal vent pipe or flashing, on a roof that’s streaked everywhere else.

Impact and wind ratings you can actually specify

Architectural shingles are commonly rated to 110 or 130 mph when installed to spec, and Class 4 impact-rated products are available. In hail country that rating is sometimes worth an insurance discount, which is worth asking your agent about before you choose.

Where Asphalt Falls Short

Worth saying plainly, because the honest comparison is more useful than the sales version.

Asphalt is the least durable of the common roofing materials. Slate and tile roofs last generations. Standing seam metal will outlive an asphalt roof two or three times over and shrugs off hail that would end a shingle roof. If you intend to own the house for forty years and the budget is there, metal is the better long-run purchase and it isn’t close.

Asphalt also does worse in sustained heat, which is what makes ventilation such a large factor here, and it’s a petroleum product with a shorter replacement cycle, which matters if that matters to you.

For most homeowners in Middle Tennessee, none of that outweighs the price difference. But you should choose it knowing the tradeoff rather than assuming there isn’t one.

Which Brands Do We Install?

L&L Contractors installs GAF and CertainTeed asphalt shingles. Both make a full range from 3-tab through designer lines, both offer algae-resistant granules with a stain warranty, and both back their systems with enhanced warranties when the roof is installed by a certified contractor to manufacturer specification.

The brand matters less than most homeowners expect. Within a given tier, the major manufacturers are closely matched. What separates a roof that lasts 28 years from one that lasts 16 is the installation and the ventilation, not the logo on the wrapper.

Talk Through Your Options

L&L Contractors installs and repairs asphalt roofs across Murfreesboro, Nashville, Franklin, Brentwood, Smyrna, Spring Hill and the rest of Middle Tennessee. We’ll look at your roof, tell you what’s actually on it, and give you real numbers on what it takes to replace it.

Call (615) 577-9103 or book a free roof inspection online.