Below we will give you a quick overview of different roofing types that we included in our calculator for comparison reasons. We will also include our opinions about these roofing products, and an average life span of each product.

Sloped Roofs

30 Year Architectural Asphalt shingles – the most common type of residential roofing materials. Mainly popular because of it’s relatively low cost and low installation prices, due to high competition in the market. Average life expectancy of a properly installed asphalt shingles system, over an adequately ventilated deck varies from 15-20 years depending on the region and the location of the roof. For example, in wooded areas of New Hampshire, an asphalt shingles roof will last less than one somewhere in New Jersey’s suburbs. Moss will damage shingles in the summer and ice dams will damage them in the winter, shortening the overall life span. This is general information and the results may be completely opposite, due to numerous factors affecting roof performance.

The average installation price of asphalt shingles roof: $320 per square (100 sq. ft.) of roof area on a 1-story, walkable gable roof, including tear-off, underlayment, nails, flashing and ridge-vent.

Metal Roofing – we included 3 most common types of metal roofs: Standing Seam, Aluminum and Steel Interlocking Shingles.

Standing Seam – vertical metal panels, usually coated with special Kynar 500 coating, and comes in standard aluminum and steel. Optionally, you can get standing seam metal roofs in copper, zinc, and even lead. Standing seam panels are usually 16″ wide and are cut to the required length, when produced in a factory environment or on site, by a roll forming machine.

Standing seam panels MUST be installed over an even, clean deck with proper underlayment. Old asphalt shingles must be removed before the metal roofing panels are installed, to prevent the “telegraphing” effect of shingles punching through the metal. Standing seam panels are attached using clips and screws (for 1.5-2″ lock panels) and with nails when a “nailing strip” profile is used. Most common types of standing seam are Snap-Lock and Mechanical Lock architectural standing seam panels.

The most common metal used for standing seam roofing is galvanized steel – there are two major types of galvanization commonly used in metal roofing industry: Galvalume and G-90 steel. Galvalume uses zinc-aluminum coating as galvanization method, while G-90 uses mainly zinc. Both are about the same when it comes to quality and should last a very long time, unless metal panel has deep scratches, down to the bare steel.

Aluminum Standing Seam roof:

The second common metal used to make standing seam is aluminum. In my opinion aluminum works much better than steel, as it will not rust even if a panel has deep scratches, which is very common during manufacturing and installation of standing seam roofing materials. Aluminum is also best to use near the ocean / sea, as, unlike steel, it will not be subject to salt corrosion in the coastal areas.

Do not confuse standing seam with corrugated metal roofing panels  – these are not the same. Standing seam roofs utilize concealed fasteners, while corrugated steel roofs are installed with exposed screws – right through the panel, which dramatically increases the possibility of a leak. Read more information about standing seam metal roofing

The average installation price of a standing seam metal roof: $1000-1200 per square (100 sq. ft.) of roof area on a 1-story, walkable gable roof, including tear-off, breathable synthetic underlayment such as GAF DeckArmor, clips+screws, Z-flashing, ridge-vent and snow-guards above doors (walkways) and used garage doors.

Interlocking Metal Shingles (Steel and Aluminum): – Interlocking metal shingle offer more flexibility when it comes to roof installation. Interlocking shingles are much better when it comes to flashing detail as they have low profile without ribs. Therefore, the difficulty level of skylight flashing moves to “easy” as compared to “very difficult” for standing seam.

Interlocking shingles also will give you a different look and feel – for example you can choose a a Slate or Cedar shingle look. Your home will not look like a farm house or a barn. You can actually combine different colors and shades of shingles and trim / flashing metal to give you an even better, more alive look. For example, if you choose to install “green slate”, you can combine it with copper-colored flashing to make your metal roof resemble real slate even more.

In terms of cost, interlocking shingles are the least expensive metal roofs available. First, due to smaller physical size of the panel, metal does not need to be as thick as that used in long and wide standing seam panels. Therefore, material costs are lower. Also, with “easier” installation your labor costs go down. You can easily see a 20% price difference on a simpler roof and as much as 35% difference on really cut-up roofs.

In terms of performance and longevity, interlocking shingles will last just as long as standing seam roof – therefore the only difference is in looks and price of the roof. Find out more about interlocking aluminum shingles.

The average installation price of interlocking metal shingles: $900-1000 per square (100 sq. ft.) of roof area on a 1-story, walkable gable roof, including tear-off of 1 layer of old roofing, installation of breathable synthetic underlayment such as GAF DeckArmor, clips and nails (galvanized steel nails or ring-shank aluminum nails), ridge-vent and snow-guards above doors (walkways) and used garage doors.

Low-slope and Flat Roofs

IB Flat Roof – A premium grade PVC single ply roofing membrane uses fusion hot-air welding to adhere separate sheets of membrane together and to create permanent seams. IB roof provides long-term protection for low-slope and flat roofs, and is perfect for any type of roof penetrations / obstructions. A fully weldable set of roofing accessories includes Inside and Outside Corner flashings, 7 different  standard sizes of pipe flashing, ranging from 1/4 inch to 1 + foot in diameter, Multiple types of roof drains, wall scuppers and overflow protection drains with back flow prevention. IB roof also features PVC coated drip-edge metal, to which the main roof can be welded.

The entire system is completely welded together, completely eliminating the need to use adhesives. The only reason this roof can leak is due to installation error, which is easy to fix with the re-welding of the seam. Any physical damage can easily be repaired by cleaning the damaged area with warm water, or acetone, when extremely dirty, and simply welding a patch over damaged area.

Life expectancy of an IB roof is 30+ years. The system has been on the US market for 32 years and most original roofs are still in service. Therefore, at this point we cannot say for sure whether the roof will last 35 or 40 or maybe even 50 years. Time will tell.

IB Roofs are also COOL Roofs – main color of IB membranes is white and it also includes special “cool roof” pigments to reflect more solar heat. That’s why you will see energy saving next to IB roof, as well as metal roofs, in the roofing calculator results.

Rubber Roofing – A so called EPDM roof is basically wide sheets of rubber glued to the roof insulation bellow it, and overlapping seams are also glued together. A major problem with rubber roofs is the fact that they leak – a brand new roof can start leaking as soon as in 5 years.

Rubber roofs are less expensive than PVC roofs (such as IB roof described above) and TPO roofing (which is supposed to combine low cost of rubber roofs with hot-air welded seams of PVC roofing), and is immensely popular with roofing contractors who DO NOT specialize in flat roofing. Despite being very “popular”, rubber roofs pose certain problems for home and building owners which become apparent only a few years into life of the roof. The seams and flashing of rubber roofs become loose as rubber glue fails, and leaks start coming in. At this point, a rubber roof requires some repairs and maintenance (in some cases, rubber roof repair can be very extensive and costly).

Leaking Rubber Roof:

Besides rubber’s inherent problems, you also have to beware of residential roofing contractors wanting to install a rubber roof for you. They usually have very limited knowledge of flat roofing and when they install a rubber roof for you, chances are, it will leak pretty soon. Moreover, its likely that your contractor will be unable to eliminate the roof leaks, resulting in prolonged damages and increased costs of roof repair, as now you will have to hire a specialist to repair or replace your rubber roof.

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