Shingle Roofing
in Washington
and North Idaho

Mostly, and the loose language causes real confusion when you are comparing quotes. Composition and asphalt describe the same material, a fiberglass mat saturated with asphalt and surfaced with granules. Architectural, sometimes called dimensional or laminate, describes the shape: two layers bonded together so the shingle has depth and a shadow line. So an architectural shingle is a composition shingle. If a quote just says “composition”, ask whether it is three-tab or architectural, because that is the part that changes the price and the look.

Three-tab is a single flat layer with cut-outs, lighter, cheaper, and it reads as a flat uniform field from the street. Architectural is thicker, heavier, carries a longer warranty and a higher wind rating, and gives the roof texture. Almost every re-roof we do now is architectural, because the price gap has narrowed a long way and the performance gap has not. Three-tab still has a place on a rental or an outbuilding where budget rules.

Shingles shed water. The layers underneath are what save you when water gets past them, which in this climate it eventually will. Underlayment across the whole deck, ice and water membrane in the valleys and around penetrations, and proper metal flashing where the roof meets a wall or a chimney. Two quotes for the same shingle can be hundreds of dollars apart and this is almost always where the difference sits. Ask what underlayment is specified and where the membrane goes.

Less than the word suggests, and it is worth understanding before it decides your choice. Lifetime generally means as long as you own the house, it is prorated after an early full-coverage period, and it covers manufacturing defects in the shingle rather than anything to do with how the roof was built. Almost every claim that matters in practice is an installation issue, which the manufacturer warranty does not touch. That is why the workmanship warranty behind the install is the one to read carefully.

It is the most common reason a roof dies years before its rating. Without balanced intake at the eaves and exhaust at the ridge, heat and moisture sit in the attic, cook the shingles from underneath and rot the deck they are nailed to. Many manufacturers also make ventilation a condition of the warranty, so a poorly ventilated roof can void the cover you paid for. We look at the intake as well as the ridge, because adding a ridge vent with no intake below it does very little.

Higher than you would guess from an average day. We do not get hurricanes, but we do get winter storms coming off the water, and shingles fail at the edges and the ridge long before the field gives way. Architectural shingles carry significantly better wind ratings than three-tab, and the rating only holds if the nailing pattern and the starter course were done to the manufacturer specification. A rating on a box means nothing if the crew nailed high.

A little, and less than people expect in this climate. A darker roof absorbs more heat, which matters more in Spokane than it does west of the mountains, and it shows moss and algae streaking less readily than a very light one. Beyond that, choose what suits the house. Most manufacturers will send you a full-size sample board, which is worth seeing outdoors, because a two inch swatch on a kitchen table tells you nothing.

We work with GAF, Owens Corning, Malarkey, IKO and CertainTeed. At the architectural level they are closer to each other than the marketing suggests, and the install matters more than the logo. Where brand does count is the warranty terms and whether your contractor is certified to register the enhanced cover. Finished roofs are on our roofing projects page.