Metal roof vs shingles: which is right for a Texas roof?

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.

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 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.

Wind lifts an asphalt shingle at the seal strip, the adhesive line that bonds each course to the one below. Once the strip has aged in the heat, a north wind gets under the edge, breaks the bond and folds the shingle back; it may re-seal or it may not. The six-nail pattern, ring-shank nails and a good seal strip narrow the gap, which is why we nail six per shingle on every roof and why "four to save time" is a red flag on any quote.

Standing seam panels are held by concealed clips that let the panel expand and contract without stressing a fastener, and stone-coated steel panels interlock with their neighbors on four sides over a batten grid. The wind has nothing to get under, which is why after the August 2026 north San Antonio wind event the metal roofs we inspected were intact while the shingle roofs around them had lifted courses.

A dark asphalt roof absorbs the sun and passes the heat into the attic, and the air conditioner pays for it every afternoon. Metal reflects a large share of that energy and, because it is thin, sheds what it did absorb quickly after sunset. How much that saves on the cooling bill depends on the color, the finish and the attic. Lighter shingle colors help a little.

Ventilation helps far more, on either roof. Intake at the soffits and exhaust at the ridge, sized to the attic, drops the attic temperature by tens of degrees, extends the life of any shingle and is on every Mammoth quote. If you want a lower cooling bill and are keeping the shingle roof, fix the ventilation first.

In the 2026 San Antonio market asphalt shingle installs at roughly $3.50–$5.50 per square foot; standing seam metal and stone-coated steel at $11–$15 ($1,100–$1,500 a square). On a typical 2,000 sq ft single-story home with 22–26 squares of roof, that is about $8,000–$13,000 for shingle against $24,000–$38,000 for either metal. Metal costs two to three times more up front and is usually the last roof the house needs; whether that is a bargain or an extravagance depends entirely on how long you will own the house.

Every HOA accepts shingle. Many north San Antonio HOAs, including several in Stone Oak and the Dominion, refuse bare standing seam on a house and accept stone-coated steel, because from the street it reads as shake, tile or slate. Some covenants specify color families and profiles. We check the covenants before we quote a metal roof and bring the samples to the house, because the wrong panel bought before the HOA letter is an expensive mistake.

"A metal roof is loud in the rain."

Not over a solid deck with underlayment, which is how we install every one. The tin-roof sound people remember comes from panels screwed over open purlins on a barn. Stone-coated steel, with its batten grid and stone finish, is about as quiet as shingle.

"Metal attracts lightning."

Lightning strikes the tallest object regardless of what it is made of. A metal roof is non-combustible, which is the safer side of that equation.

"You can always install metal over the old shingles."

Sometimes, on a single sound layer after an inspection, and we will say when it is a bad idea. Most homes get a full tear-off so the deck is inspected and repaired; metal over a rotten deck is a rotten roof with a nice hat, and the price difference is smaller than people expect.

Selling in five years: a Class 4 architectural shingle is usually the smarter money, and the insurance discount it earns is a selling point. Staying fifteen or more: a metal roof pays back in the replacement you never buy, the cooling you never pay for and the hail seasons you sleep through. Either way, a transferable warranty is a line item on the listing; ask how the transfer works before you sign.