The Best Roof Shingles for Michigan Homes

Homeowners in Howell and Brighton ask us this at almost every inspection, and the honest answer is not a brand name. It is a set of features. Here is what a shingle needs to survive a Livingston County winter and a Livingston County summer, and which products actually have those features.

What a Michigan shingle has to survive

Ninety-plus freeze-thaw cycles a winter. Ice dams at the eaves. Wind gusts of 60 to 80 mph in a bad year — 90 mph was measured near Parkers Corners in August 2023 and 70 mph in Howell this September. Hail of an inch or more every couple of years. And roof-surface temperatures that swing from below zero in January to well over 150 degrees in July. A shingle that is fine in Tennessee is not automatically fine here.

The features that matter, in order

• A reinforced nailing zone. Most wind failures start at the nail line. Owens Corning's SureNail strip is a woven fabric band in the nail zone that gives the nail something to grip and roughly doubles the shingle's pull-through resistance. It is the single biggest reason we install Duration.
• A high wind rating with the right nailing. Look for a 130 mph rating and then make sure the crew actually uses the nailing pattern that rating depends on. A 130 mph shingle with four nails instead of six is not a 130 mph roof.
• Class 4 impact resistance if you are in the open. On a lake home or an exposed lot, a Class 4 shingle takes hail that would bruise a standard one. We wrote a separate post on Class 4.
• Algae resistance. Michigan's humidity grows the black streaks you see on north slopes across the county. Copper-infused granules — StreakGuard on Owens Corning products — keep the roof looking new for the length of the algae warranty.
• A laminated, architectural profile. Three-tab shingles are lighter, thinner and seal along a single line. Architectural shingles are heavier, seal better, hide minor deck irregularities and last five to eight years longer here.

What we install, and why

We are an Owens Corning Platinum Preferred Contractor, which puts us in the top one percent of roofers in the country and lets us register your roof under the Platinum Protection warranty. Our standard roof is TruDefinition Duration with SureNail, installed as a complete Total Protection Roofing System: Deck Defense synthetic underlayment, WeatherLock ice and water barrier past the code minimum at every eave and in every valley, and VentSure ridge ventilation sized to the attic. For homes that want a heavier, more dimensional look we install Duration Designer and the Woodcrest and Berkshire lines. For exposed lake homes we recommend Duration FLEX, the Class 4 version.

What we would not put on a Michigan roof

Anything three-tab on a home you plan to keep. Any shingle without a reinforced nail zone on an open, windy lot. And any premium shingle installed over a bad ventilation system, because the ventilation, not the shingle, will decide how long the roof lasts.

See the options on your own roof

Shingle color and profile look different on a real house than on a sample board. We bring full-size samples to the free inspection and can show you homes in Howell, Brighton and Hartland with each product on them. Call (810) 588-3933 to set it up.