What most homeowners desire is a roof that's not too expensive, requires no maintenance, and lasts forever. But most roofs are replaced - or at least repaired - every ten years. By carefully choosing your home's roofing material, you can reduce the cost of replacement. In the long run, you'll use less building material, fill up less landfill space with discarded material, and put less demand on our natural resources.

You can realize other environmental benefits from your roofing choices. If you select a light-colored surface or a material that doesn't absorb heat from the sun, you significantly reduce your home's cooling needs. When your attic stays cooler, your cooling bills go down.

There is a wide choice of materials used to roof a house, ranging from thatch - dried grass, to slate - pieces of stone. Modern products like plastic, fiberglass and concrete are available, and some innovative, energy-efficient homes are being roofed with sod. New products are being developed to overcome the shortcomings of older roofing materials, meet the demands of modern building techniques, and conform to increasingly stringent building codes.

Popular Roofing Materials

Here is a rundown on the most popular types of roofing. Remember that cost alone does not determine quality, and not all of these products will meet the needs of your home. But by carefully selecting the right material, making sure it's installed properly and performing modest maintenance occasionally, you can have a roof that functions properly for 20 to 50 years - or even longer.



    On the negative side, composition shingles don't have the life span of other materials like tile or metal. They don't offer the dimensional look of tile or wood shakes, and they can blow off in high winds.




    Most wood shakes are unrated by fire safety codes. Many use wipe or spray-on fire retardants which offer less protection and are only effective for a few years. There are pressure-treated shakes, however, that are impregnated with fire retardant and meet national and California fire safety standards. Made by companies like Chemco, this pressure treating extends the life of wood shingles and provides better fire safety performance.

    Installing wood shakes is more complicated than roofing with composite shingles, and the quality of finished roof depends on the experience of the contractor as well as the caliber of the shakes you use. The best shakes come from the heartwood of large old cedar trees, difficult to find any more. Some contractors maintain that shakes made from the outer wood of smaller cedars - the usual source today - are less uniform, more subject to twisting and warping, and don't last as long.


    Tile lasts a long time - its expected lifespan is greater than the lifespan of the material on which the roofing rests. Tile won't rot or burn, and it can't be harmed by insects. It requires little maintenance, and comes in a variety of colors, types, styles and brands.

    The biggest drawback to tile is its weight. Depending on the material used to make it, tile can be very heavy - so heavy that extra roof support can be required. Originally made from clay, new tiles are being made from lighter materials, and lightweight metal tiles can be installed over existing roofs. With some new materials, however, color is added only on the surface of the tile, and they can fade over time.

    Some types of tile are fragile, so walking on them can break them. That makes it more difficult to accomplish maintenance like painting or cleaning rain gutters or fireplaces. Initial installation can be complicated.

    Finally, tile can cost more than other roofing materials.

  • Slate - actual shingle-like slivers of rock - is another roofing material that shows up on more upscale homes. Although slate is an expensive choice, it offers a very natural look and can be laid out in a variety of patterns.


    Like tile, slate can be very heavy, sometimes requiring expensive extra support. It, too, is breakable enough that walking on it is difficult for a non-professional, complicating such tasks as rooftop maintenance, gutter cleaning and painting.


    The advantages of concrete roofing vary from product to product, but generally they all have a long lifespan, require low maintenance, offer good fire protection and are resistant to rot and insects. Concrete mixed with cellulose can mimic the appearance of wood shakes, while improving on the durability and fire protection that real wood affords. It can approximate the look of clay tile or slate while mitigating the structural problems caused by the weight of the real material.


  • Metal roofs are coming back into vogue. In the late 1700s, zinc, copper, and lead were the most popular materials used for roofing - such famous historic buildings as the Washington Monument and Thomas Jefferson's Monticello have metal roofs.





  • Mostly seen in commercial applications, hot mopped asphalt roofing is sometimes applied to flat or semi-flat residential roofs that have good access and proper drainage. Asphalt's advantage is that it is less expensive than other roofing materials and holds up fairly well when properly applied. The technique results in a roof that's not very pretty, although in residential use it is often covered with a layer of decorative stone to improve the appearance.

    You've no doubt noticed roofing projects that use this technique, since it requires a large kettle of melted asphalt. When being applied, the hot mixture releases extremely high levels of smelly air pollutants. In addition to being unpleasant, the hot asphalt poses a health risk to installers. Because its fumes contribute to smog, hot mopped asphalt may be restricted in some urban areas.

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