When you look at the outside of your house, what’s the first thing that you notice? Is it the siding? Those trendy front door colors? Do you ever notice the shingles on your roof? You may not- but here’s why you should.
Shingles are your first layer of protection on your house against the elements. In Colorado, those range from wind, extreme sun to snow, hail or fire. While there are other layers on your roof in addition to the shingle, choosing the best shingle is important to giving your home the best protection possible. Class 4 shingles, or impact resistant shingles, are the best asphalt shingles for Colorado; they are made to protect your home from any instance of extreme weather. Some brands, like GAF, are tested at up to 150 mph winds and some are tested for resistance to hail using steel balls up to 2 inches wide. Getting a roof repair or a roof replacement is not a small feat, but as a local roofing contractor, we have the experts and the materials to get the job done.
When choosing the right shingles for your home, we know the options can be daunting, so we compiled a list of our staff’s favorite shingles so that you can easily pick from the best we have to offer.
-Stone Coated Steel-
Direct Sales Representative Matt Bello said “I’m going to throw a curveball in here and say the stone coated steel. I really like the way that it looks on a house, it’s a little bit different than your normal asphalt shingle and I think it’s really cool that there’s so many different products that are stone coated steel that can give your house a really unique look, rather than most people just having the standard laminate shingle.”
Stone coated steel was originally created during World War 2 as camouflage for steel bunkers so that you couldn’t see them from an aerial view. Tar and sand was used to cover the top of them from view. Today, modern technology allows us to use more advanced polymers to adhere stone granules to the steel for the best protection for your roof.
-GAF Armorshield 2-
Sales Manager Greg Morrell explained “It’s an impact resistant shingle, I think out of everything that I’ve sold it’s probably the most solid product that I can think of asphalt-wise.”
GAF’s Timberline Armorshield 2 is UL 2218 Class 4 Impact Resistant tested asphalt shingle. What does that certification mean? To put it simply, these shingles are the strongest on the market and offer the best protection for your home, and many insurance carriers will offer discounts for homeowners with these shingles. GAF also offers many comprehensive warranties that bundle with their other products for lifetime protection on a roofing system.
Project Manager Dylan Fisher agreed with Greg, stating that ” the best shingle I’ve put on is any impact resistant, just because we’ve had 3 hail storms this year that I’ve worked on and it’s been smaller hail and I know that if you have an impact resistant shingle you’re going to be fine.”
-F-Wave-
Dylan also brought up another product- he said that one of the coolest ones he’s seen built is F-Wave. Production Manager Bryce Munoz mentioned F-Wave, saying “I’d want to put that on my house after the next hail storm.”
F-Wave is a synthetic shingle made of a blend of commercial polymers to give it a Class 4 impact resistance. They also have certifications for fire, wind, cracking and fading. F-Wave shingles are made without the traditional granules or asphalt of a regular laminate shingle, and it gives them the strength to be more than just a traditional asphalt shingle.
-DaVinci Tile-
Project Manager Bobby Maes said that he thinks the best shingle is the DaVinci tiles.
“Those are the top of the line as far as I know,” he said.
DaVinci roof tiles take the place of slate and shake roofing, classic looks that are known to need upkeep and can damage easily. However, these tiles are made of pure resins, UV and thermal stabilizers as well as fire retardants to outperform natural slate and cedar shake roofs with a Class A Fire rating, Class 4 Impact rating and a 110 mph wind rating.
-Metal Roofing-
Office Manager Leigh Ann Boyles said that her favorite kind of shingle is actually a metal roof. She said “I just think they look so sleek and sophisticated, and they come in so many different colors.”
At Fisher Thompson Construction, we use metal roofing from Central States Manufacturing. The metal panels are certified UL Class 4 Impact Resistant to protect against hail. They are also Class A Fire rated, as well as meeting Texas and Florida hurricane windstorm protection guidelines.
She added that “a lot of our new roofing projects in the mountains choose metal roofs because of those ratings, and they just look so good!”
So what is really the best roofing material for your home? While our staff have different opinions on the brands and specific kinds of shingles they like personally- whether it be for aesthetics, price, or tradition- one thing they all can agree on is that the best shingle is one that is going to be Class 4 Impact Resistant in order to give your roof the protection it deserves.