Asphalt Shingle Roofing in Burlington County, New Jersey

Architectural versus three-tab

Three-tab shingles are a single flat layer with cut-outs that create the appearance of three separate tabs. They are lighter, thinner and flatter, and they cover a large share of the county's mid-century housing.

Architectural — or dimensional, or laminated — shingles bond two layers together, which gives a thicker, heavier shingle with a textured shadow line. They are more resistant to uplift, generally carry longer manufacturer coverage, and are what most replacements now use. The extra thickness is doing real work, not just looking better from the street.

Fastening: the detail that matters most

Nail placement determines wind performance more than any other single variable. Each shingle has a defined nailing zone, and a nail driven above it catches only one layer instead of two, leaving the course below unsecured. A nail driven too low punches through the exposed face and becomes a hole.

Depth matters as much as placement. Overdriven nails cut into the mat; underdriven nails hold the shingle off the deck and break the seal above. A high-wind installation calls for more fasteners per shingle, not just the same fasteners driven harder — a distinction worth confirming on exposed sites.

• Correct number of fasteners per shingle for the exposure
• Nails inside the manufacturer's nailing zone, catching both layers
• Nails driven flush — not cutting the mat, not standing proud
• Enhanced fastening where uplift is highest, at rakes and eaves

Starter course, edges and ridge

The starter course does two jobs: it provides the adhesive strip that bonds the first row of shingles, and it closes the joints between the tabs above it. Skipping it at the rake is one of the most common shortcuts, and it is exactly where wind damage starts.

At the top, hip and ridge cap covers the ridge and, where ridge ventilation is used, the vent itself. Cap shingles take more sun and more wind than anything else on the roof, which is why they are often the first component to deteriorate.

Why shingle roofs actually fail here

Shingles are asphalt with a mineral surface. The granules are not decorative — they are the UV shield. Once they wear off, the asphalt below is exposed to sunlight, dries out and becomes brittle, at which point it cracks under thermal movement rather than flexing with it.

Heat from below accelerates all of it. An unventilated attic in a South Jersey July puts the shingle under sustained thermal load from both sides, and that is why two identical roofs installed on the same day can be a decade apart in condition. Ventilation is not an accessory to a shingle roof; it is part of the covering's life expectancy.

Algae streaking on shaded roofs

The dark vertical streaking common on north-facing slopes across the county is generally a blue-green algae that feeds on the limestone filler in shingles. It thrives where a roof stays damp, which is exactly what happens under a mature canopy in the wooded parts of the county.

It is primarily a cosmetic problem rather than a structural one, and the honest answer is that it does not usually justify replacing a roof on its own. Aggressive cleaning does more harm than the algae — pressure washing strips granules and will genuinely shorten the roof's life. Where it is a real concern, algae-resistant shingles containing copper granules are the sensible answer at the next replacement.