Best Roofing Shingles From Consumer Reports' Tests

Your roof provides your home’s chief protection against severe weather and all that comes with it: hail, water and ice, fallen trees, and debris. Choosing strong roofing shingles is a crucial step toward making sure that you, your home, and your belongings are well-protected. (Another key step: hiring a good roofing contractor.)

Consumer Reports’ comprehensive review of asphalt roofing shingles found that the best of the batch are more than twice as strong as the competition.

CR focuses strictly on asphalt roofing shingles because they’re the most common choice for roofs by far. Asphalt shingles are easy to install, last 10 to 50 years, depending on the type, and are less expensive than other roofing materials, such as slate, tile, and metal.

The three types of asphalt shingles we test are three-tab, architectural/laminated, and multilayered architectural. Three-tab shingles are the most common. These single-layer shingles are typically rated to withstand winds up to 60 mph and moderate impact from flying debris or hail. Architectural/laminated shingles have several layers and can withstand stronger winds and weather than three-tabs. And multilayered architectural shingles are the toughest of the bunch, with some rated for winds of up to 110 mph.

“When you see these shingles up close, it’s easy to see how some of the thicker, multilayered shingles fare better than standard three-tab shingles,” says Misha Kollontai, CR’s test engineer in charge of roofing. “In some cases, the material is so thick you’re getting more than triple the protection you’d get from standard shingles.”