History of Asphalt Shingles

Asphalt shingles are the most common roof covering on houses in North America. They began in the United States around the turn of the 20th century as a cheaper, more fire-resistant alternative to wood shingles and slate.

Roll roofing forerunners

Composition roofing developed in the United States in the mid-19th century. In the 1840s Samuel and Cyrus Warren of Cincinnati made roofing from cotton fabric coated with pine tar and sand. In the last quarter of the 19th century, built-up roofing components were adapted into factory-made rolls called "ready roofing", now known as roll roofing. An asphalt prepared roofing appeared in 1893, and slate granules were added to its surface in 1897.

The first shingles

The usual account credits Reynolds of Grand Rapids, Michigan, with hand-cutting stone-surfaced roll roofing into individual shingles in 1903. Sources disagree on his first name: the US National Park Service gives Herbert M. Reynolds, while the National Roofing Museum and others give Henry M. Reynolds. Some sources also say material was first cut into strip shingles in 1901, and one manufacturer's history notes that other people and companies claimed to be making shingles at about the same time.

Rapid growth

• 1906: Bird and Son marketed a notched shingle that looked like two shingles when laid.
• By 1911: asphalt shingles were in general use in parts of the US.
• 1916: the National Board of Fire Underwriters called for wood shingles to be eliminated as a fire hazard, boosting asphalt.
• First World War: asphalt shingles used non-strategic materials and shipped more easily than wood or slate.
• 1926: Sears, Roebuck promoted slate-surfaced asphalt shingles in its house catalogue.
• By 1935: all major makers offered the 12 by 36 in (305 by 914 mm) multi-tab strip, still the standard format; ceramic-coated granules broadened the colour range.
• 1939: 32 manufacturers produced about 11 million squares.

Fibreglass and laminates

Organic felt mats were gradually replaced by fibreglass. A fibreglass mat was introduced around 1960 with limited success; manufacturers switched in the 1970s and 1980s, and by 1982 fibreglass shingles had overtaken organic ones. Laminated, or architectural, shingles appeared in the 1970s and are steadily displacing flat three-tab shingles.