How to Select the Best Type of Asphalt Shingles for your DIY Project when shopping at your local Home Depot or Lowe’s home improvement store, or Online:
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We’ll save you the trip to each store (and gas) by providing the following details: Retail Cost per bundle and square (100 sq.ft.) of shingles, Best options for DIY roofing projects, and overview of each product/brand
Before we get into the details of how to select the best type of roofing shingles, let’s first discuss the general roofing shingle options that home improvement stores like Lowe’s and Home Depot have to offer.
Both chains offer roofing products from the most popular roofing brand and the number one seller of asphalt shingles in America, GAF.
With Home Depot, GAF products represent about 80% of all asphalt shingle products available through the stores and online. Home Depot’s other roofing shingle option is the Onduvilla brand, which is available for online purchasing.
With Lowe’s, GAF shingles are roughly 50% of their overall offerings for asphalt shingles. Lowe’s also carries Owens Corning roofing products, which is another popular brand comprising another half of roofing shingles available for sale in Lowe’s stores and online.
The Onduvilla shingles are not the typical kind of shingles. Onduvilla specializes in what is known as 3D shingles, which have a wavy pattern and can be used as a stand-alone type shingle (like the popular types) but is more or less geared toward building owners with a metal roof that might benefit from this as an additional layer of roofing.
Because of how atypical this product is, we won’t be including it as part of the selection process, but we did want to mention it as a high-end and a fairly unique roofing option. The Onduvilla shingles cost about $50 per bundle (20 sq.ft.) or $250 per square, with 10 pieces in each bundle.
New Shingle Roof
$7,500 Average price |
New Metal Roof
$14,500 Average price |
New Flat Roof
$8,225 Average price |
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Both Lowe’s and Home Depot stores provide all the roofing accessories including underlayments and Ice-and-Water shields, ridge caps, and vents, to make for a complete roofing system.
Below, we list the costs for each option, along with the required components. We won’t provide costs for flashing as that varies in purpose, and it’s therefore best to discuss with either a professional contractor or store specialist to make sure you are obtaining the most suitable product for the job.
Note: in many cases, prices on the products are almost exactly the same between the two stores. However, when this is not the case, we are providing the lowest cost from either store, and if there is significant difference, we’ll let you know.
Leak barrier / Underlayment material
- GAF WeatherWatch Leak Barrier (aka Underlayment) = $49.50 for 150 sq.ft. roll
- Grace Roll Roofing Underlayment = $138.00 for 225 sq.ft. roll
Starter Shingles
- GAF Pro-Start Black Starter Shingles = $36.90 for 120 linear feet
- Owens Corning Starter Shingles Black = $22.60 for 100 linear feet (through Lowe’s)
Ridge Vent
- GAF Cobra Ridge Low Profile Exhaust Vent = $49.00 for 20 ft. roll
- GAF Cobra 3 (Plastic) Ridge Exhaust Vent = $82.30 for 4 ft. piece
- Owens Corning VentSure Plastic Roll Ridge Vent = $60.10 for 20 ft. roll