Case Study: Battling Extreme Weather Conditions in Houston with Owens Corning’s Duration Series Shingles

Cody Felts 6 — A comparison of a job completed by Keystone Roofing & Construction after (top) and before (bottom) installing Owens Corning Duration shingles.

Cody Felts 3 — “The Houston weather can be really tough on roofs,” said Cody Felts, founder and owner of Keystone Roofing & Construction. “Granular loss is the primary problem. The conditions often loosen the protective layer of granules causing shingles to deteriorate or even leak over time.”

Cody Felts 2 — In addition to the quality of their efforts, Keystone prides itself on the ability to complete 90% of its roofing jobs in a single day.

Cody Felts 1 — Owens Corning shingles include SureNail® Technology, which provides a wide, highly visible engineered fabric strip for ensuring No-Guess nailing zones, outstanding gripping power and excellent fastening holding power against wind uplift.

As the owner and founder of Keystone Roofing & Construction in Cypress, Texas, Cody Felts has spent the past nine years replacing more than 100 roofs annually on anything from $300,000 homes to $5 million luxury estates.

“That’s our specialty,” said Felts. “We tear them off and then put them back on better. And we’re never lacking for business so we must do it very well.”

With two years of roofing experience under his belt when he launched Keystone Roofing in 2013, Felts has grown the company to include 17 full-time employees that “work virtually non-stop” throughout the greater Houston area. In some cases, this includes the roofs of homes that aged-out in temperatures that can typically range from 47 degrees Fahrenheit to 95 degrees Fahrenheit, while others involve the replacement of roofs ravaged by the torrential rainfall and windstorms accompanying the region’s frequent barrage of tornadoes, tropical cyclones and hurricanes.

“The Houston weather can be really tough on roofs,” said Felts. “Granular loss is the primary problem. The conditions often loosen the protective layer of granules causing shingles to deteriorate or even leak over time.”

Battling Severe Weather

Determined to protect roofs against this issue and ensure customer satisfaction, Felts and his crew opted for a better solution.

“We switched solely to Owens Corning’s full offering of roofing products about four years ago,” he said. “It’s more than just about a roofing shingle, it’s a system that we continue to rely on.

“In the past we used other brands, but you could literally see the granules coming away from the shingles as they were applied. We’ve had no such problems with the Duration® product line — in fact, the vast majority of the roofs we installed nearly 10 years ago look as good as new.”

In addition to the quality of their efforts, Keystone also prides itself on the ability to complete 90% of its roofing jobs in a single day. This could include hand nailing anywhere from 40 to 100 squares of Duration shingles with crews ranging from two to 13 employees. Supplied by the local Houston Lowes and Home Dept outlets, the team also began to rely on Owens Corning’s SureNail® Technology, which provides a wide, highly visible engineered fabric strip for ensuring No-Guess nailing zones, outstanding gripping power and excellent fastening holding power against wind uplift. Other key features surround Duration’s rich palette of designer colors and its “COOL” shingle technology, which was developed to improve home comfort by reflecting solar energy as well as increase energy efficiencies while adhering to California Title 24 guidelines.

For severe storm areas, Felts noted the Class 4 impact-resistant shingles for hail regions as well as a patented WeatherGuard® Technology offered by the Duration STORM® product line. These UL 2218 Class 4 rated shingles provide the industry’s highest rating for impact resistance through the inclusion of each shingle’s polymeric backing material. Also Class 4 impact resistant, the Duration FLEX® SBS polymer-modified asphalt shingles entail a rubberizing effect that not only makes them more pliable and flexible than standard shingles, but helps to resist cracking and tearing in all weather conditions.

“The Houston climate is a mixed bag of extreme conditions,” said Felts. “We find that Owens Corning has proven to be a valued partner for nearly the entire decade we’ve been in business. They are always just a phone call away and always there when needed. That, in addition to the quality of the Duration product line, is why don’t work with anyone else.”