Before you start
The things to take away.
- Asphalt shingle installs at about $3.50–$5.50 per sq ft and lasts 15–30 years in Texas; standing seam metal installs at $11–$15 ($1,100–$1,500 a square) and lasts 40–70. Stone-coated steel installs at the same $11–$15 and carries the Mammoth Two Tusk warranty: Mammoth's 10-year workmanship warranty plus the manufacturer's limited lifetime material warranty.
- Hail: Class 4 shingles resist most of it; metal shrugs off more; stone-coated steel hides the marks. Nothing is impervious to hail, and both can earn an insurance discount.
- Heat: metal reflects and sheds it, and what that saves depends on the color, the finish and the attic. On either roof, attic ventilation matters more than the surface.
- HOAs: everyone accepts shingle; many north San Antonio HOAs refuse bare standing seam and accept stone-coated steel, which reads as shake, tile or slate from the street.
- The honest rule: staying under ten years, a Class 4 shingle is the smarter money; staying longer in hail country, buy the metal roof once.
The roof decision, explained.
Both are good roofs. We install both materials and we will happily put either on your house. The wrong one is simply the one that does not fit your house, your HOA, your hail risk or how long you are going to live under it. This is the comparison the way we run it on the driveway: seven questions, a straight answer to each, and the number behind it.
How long each one lasts in Texas sun
Asphalt shingles last 15 to 30 years here. Where a roof lands in that range depends less on the shingle than on the attic under it: a Class 4 architectural shingle over a properly ventilated attic sits at the top; a three-tab shingle over a 140°F attic sits at the bottom, and can curl in twelve. Standing seam metal runs 40 to 70 years, with the painted finish rather than the steel being what ages. Stone-coated steel installed as a complete system is the roof we call the Forever Roof, and it carries the Mammoth Two Tusk Limited Lifetime Warranty: a limited lifetime manufacturer warranty on the panels, and 10 years on our workmanship.
Over thirty years of ownership that is one metal roof against two shingle roofs, and the second shingle roof is bought at a price nobody can predict.
Hail: what actually happens to each roof
Hail does two things to an asphalt shingle. It knocks the granules off, exposing the asphalt to UV so it dries and cracks, and on a big enough stone it crushes the fibreglass mat underneath, which is the bruise an inspector feels with a thumb. The leak usually arrives two winters later. Class 4 impact-rated shingles, tested by dropping a 2-inch steel ball from 20 feet without cracking the back, resist most of what falls on San Antonio, but a big enough stone marks anything.
Metal takes hail differently. Standing seam panels shrug off most of it; very large stones can dent a panel, which is cosmetic on a steel roof and is the reason 24-gauge outlasts 26. Stone-coated steel adds a granule finish that hides the marks smooth metal would show. It is not impervious to hail; nothing is. What both metal roofs buy you is fewer claims, not none, and the Class 4 rating many Texas insurers discount every year.
We have replaced shingle roofs after their third hail event in eight years on the same north-side street where the metal roofs were untouched. The discount is nice; the storms you sleep through are the real return.
Put the whole decision in context.
Read the complete Mammoth Field Guide, then make the next step specific to your roof.
Read the full guide