How asphalt shingles took over America’s roofs

Back in 1903, a roofer in Grand Rapids, Michigan, started cutting stone-covered asphalt roll roofing into individual shingles. Henry Reynolds usually gets the credit. Those first pieces were about 8 by 16 inches, cut by hand. Think about preparing a whole roof that way before you even start laying it. The material was mostly cotton rag felt saturated with asphalt and surfaced with stone. By 1915, machinery could cut shingles from a continuous roll. Now manufacturers could put some volume behind the idea. Asphalt Institute

Then war and fire helped move things along. During World War I, asphalt shingles were easy to transport and used materials that weren’t in short supply. In the 1920s, the National Board of Fire Underwriters campaigned to eliminate wood-shingled roofs. Asphalt had an opening: affordable roofing with better fire resistance than wood. Homeowners could even lay it over their existing shingles. Roofovers have been around a lot longer than the last guy whose work you tore off. U.S. Forest Service

Manufacturers kept making the product easier to sell and install. Individual shingles gave way to strips, and by 1935, most major manufacturers were producing familiar 12-by-36-inch tab shingles. Ceramic granules brought more color choices during the same decade. By 1939, manufacturers representing roughly 95 percent of the industry reported producing more than 11 million squares of asphalt shingles. This was already a serious business before the suburbs took off. U.S. Forest Service, National Bureau of Standards

Then World War II ended, and America needed houses. Returning veterans, growing families, and government-backed mortgages helped fuel a building boom. Builders were putting up entire subdivisions, using standardized designs and materials to keep costs down. In 1950 alone, housing starts reached about 1.9 million units, nearly 1.7 million of them single-family homes. That’s a lot of roofs waiting on crews. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies

You can see why asphalt fit that kind of building. Factories could supply a consistent product, crews could install it efficiently, and builders could keep the roof within budget. Three-tabs were well suited to repeating the same job down an entire street. A federal study of housing materials documented a marked shift from wood to asphalt after 1940, with asphalt the dominant shingle material by 1956. The postwar boom gave an established product a much bigger market. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Of course, selling all those shingles didn’t make wind stop blowing. Self-sealing strips arrived in the 1950s to improve wind resistance. Over the following decades, fiberglass reinforcement helped change the product again, improving fire resistance and eventually replacing organic felt across much of the industry. Asphalt Roofing Manufacturers Association

Meanwhile, manufacturers started giving the roof more depth. One milestone came in 1967, when RUBEROID engineer Phil Bottoli laminated two strip shingles together to create the product that became Timberline. RUBEROID merged with GAF that same year. The idea behind architectural shingles was straightforward: bond layers together and vary the exposed pattern to get a thicker, more dimensional appearance. Suddenly, an asphalt roof could suggest wood shakes instead of showing the same flat, repeating tabs across every slope. GAF, CertainTeed

Three-tabs didn’t disappear overnight. Laminated shingles developed into a broader range of products, and manufacturers kept working on the appearance. GAF introduced new granule application techniques in 1991 to create stronger shadow and color patterns across the layers. Today, architectural shingles are the most common asphalt shingle type. The homeowner sees depth and curb appeal. The roofer sees how much the product has changed since somebody first started cutting up a roll. GAF, CertainTeed