Typical Roof Lifespan for Every Type of Roof System

Introduction

The following table provides the typical expected useful service life durations for every type of primary roofing material and all roof systems you’ll be likely to run across (figuratively, don’t actually run across a roof). I have also included the typical maximum warranty lengths for each. Roof warranty terms and limitations can be tricky, though. You may want to have a look at my article explaining roof warranties.

The values in the table are based on my extensive personal experience helping clients plan for replacing all kinds of commercial roofs, as well as research into recent developments in roofing materials technology and current typical warranty terms.

This table covers current roofing products, so in some cases the expected service life I give will be significantly longer than what can be expected from older products on existing roofs which were installed years ago.

The warranty information is based on actual warranty documents for actual roofing products from actual roofing manufacturers.

Table: Roof Life Expectancy and Warranty Periods by Roof Type

Factors That Determine Roof Lifespan

A roof’s lifespan is not something you can predict with absolute certainty. There are many factors that go into the actual length of the useful service life of a roof.

Roofing Material Type and Quality

The type of roofing material selected for the roof will set a general upper limit on the roof’s life expectancy. Some materials simply last longer than others, and all systems have their own design life expectancy.

The quality of the materials and the reliability of the manufacturer is also very important when it comes to actually reaching that design life expectancy. If you go cheap, you can knock a few years off, sometimes quite a few.

Workmanship or Installation Quality

Workmanship, or the quality of the installation, plays a huge part in the life expectancy of a roof system. Roofs that are installed improperly have been known to fail immediately after installation. Seam failure, massive leaking, catastrophic wind blow-off, etc.

Even if the workmanship is just slightly below standard, the lifespan of the roof will very likely be shorter than it should be. Needless problems tend to develop over the life of a roof when the installation isn’t completely acceptable, and these problems are rarely noticed or addressed as soon as they should be. This hurts the lifespan of the roof.

You can avoid a lot of problems if you have your roof installed by a highly qualified roofing contractor. Hiring a contractor certified by the manufacturer can often extend the warranty as well; in fact that’s usually what you have to do to get the best and longest warranties.

Climate or Local Environment

The local environment that the roof will have to endure is also a big piece of it. Even normally long-lasting roofing materials may suffer in coastal regions with high levels of corrosive environmental salt. Almost every common material used in construction tends to deteriorate faster under these conditions.

Many otherwise durable materials don’t perform well in deserts or other sunny climates, with the continual barrage of UV rays.

Asphalt shingles and EPDM rubber roofs should both be expected to last on the low end of the predicted range in a place like El Paso, Texas. Asphalt in general and semi-cured EPDM flashings are two materials in particular that are highly vulnerable to sunlight. On the other hand, metal roofing systems do tend to perform better than you’d think in extreme heat, as they reflect solar radiation more effectively and handle thermal expansion better than some other materials.

I’m not getting into detailed roofing material recommendations here, that would be a different article.

Roof Accessories

The use of proper fasteners and other accessories is really very important for long-term roof performance.

An all-too-common reason for the premature failure of tile roofs, for instance, is the use of low-quality fasteners and battens, which end up failing long before the tiles themselves would have. On all sorts of roofs, improperly selected and installed flashing materials around chimneys, vents, and skylights is a common cause of roof leaks and a shortened roof service life.

Roof Maintenance Program

Another significant factor, for commercial low-slope (“flat”) roofs in particular, is the quality of the roof’s maintenance program. If a commercial flat roof has a rigorous maintenance program that includes full inspections twice a year and addresses maintenance issues as soon as they arise, it can last up to 30% longer than the design life of the system. I’ve run large roof maintenance programs and I have the records to prove it.

For residential roofs, annual inspections by a professional and performing routine tasks like gutter cleaning and moss removal can prevent minor issues from turning into major problems.

Material Thickness

All other things being equal, though, it’s the thickness of the material that most affects the expected lifespan of a roof. As a rule of thumb, the thicker the shingle, the panel, the membrane, or the tile, the longer the roof will last. For instance, a 24-gauge metal panel has superior wind uplift resistance and will generally outlast a 29-gauge panel, and a 90-mil TPO membrane will last far longer than the 45-mil version. Heavyweight clay tiles tend to be more resistant to impact damage than thinner alternatives. Etc.

Length of Roofing Warranties

Material Warranties

The warranty periods given in the table above are for typical manufacturer’s material warranties. A material warranty only covers the performance of the roofing material itself (basically, it just covers factory defects, which are very rare these days).

These warranties do not cover damage caused by improper installation, severe weather events, or poor maintenance. Some manufacturers offer enhanced warranties that extend coverage beyond defects, but these often require specific installation procedures and the use of additional approved components.

Workmanship Guarantees

The initial workmanship of the roof installation and the performance of other parts of the roof assembly, including the roof deck and any other components not produced by that manufacturer, will not be covered by the manufacturer’s warranty.

Those things will be covered by the roofing contractor’s workmanship guarantee, if they are covered at all.

Contractor’s workmanship guarantees traditionally lasted for a much shorter period of time, usually 1 – 5 years. There has been a trend lately of roofing contractors, particularly those certified by manufacturers, offering longer workmanship guarantees, going up to 10 or even 20 years. I personally recommend you insist on a minimum of 5 years. I believe I cover this in my article on selecting a roofing contractor.

Workmanship guarantees typically only cover issues directly related to installation errors and will not include problems arising from structural movement, natural disasters, or lack of proper maintenance.

Limited Lifetime Warranties

In the past decade or two, most roofing shingle manufacturers have changed their warranties to limited lifetime warranties, especially for high-end asphalt shingles.

If you read the fine print, however, you’ll see that the coverage becomes “prorated” after 5 – 20 years.

This means that the manufacturer starts to guarantee less than the full replacement value of the roofing material at that point, and progressively less and less as time goes by. In some cases, the proration schedule reduces the warranty payout to as little as 10% of the original cost after a few decades. Additionally, warranties often exclude labor costs, meaning homeowners may have to pay for the removal and reinstallation of the roofing material even if they receive a partial refund for defective materials.

Remember: roofing warranties are meant to protect the manufacturer, not the consumer.

Roof Lifespan Information on the Internet

I’ve seen dozens of other websites that claim to tell you how long you can expect a roof to last. These are almost all roofing contractor websites and I was amazed at how consistently bad the information was. Almost every single one of these sites claimed that any given type of roofing has an expected lifespan that’s about 20% to 30% shorter than it really is.

I keep seeing claims that architectural shingles will only last 20 years. I actually saw one contractor’s website insist that EPDM roofs only last for 12 years, which is completely absurd. Then again, the more often people replace their roofs, the more work there is for roofing contractors.

A roofing contractor will make a lot more money replacing old roofs than he will from helping to maintain them and making sure building owners get the longest possible life out of their roofs. You should be aware that roofing contractors often underestimate how long roofs will last because it’s in the contractors’ interest for people to believe they need a new roof sooner than they actually do.

If you’re responsible for a large commercial roof, you’d be much better off getting an opinion from an independent roof consultant than a roofing contractor.