# Thinking of switching Manufacturers



## Weeunc (Mar 31, 2010)

Hi Guys

Looking for thoughts on different shingles.
New to forum. I have been in the roofing business for 25 years. I have always used IKO. Hard to teach an old dog new tricks I guess. Went through the early Gentry fiberglass cracking issues back in the 80's. I'm from Canada so the cracking was due to extreme weather changes. Seen the O.C.'s cracking in early 90's. Both mats were discountinued . Shyed away from fibreglass until around 04. Mistake on my part but fibreglass was hopeless in Canada for a very long time. The overated warranties on the organic lines of IKO and B.P. have come back to haunt them. They used to be a 10 and 15 year shingle. They now call them 20 and 25. Everyone bashes them for not holding up more than 12 to 15 years. As far as I know they never held up more then 12 to 15 years ever since they switched to the organic mat in the 60's. 

Enough said about that. We have been getting a lot of IKO bashing around here lately and although I have yet to have a problem with their Cambridge, Roofshake fibreglass line I would like to hear what other installers have seen with them. Has anyone had problems other then blowoffs? I have never had a blowoff but we handnail everything and 6 nail in high wind areas. A lot of problems with blowoffs is installation. I'm more concerned about granule loss, cracking or other manufacturing defects. 

I have had great success we these shingles but we have yet to see how they stand the test of time. My biggest problem is the fact that other companies will use IKO's bad organic reputation to build up their GAF or Certainteed line. This has started to play a role in my overall confidence with selling these shingles. My reputation doesn't need to be dragged down by IKO's poor quality control. Even though I think that it is a thing of the past. 

I have been toying with using the Certainteed line as not many installers use them around here and I don't like the fact that GAF has only a few installers per region who can become Master Elite. I don't think you should become anything becuase of sales volume and a computer. These warranty titles are not more then an upsale. Good installers should have the title on performance not on how much money their willing to shell out to the manufacturer. 

What I'm looking for is installers from each manufacturer giving me their best knowledge good or bad about their choice of product. 

I'm not interested in hearing about any organic product as we all know that they are crap.

What I'm interested in is average lifespan of your 30, 40 year fibreglass laminated shingle and 30 year 3 tabs.
We don't have enough track record in Ontario Canada to give this advice to customers as we only go back about 10-12 years at best.

Any information would be helpful.

Thanks Guys.


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