Asphalt Shingles Prices at Lowe’s & Home Depot: GAF, OC, Onduvilla 3D (2024)

If you don’t feel like driving to either of the stores and would rather Shop Online:

Next comes the selection process for asphalt shingles and both, Lowe’s and Home Depot websites use very similar layouts and methods for filtering down to top choices. Our suggested process for selecting shingles and how to navigate each website is:

1. Decide on the type of shingle you want. The 2 popular types again are laminated or tabbed. 3-tab being the traditional shingle type and standard for tabbed shingles. Architectural shingles are easily the most popular offering through either store, with around 90% of what Home Depot offers being in this style and 67% of what Lowe’s has in stock is laminated asphalt shingles.

2. Color and Shape selection. Not necessary to nail this down as a second step but is likely how you’ll browse for products once type is selected. With 3-tab shingles, the shape is fairly basic (rectangular) varying only slightly among brands. With Architectural shingles, there are many varieties in shape, such as rectangular, square, rounded corners, overlapping corners, oval, etc.

In terms of color choices, there are more options with architectural shingles than 3-tab, and multi-color shingles are one possible option with architectural shingles. There are essentially 12 color options between the 2 stores, but like all things color, the shades between the two manufacturers are not likely to be the exact same hue.

3. Brand is selection item that has to appear somewhere on this list, but is perhaps best revisited after reviewing our next section. Keep in mind, with Home Depot, GAF is the primary brand for standard shingles while Lowe’s carries both GAF and Owens Corning shingles. There are certainly many other brands of shingles available, but these are the main products currently available at the two retail home improvement stores.

When any specific model is selected on the site, the layout on each product sales page is uniform and includes helpful information such as follows:

• Pictures of the product, along with possible additional media such as video or diagrams related to that line of specific model. Both retail stores have a GAF produced video that is a great DIY primer.
• price (per bundle) (more on this below)
• Availability or how to get product – whether product is now in stock at store nearest to you, or if you’d want it delivered to that store, or delivered to your home
• Product description and specifications – fairly self-explanatory, though we’d suggest getting familiar with specifications as that would matter possibly when comparing products
• Ratings / Reviews – on Home Depot, products tend to be heavily reviewed, much more so than Lowe’s. How much weight you put in other customers’ reviews is up to you. We feel it’s better to have reviews available than not, as commentary here can help understand what you can expect to receive, and is generally written in layperson’s terms
• Q & A section – in case you have questions or are finding certain info on the product page lacking and wish to see if an answer is provided for that
• Guides and Info are the downloadable files the manufacturer provides to help contractors and homeowners better understand the product installation and warranty information.
• Share and Save buttons for products who may wish to come back to (Save) or email the product page to another person (Share)
• Color Selector – most shingle products have multiple color options

The specification area is roughly the same on both Home Depot and Lowe’s websites, and that is where technical details for each product are provided. This includes information such as:

• Shingle length and width
• How much (or if) the product is resistant to Fire, Wind, Hail, Algae
• Energy Star Rating – most asphalt shingle products are not Energy Star certified, but this section would note which products are specifically certified by Energy Star
• Cool Roof Rating Council (CRRC) rates shingles like the GAF Timberline HDZ Reflector Series (RS) for CA Title 24 – This product page on the Home Depot website shows that GAF Timberline HDZ RS shingles were rated by the CRRC and meet CA Title 24 (LA Green Building Code) requirements.
• and then the obvious items like type of shingle and color

The last item may seem somewhat redundant and unnecessary, as you’ve already have filtered items along shingle type and color, but the whole selection process, on either website, benefits from the Compare feature.

Ticking a checkbox to note 2 or more products you wish to compare, and then when ready to see only those selected products, hit the ‘Compare’ button (that is likely found at top of your browser). This then shows each product you checked, side by side, with primary emphasis on the Specifications of each product.

While your selection method might be different to get to the same point, we believe the product Compare tool is one of the best ways to go about making product selections. To summarize the steps in short order, it is as follows:

• Filter results in way that makes most sense for you, or follow our suggestion(s)
• Review Product pages for any shingles that appeal to you
• Review the Grid layouts (listing multiple products) to review all filtered products and to Compare multiple products

Cost, of course can be a primary factor when it comes to selecting roofing products. With over 200 products to choose from, it’s not easy to list all the price options and make that useful in a guide such as this. So, let’s go with price ranges. Minus the Onduvilla offerings, (via Home Depot) the price range is roughly the same between the two stores for standard asphalt shingles, with architectural shingles costing a bit more than 3-tab, as would be expected, but not by much.

