Architectural or three-tab — what is the difference?

A three-tab is a single flat layer with a repeating cut-out. An architectural shingle is laminated from two, which is where the depth, the shadow line and the extra weight come from. Nearly everything installed on a Tennessee house today is architectural, and three-tab shows up mostly on outbuildings and on repairs matching an older roof.

Can you lay the new shingles over the old ones?

Sometimes it is permitted, and it is almost never the right call. A recover hides the decking — and if the decking is what failed, you have paid to install a new roof on top of the problem. It also traps heat against the new layer, which shortens it.

Does the attic really change how long the roof lasts?

Yes, and it is the part nobody looks at. Intake at the soffit and exhaust at the ridge have to be balanced; an attic that cannot breathe cooks the shingle from underneath and the failure gets blamed on the material. We check it before we quote the roof, not after.

I think the last storm damaged it. What should I do first?

Have it looked at from the roof before you file anything — hail bruising is hard to read from the ground and easy to miss from a photograph. Our inspection is free and we will tell you if you do not have a claim; that conversation is on the hail damage inspection page.

Architectural asphalt · GAF Certified

Asphalt Shingle Roofing in Nashville & Murfreesboro

The roof most houses here already have, and the one almost every hail claim in Middle Tennessee is written against. What decides whether a shingle roof reaches its service life is rarely the shingle: it is the deck underneath, the nailing pattern, and whether the valleys and eaves were detailed or merely covered.

Call (615) 418-6087 Request a free inspection

The inspection is free, with a plain answer about what the roof needs.

Read our Google reviews GAF Certified · ID 1160390

Profile: Architectural (laminated) or three-tab
Service life: 20–30 years for the architectural class
Slope: 4:12 and up; 2:12–4:12 needs a doubled underlayment
Hail: Granule loss and mat fracture — what an adjuster looks for

Choose shingle roofing when

The roof has dormers, valleys, chimneys and plumbing penetrations. Shingles flash around complexity for a fraction of what the same detailing costs in metal.
You are replacing after a storm. A hail claim here is nearly always written against a shingle roof, and the inspection comes before anyone talks about materials.
You are selling within a few years and the roof has to be sound and new rather than outlive you.
The street expects the profile — a subdivision or an HOA where a metal roof would be the one that stands out.

When it is the wrong answer

You intend to keep the house for thirty years. Over that span you buy this roof twice, and metal is the cheaper of the two by the end of it.
Hail has already taken it once. The next storm does the same thing to the same material; Brava's Class 4 rating or a metal panel is what breaks the cycle.
The deck is low-slope or flat. Below about 2:12 a shingle is not a covering at all — that roof wants a membrane, which is what TPO and EPDM are for.

How the job runs

Installing shingle roofing, step by step.

01
Tear-off, because a shingle hides the deck
A second layer laid over the first hides the sheathing, adds weight and runs hotter than the layer under it. We strip to the deck and replace what comes up soft, which is also the only moment anyone can see what the old roof was actually doing.
02
Six products, not one
Starter at the eaves and rakes, ice-and-water in the valleys and along the eave, synthetic underlayment, the field shingle, hip and ridge cap, and a ridge vent matched to the intake below it. The field is the part you see and the smallest part of the decision.
03
The nailing pattern is the wind rating
Four nails or six, placed in the nail line rather than above it. A high-wind rating is a specification for how the shingle is fastened, not a property of the bundle it came out of — which is why the same product performs differently on two roofs.

Questions

What people ask us first.

Architectural or three-tab — what is the difference?: A three-tab is a single flat layer with a repeating cut-out. An architectural shingle is laminated from two, which is where the depth, the shadow line and the extra weight come from. Nearly everything installed on a Tennessee house today is architectural, and three-tab shows up mostly on outbuildings and on repairs matching an older roof.
Can you lay the new shingles over the old ones?: Sometimes it is permitted, and it is almost never the right call. A recover hides the decking — and if the decking is what failed, you have paid to install a new roof on top of the problem. It also traps heat against the new layer, which shortens it.
Does the attic really change how long the roof lasts?: Yes, and it is the part nobody looks at. Intake at the soffit and exhaust at the ridge have to be balanced; an attic that cannot breathe cooks the shingle from underneath and the failure gets blamed on the material. We check it before we quote the roof, not after.
I think the last storm damaged it. What should I do first?: Have it looked at from the roof before you file anything — hail bruising is hard to read from the ground and easy to miss from a photograph. Our inspection is free and we will tell you if you do not have a claim; that conversation is on the hail damage inspection page.

Talk to us about shingle roofing.

A leak, a missing shingle, a roof that has simply reached the end of its life — describe it and we will come look. The inspection is free. If it is urgent, calling is faster.

(615) 418-6087 · 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM

Other systems we install

Request an inspection

Tell us what the roof is doing. If it is urgent, calling is faster.