The shingles of a roof can have a significant impact on the overall design and perceived value of a home. If you take a closer look at your house, the roof can make up half of a home’s exterior. The majority of the Valley’s sloped roofed housing is covered with shingles that are reinforced with organic or fiberglass materials. Asphalt shingles reinforced with organic felts have been around the longest, but fiberglass-reinforced shingles are now the most widely used. There are many types of sloped roofs and they rely on gravity to keep water flowing off of them. There are several different types of materials that can be used to cover these roofs.
Organic and fiberglass are the two types of shingles most commonly used. Organic shingles are generally made of paper saturated with asphalt to make it waterproof, then coated with adhesive asphalt with ceramic granules embedded. Fiberglass shingles use glass fiber in the base layer reinforcing mat. Urea-formaldehyde resin is used to bond the wet fiberglass into the mat. Then, its coated with asphalt which makes the fiberglass shingle waterproof.
Made up of a fiberglass mat, with top and bottom layers of asphalt embedded with mineral granules.
Shingle Roof Characteristics
Fire resistance ratings for asphalt shingles is rated either Class A, B or C. Class A, of course would be the most fire-resistant. Classes B and C would be less fire resistant. Most fiberglass shingles are rated Class A, while the majority of organic shingles are rated Class B or C.
The type of reinforcement a shingle has doesn’t really effect its appearance. You can get organic and fiberglass products in laminated grades that give the shingle a textured appearance. In warm humid parts of the country, you can add zinc or copper-coated ceramic granules to organic or fiberglass products to ward off algae attack, which is a common problem there.
Both types of shingles can be found in a variety of colors. Regardless of their reinforcing type and their appearance, asphalt shingles’ physical traits can vary a lot. When you’re installing asphalt shingles, Mikku and Sons Roofing recommends shingles that comply with the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standards.