Asphalt Shingle Roofing

Three-tab shingles are flat, single-layer, and the cheapest asphalt product on the market. They have a uniform look, weigh the least, and carry the shortest warranties and the lowest wind ratings. In Calgary we specify them mainly for outbuildings, rental properties being prepared for sale, and budgets that genuinely cannot stretch further. They will do the job, but they are the first thing hail damages and the first thing wind lifts.

Architectural laminate shingles — sometimes called dimensional shingles — are two layers bonded together, which makes them roughly twice as thick, considerably heavier, and much more resistant to wind lift. They also throw a shadow line that reads as depth from the street, which is why almost every new build in the region uses them. For the great majority of Calgary homes this is the right specification, and the price gap over three-tab is smaller than most homeowners expect once labour is factored in, because the labour is nearly identical.

Class 4 impact-rated shingles are architectural shingles engineered with a modified asphalt or a polymer-modified mat that absorbs impact instead of fracturing. Class 4 is the top rating in the UL 2218 test, in which a two-inch steel ball is dropped on the shingle twice in the same spot and the mat must not crack. In a hail corridor this is not a marketing tier — it is the difference between a storm that costs you a deductible and a storm that costs you nothing.

Our honest recommendation for most Calgary and Central Alberta homes is architectural laminate as the baseline, stepping up to Class 4 if you are staying in the house long-term, if you have already been through one hail claim, or if your insurer offers a premium discount for impact-rated roofing. Many Alberta insurers do — it is worth one phone call to your broker before you choose, because the discount can offset a real share of the upgrade over the life of the roof.

When people compare roofing quotes they compare shingles, because that is the part they can see. But two quotes naming the same shingle can describe very different roofs, and the differences are all in layers that disappear on install day.

It starts at the deck. Once the old material is off, we walk the sheathing looking for soft spots, delamination and rot — concentrated around chimneys, in valleys, and along the eaves where years of ice damming have done their work. Anything compromised gets replaced. Some older Calgary bungalows have 1x6 board decking rather than plywood, which is fine structurally but needs different fastening and sometimes an overlay; either way we tell you what is there before we cover it.

Above the deck comes the water barrier. The Alberta code minimum for ice-and-water membrane at the eaves exists because ice damming is a given here, not a possibility. We run membrane past the minimum, and we run it in every valley and around every penetration, because valleys and penetrations are where the large majority of real leaks begin. Synthetic underlayment covers the remaining field — lighter, stronger and far more tear-resistant than the felt paper it replaced, and it will not wrinkle if it gets rained on before the shingles go down.

Then the metal work. New drip edge at eaves and rakes, new step flashing where the roof meets a wall, new counter-flashing at chimneys, correctly sized valley metal, and new pipe boots. Reusing bent old flashing to save an hour is one of the most common shortcuts in this trade and one of the most reliable causes of a leak inside five years.

Ventilation is engineered rather than guessed. Intake area at the soffit must at minimum balance exhaust area at or near the ridge; if it does not, the attic pulls its air from inside the house, carrying moisture up into the insulation. We assess what is actually there — including soffit vents blown over with insulation, which we find constantly — and correct it as part of the job.

Only then do the shingles go on, fastened to the manufacturer's specified nailing pattern. Placement, count and depth are what the wind warranty is written against, and a nail driven high or over-driven voids it on that shingle. This is the part that separates a careful install from a fast one.

Manufacturers advertise lifetime and 50-year shingles. In this climate, plan on 18 to 30 years for an architectural shingle installed properly on a well-ventilated attic, and considerably less than that for a three-tab or for any shingle over a hot, unbalanced attic space.

The three variables that actually decide it are ventilation, hail and installation quality, roughly in that order. A poorly ventilated attic bakes the shingle from underneath through every sunny Calgary summer — and Calgary has more sunny days than almost any major Canadian city — driving out the volatiles that keep asphalt flexible. Those shingles go brittle, shed granules and curl a decade before their rating.

