The roof is a crucial part of the home and needs to be taken care of to provide individuals with the safe shelter they deserve. After the recent hail damage in Bastrop County, the importance of having a sturdy roof is clear. Roofing Turtle can help Bastrop residents get a fortified roof to prevent future harsh weather damage in the area.

Roofing Turtle is a GAF-certified roofing contractor in Texas. GAF is the leading roofing manufacturer in North America, which means clients are getting a high-quality, long lasting roof.

Owner Alan Butler and his team specialize in synthetic fortified roofs, which are resistant to hail, fire and wind. Butler said this resistance to fire has become even more important as Bastrop County was just designated as a wildfire county. In addition to fire resistance, the synthetic fortified roofs Butler and his team install can withstand hail and a category two hurricane winds of 130 miles per hour.

Which roofing shingles are the best option?

Butler said there are four classes for roofing materials, and the lowest-ranking option are asphalt shingles in class one.

“Most builder-grade roofs are using asphalt shingles, which is the lowest cost option,” Butler said. “They have a very low wind rating and see failure at 60-mile-per-hour winds. Subdivision homes are putting inexpensive roofs on that have a low tolerance for wind and hail, then [homeowners] have to replace it because it can’t hold up to the weather.”

Class two shingles are called architectural shingles—they’re still made of asphalt, but they’re a better quality. However, they are still susceptible to high winds, hail and fire.

Class three shingles have specialized technology to resist hail damage. They earn the hail-resistant certification by passing a test where two-inch ball bearings are dropped onto the shingles from 50 feet up.

Class four shingles are the highest grade of materials and it’s where synthetic roofs rank. These synthetic fortified shingles pass the same ball bearing test to get the impact rating and also undergo a wind speed test. The shingles that Butler and his team install are called F-Wave shingles, and they can withstand wind speeds of up to 130 miles per hour.

High-quality roofs and insurance companies

There are a number of reasons to choose a high-quality roof for your home, one of which is that homeowners could get a discount for installing a better quality roof. When homeowners get a roof installed, they have to fill out a form with the Texas Department of Insurance. That form is then submitted to the homeowner’s insurance company, and it details what class roof they have.

Insurance companies can rate the roof and potentially give homeowners a discount on the roof that was installed. Some insurance companies might even pay for homeowners to upgrade to a class four roof with no expense besides their deductible, because it means the company will have less liability for potential damages.

Sometimes getting an upgraded roof is about having the right endorsement on your insurance policy. For example, homeowners with farmers insurance may have an endorsement to upgrade to a fortified roof in the event of a total loss.

Butler said something homeowners may not know about insurance is that the deductible for wind and hail claims used to be 1%, but now it’s moving to 2% across the board—a 100% increase in the homeowner’s financial responsibility. By upgrading now, homeowners are protected from having to pay a 100% higher deductible down the line.

“It’s hard as a roofing company, because sometimes we’re having these conversations with customers on the back end—after their roof was damaged,” Butler said. “Unfortunately, we’re one of the only companies giving this information out in the market, and we really want them to understand how this works.”

Fortified roof, lasting warranty

Butler said the average roof in Texas lasts about seven to eight years due to the environment. The synthetic fortified roofs he and his team install have a 50-year warranty, and from day one of installation, homeowners have a complete 5-year warranty on hail damage. The company also has a 15-year wind warranty.

When living in an environment like Bastrop, which is prone to wildfires, the synthetic fortified roofs with the highest fire rating are important for protecting homeowners and keeping a roof over their heads.



Some companies might mix and match roofing materials from different product lines, which can have detrimental effects on the quality of the roof and its warranty policy.

“A lot of times, people will combine higher quality products with lower quality products to save money, and what ends up happening is those areas of the roof fail much faster than the rest of your roof,” Butler said. “And if you don't have the materials correct on the roof, it actually voids the warranty on the roof....Mixing and matching shingles is a recipe for problems.”

Because Roofing Turtle is a GAF-certified roofing contractor, it uses the same products from GAF. Because of this, in addition to the synthetic shingles being warrantied, customers get an automatic 10-year warranty because the company has a policy that gives a full system warranty on all the roofs it installs.

By not cutting corners and always using the highest quality materials, Roofing Turtle installs durable roofs that last.

For more information about Roofing Turtle’s roofing services and warranties, see roofingturtle.com.

The above story was produced by Senior Multi Platform Journalist Summer El-Shahawy with Community Impact's Storytelling team with information solely provided by the local business as part of its "sponsored content" purchase through our advertising team.