Asphalt shingle roofing

What we install, and what we skip

The working product is an architectural (laminated) shingle, with a named underlayment, ice-and-water membrane where the eave and the valleys need it, new pipe boots, and new wall flashings. Three-tab shingles still exist on older homes in Roy, Kearns, Clearfield, and parts of Provo and Ogden. We replace them. We do not install a new three-tab roof and call it an upgrade.

Impact-resistant shingles are a real category, with a lab rating, not a marketing adjective. They can be worth the money on slopes that face the usual storm direction. They do not make a roof hail-proof. Designer and heavier laminated shingles belong on houses where the look and the weight are both intended — and the deck can take them.

Details that decide the lifespan

Utah sun at 4,500 feet is harder on asphalt than a coastal brochure assumes. Ventilation is not optional color: intake at the eave and exhaust at the ridge, checked against the attic baffles, so the shingles are not baked from the back. Closed soffits and a powered fan that fights the natural path are a conversation, not a default.

Ice-and-water membrane at the eaves is standard on Wasatch and Cache roofs. How far up the slope it runs depends on the overhang, the north shade, and whether a valley lands on that eave. In St. George we use membrane where water concentrates, not as a costume of a snow detail.

Nailing belongs in the common bond, at the count the manufacturer prints. High nailing is why shingles blow off on the first serious west wind in Saratoga Springs or Syracuse. We would rather talk about hand-sealing cold-weather installs than pretend a winter shingle sticks itself.

• Tear-off before a new architectural system
• Synthetic underlayment or a specified felt, not “whatever is on the truck”
• Ice-and-water at eaves, valleys, and penetrations as the climate requires
• Drip edge and a starter course
• Ridge ventilation matched to intake
• Color chosen with the HOA and the brick, before the order

Wind, hail, and the honest warranty talk

A manufacturer’s warranty is a materials warranty with conditions: ventilation, installation, and registration among them. It is not a promise that a hailstorm in Sandy or a canyon gust in Spanish Fork will leave the roof untouched. We explain the difference between the manufacturer’s term and our workmanship on the installation. We do not hand you a “lifetime” sentence with the exclusions removed.

Where shingles are the right call

Most gable and hip houses on the Wasatch Front. They are also right on many St. George houses that are not already tile, especially where the structure was not framed for tile weight. They are the wrong call on a dead-flat addition — that is a membrane — and often the wrong sentimental call on a historic cedar house where the owner wants to stay with wood or move to a synthetic shake on purpose.