Are Asphalt shingles better today than in years gone by?

60 years ago you could buy a 15 year shingle that would last 20 years A 20 year shingle that would last 25 or more. These shingles had a paper core, fairly thick asphalt mixed with fillers lie limestone, a stone granule and oh yes asbestos fibres. The asphalt wasn’t as overly refined as well.

The last 10% of that barrel of oil can be used for 2 things, roads and shingles. In today’s world that barrel is re-refined so that the last 10% is now 7% or even 5%.

Some of those essential elements in that asphalt are now missing. So it is up to the manufacturers to either source better asphalt, add those elements back in or just make a crappy product.

All of the above exist, but how does a consumer know? Well they don’t.

80% of the time the roofer doesn’t know, or care. They just look at the fictitious warranty without reading it and tell the customer it’s a lifetime shingle.

The manufacturers don’t tell you or the roofer. They will drop the weight of a square (100 sq ft) by 40, 50 or 60 lbs and try to make you believe it’s the same product.

These days I see the Fiberglass core shingles lasting as little as 10 years. But others lasting 40.

A couple brands put SBS rubber in their shingles, these seem to be the best. More flexible and better granule adhesion make these far superior to other fibreglass laminated shingles.

You can get higher end designer shingles that will last but they tend to get expensive and the look isn’t always what is desired.

Like anything these days the information is on the net somewhere. Do your research and ask questions. If the roofer can’t answer the questions you need to talk to somebody else.