Most roofs in Central PA are shingle roofs, and there’s a good reason for that. Done right, a quality architectural shingle roof protects your home for decades, looks the way a house is supposed to look, and costs a good bit less than metal.
The catch is in those two words: done right. A shingle roof is a system. Starter strips, underlayment, ice barrier, ventilation, cap. It only performs as well as its weakest piece, and most of what makes ours different is buried under the shingles where you’ll never see it.
Here’s everything that goes into it. Color is the fun part. This is everything else.
What’s in the package
- Tear-off and disposal. The old shingles come off, down to the deck. The old drip edge comes off too, a detail plenty of crews skip. Reusing a bent, painted-over drip edge undoes the point of installing a new one.
- New aluminum drip edge on the eaves and the rakes. Sends water into the gutter instead of behind your fascia, and gives the shingle edges a straight, supported line to sit on. Aluminum doesn’t rust.
- Self-adhering ice and water barrier along the eaves, the rakes, and in every valley. A waterproof membrane that seals to the deck and around every nail driven through it. Ice dams form when attic heat melts snow up on the roof and that water refreezes at the colder eave, backing up under the shingles. Valleys get it for a different reason: water off two roof planes funnels through them, so they carry more volume than anywhere else on the house. This is the layer that stops either one from reaching your ceiling.
- GAF Tiger Paw synthetic underlayment across the whole deck. Seven times the tear strength of standard felt paper, and it won’t rot, dry out, or go brittle the way felt does. It also lies flat instead of wrinkling, which matters because a wrinkled underlayment telegraphs right through the shingles.
- GAF Pro-Start starter strip along the eaves and rakes. A purpose-made starter course with a factory adhesive strip, instead of the common shortcut of cutting up field shingles to use as starter. This is the first row of the roof. It’s what the wind grabs at, and it’s what holds the edge down.
- GAF Timberline HDZ architectural shingles, six nails per shingle. Four nails is the common standard. We use six, and that’s not for show. It’s more nails, more time, and more labor on every square, and it’s how we want every roof we put our name on fastened. The HDZ shingle’s oversized nailing zone makes hitting the mark consistent, which removes a whole category of installer error.
- GAF Snow Country ridge vents on the peaks. Exhaust ventilation at the ridge, built to keep blowing snow out. Trapped attic heat and moisture cook a roof from underneath and shorten its life, so ventilation isn’t an accessory. It’s part of what makes the roof last.
- GAF Seal-A-Ridge cap shingles on the peaks and hips. Purpose-made cap shingles rather than cut-up field shingles. The ridge is the most exposed line on your roof and the most common place a cheap job shows its age first.
- New pipe boots on every penetration. Plumbing vents and exhaust pipes all get new seals. The rubber on an old boot cracks and pulls away from the pipe long before the shingles around it wear out, and a failed boot puts water straight into your ceiling.
- New flashing as needed. Every place your roof meets a wall, a chimney, or a dormer gets new metal. This is hand-fitted work, and it’s where most persistent leaks start.
- Full cleanup. Debris hauled away, magnetic sweeps for nails, and your landscaping protected while we work.
It’s a complete GAF system, and that’s the point. Starter, underlayment, ice barrier, shingles, ridge vent, and cap all from one manufacturer, installed by a GAF Certified contractor. That isn’t brand loyalty. GAF writes its warranties around the system rather than the shingle, so a roof assembled from whatever was on the shelf that week doesn’t qualify for the coverage a complete system does. Installed as the full qualifying system, this roof earns GAF’s WindProven limited wind warranty, the only shingle wind warranty with no maximum wind speed.
Available upgrade: Timberline UHDZ
Not part of the standard package, but here if you want it:
- Class 4 impact resistance (UL 2218), the top rating. That matters for hail, and it may earn you an insurance discount. Worth a call to your agent.
- A thicker shingle with GAF’s UltraMat, and a Dual Shadow Line that gives the roof more depth and dimension from the street.
- 30 years of StainGuard Plus PRO algae protection, which is what keeps those black streaks off a north-facing slope.
What’s not included
Gutters and downspouts, skylights, decking replacement if we find rot, and interior repairs from an existing leak. If something turns up mid-project, you hear it from us first, with a price, before the work happens.
What backs it
Our 10-year Esh Builders workmanship warranty covers the installation. GAF’s manufacturer coverage on the materials is written on your proposal by name and term, and we file the warranty registration for you.
When you’re ready, we’ll come out, walk your roof, and tell you honestly what it needs, this year or a few years down the road.