We are building a garage and were all set to use IKO/CRC Cambridge 50 year shingles from Menards until I stumbled upon this forum and saw that a lot of you don't like them.

Does anyone have any advice for a good architectural shingle for DIY near Madison, WI?

Certainteed Landmark or a GAF Prestique.

Follow the instructions on the package.
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It's hard to say without knowing how much your wanting to spend. However, overall I would go with a GAF Timberline 30 yr. Get value for your dollar. Still it would be more based of finances.

Tamko Heritage AR

or

Certainteed LandMark AR

Ed
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Certainteed Landmarks
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Thanks for the replies.
I've got an estmated price on the Certainteed Landmarks:
$90 a square for 30 year
$120 a square for 40 year
$140 a square for 50 year.

Are the 4o and 50 year shingles much better?

yes go for the 50
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It's a garage and probably a very walkable pitch, so the 30 year will be just fine.

The heavier 50's look better on a steeper slope.

Ed
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Unlike popular believe on forums but I actually liked installing the IKO Cambridge 30's. It's been a few years since laying them but they laid out nice and IMO were better than GAF Timberline or the at the time ELK Prestique.

Did half a dozen roofs for a builder who only installed IKO Cambridge and IKO Dynasty. I know the IKO three tabbers of yesterday were bad as were most Certainteed three tabbers for that matter.

Ed makes a good point on shingle sellection for your garage roof.

The other day met with a powerhouse realtor and he said a 50 year laminate will add little to no additional value when it comes time to sell. Most people go with the 50 year laminates for curb appeal only.

The Landmark TL's look nice on low pitch roofs but you can really only see how thick they are when you look at roof level and then you can barely see what color they are. If going from cedar shingles to laminates a TL would be about the shingle that would stand out to be thick other than Presidentials.

Here's one thing I know. In 2006 did a 20sq 9/12 garage roof with CT Landmark 40 Weathered Wood. The next year did the 50sq 8/12 house roof with CT Landmark 30 Weathered Wood and you cannot tell which one is thicker.

The only time you can tell the difference is going from the 30 year to the 50 year/lifetime.

Repairability is going to be tough with 50's with age. The shingles seem to get very hard over the years and become easy to break. Last Summer met with an adjuster on a 1998 Tamko 40 year laminate roof. A tree bumped a corner of the house damaging half a bundle of shingles. The adjuster paid for repair so another adjuster was called out. That adjuster also said repair so I decided to pull a shingle to have them find a match as a last resort. Off the ladder I started to pull a shingle when I started ripping the shingle with a pry bar. The adjuster then snapped a picture of what I was doing for the file and said, "We'll buy this whole thing you can't repair those shingles". Strange thing was it was a 40 year roof that you couldn't repair at year 10.

Home owner was happy problem was solved!!!

we havent torn off many demensional roofs down here,in the past, because theyve only been here bout 25 yr.
but the ones we have have been mostly thicker ones.
i dont know why but the thick fifty yrs just get more brittle faster. cant repair em, they just crumble.

ya better have plenty of slope.

i just like a good thirty yr regular, popular, shingle.

favorite is carriage house.

gweedo.