Hail is the wildcard. A single severe event can end a roof at year eight. That is the entire argument for Class 4 and, separately, the argument for having a roof inspected after any significant storm rather than assuming it survived because it did not leak. Bruising does not leak. It just shortens the life quietly.

The failure signs worth watching for are granules accumulating in the eavestrough and at the bottom of downspouts, shingle edges curling or cupping, bald patches where the black asphalt shows through, cracking across the face of shingles, and any shingle you can lift by hand because the sealant strip has given up. Any of those means it is worth a free inspection, not necessarily a replacement.

Before anything comes off the roof, the property gets protected. Tarps and plywood over landscaping, decks, air conditioning units, windows and siding. Vehicles moved. On tight inner-city lots and lane-access properties we work out the disposal and material staging with you in advance, because there is often only one place a bin can sit.

Tear-off comes next and it is fast and loud — the old shingles, underlayment and flashing come off down to the deck, ideally in a single pass on a single elevation so nothing sits open longer than it has to. Weather is watched all day; we do not open more roof than we can dry in.

With the deck exposed we inspect it, photograph anything that needs replacing, and show you before we replace it. Sheathing is priced per sheet on your quote so there is never a surprise number, only a surprise quantity, and you see the reason for it.

Then the system goes back on in order: ice-and-water membrane, drip edge, synthetic underlayment, valley metal, starter course, field shingles to the nailing pattern, step and counter-flashing at every wall and chimney, new pipe boots, ridge ventilation and ridge cap. Most residential re-roofs in this region finish in one to two days; large, steep or heavily cut-up roofs take longer and we tell you that before you commit rather than after.

The job closes with a full walkthrough, cleanup and a magnetic nail sweep of the driveway, lawn and beds. You get the workmanship warranty in writing and the manufacturer's material warranty registered in your name.

We do not quote roofs sight unseen, and we would rather explain the variables than give a number that will not hold. Roof size is the obvious one, measured in squares rather than house square footage — a bungalow with a wide footprint can have more roof than a two-storey with the same floor area.

Pitch is the second. A steeper roof takes longer, needs more safety equipment, and cannot be walked the way a shallow one can. Complexity is the third and is often bigger than pitch: valleys, dormers, skylights, chimneys, multiple roof planes and changes of direction all multiply the flashing and cutting work.

Then the removal. One existing layer is standard; two layers is roughly double the tear-off labour and double the disposal weight. What the deck looks like underneath is genuinely unknown until it is open, which is why we itemize decking per sheet rather than pretending to know in advance.

Material grade is the part you control. And access matters more than people expect — a lane-access garage with no room for a bin, an acreage twenty minutes from the nearest supply yard, or a house where the only material path is over a landscaped yard all change the day.

Every quote we write is itemized against those factors, so you can see exactly what you are paying for and compare it honestly against anyone else's. If a storm caused the damage, the same inspection becomes the documentation package for your insurance claim — and on most approved claims, homeowners pay only their deductible.

Inside Calgary we shingle every quadrant and every housing era: post-war bungalows in Renfrew, Killarney and Bowness, 1970s and 80s subdivisions in Ranchlands, Whitehorn, Marlborough and Woodbine, 1990s and 2000s suburbs in Panorama Hills, Evergreen, McKenzie Towne and Tuscany, and current builds in Livingston, Cornerstone, Seton, Rangeview and Alpine Park.

North of the city the work runs up the QEII corridor through Airdrie, Crossfield, Carstairs, Didsbury, Olds, Bowden and Innisfail to Red Deer, Penhold and Sylvan Lake. West it runs through Bearspaw, Springbank, Cochrane, Bragg Creek and out to Canmore and the Bow Valley. South through De Winton, Okotoks, Aldersyde, High River, Diamond Valley and Nanton. East through Chestermere, Langdon, Strathmore, Beiseker, Three Hills and Drumheller.

Acreage roofs are their own specification. Bigger footprints, full wind exposure with nothing to break it, longer material runs and no supply yard around the corner. We stage those jobs so the crew and the material arrive together and the roof is closed in continuously rather than across several trips — which is what keeps rural pricing sensible and the roof dry in the meantime.