Note: Different stores within the country will likely show somewhat different prices for similar products. Product availability may also be impacted by the store location. For example, to find GAF Timberline Cool Series roof shingles, you may have to input a store in a state like Oklahoma, while your local store may not carry the product and/or will require a special order.

Product pricing differences can also be observed based on the location of the store you are shopping. For example, GAF Timberline Natural Shadow (NS) shingles on Lowe’s websites for stores in and around Boston, Massachusetts may cost as much as $35 per bundle (33 sq.ft.) or $105 per square before bulk discounts for certain colors are applied. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the country, Timberline NS shingles will likely only cost between $30 and $32 per bundle (or between $90 and $96 per square) before the bulk discounts.

A similar dynamic can be seen for the GAF Timberline HDZ shingles at a Lowe’s store in San Jose CA, where these shingles will retail for as much as $45 per bundle (before bulk discounts), while a similar product may only cost $32 to $35 per bundle at stores in Seattle (before volume discounts).

Notably, most Lowe’s stores, whether they are based are in Boston, Los Angeles, San Jose, or Seattle, will offer a 20% bulk volume discount pricing on main shingle lines such GAF Timberline HDZ and Natural Shadow (NS) architectural shingles (excluding specialty GAF Timberline lines like (CS) Cool Series), 3-Tab Owens Corning Supreme shingles, OC Oakridge, entry-level architectural shingles, and OC Duration, flagship architectural shingles from Owens Corning.

3-Tab shingles generally cost $25 to $27 per bundle or $75 to $81 per square (100 sq.ft.). Main architectural lines of asphalt shingles are priced similarly at both Lowe’s and Home Depot. Typically, you can get a 20% bulk-purchase discount when buying 36 bundles of shingles or more. The discounts are typically only offered on the main lines of shingles, and not on specialty or premium shingles. Once bulk discounts are factored in, it becomes clear that regular asphalt shingle prices can be up to 20% lower than advertised thanks to the volume discounts.

Architectural shingles fall in the range of $28 to $45 per bundle or $84 to $135 per square. The ones that cost more than $35 are for different shapes or extra coatings for added protection. Home Depot doesn’t have a laminated shingle that is more than $37 whereas Lowe’s does, but Lowe’s carries far more products, or has a greater selection.

Just a reminder that these costs are per bundle, and there are generally about 3 bundles in a square (100 sq. ft.), with the average home having about 17 to 22 squares of roofing surface. Also remember to plan for 10% in additional materials to account for shingle waste during the installation (the pros do!).

One interesting thing about the Home Depot product selection pages (for all GAF shingle products) is the direct link to the GAF website. Lowe’s doesn’t seem to have this. Having a link to GAF isn’t all that interesting, but what it actually is linking to is. On the Home Depot site, under “Product Overview” is picture that is clickable and hyperlinked to the GAF site. Yet, it is not the GAF home page, and instead is affiliate type link that is essentially set up to market products through a GAF portal specifically for Home Depot, which of course makes sense.

Here is example link to help make it clearer. For the most part, the page appears like one big advertisem*nt with links at the bottom, that: help locate nearest Home Depot store, provide way to visualize product, and provide installation services of GAF products on your home, via Home Depot contract services. If going strictly with DIY installation, perhaps the last part is not of interest to you, but for some, it would be worth checking out.

Roofing Manufacturers – Additional Information

In this consumer guide, so far, we’ve mentioned three manufacturers of asphalt shingles which carry products via local home improvement retail stores. There are more brands than these. Other popular manufacturers include: CertainTeed, Tamko, IKO and Atlas.

In our review of a couple of these other popular brands websites, we see what is essentially the norm, where the manufacturer’s make their products available at local building supply stores including Beacon Supply, ABC Supply, Bradco, and Harvey’s Industries. These stores are geared more towards professional contractors.

Each manufacturer site lays things out a bit differently, but the information is about the same. The products that each brand carries look similar, but each brand is looking to provide competitive advantage and differentiation for the lines their brand holds. Because Owens Corning and GAF are, in our opinion, more geared toward the DIY approach, we’ll spend a few moments with additional information noted on their websites.

GAF is one of the most established manufacturers around, founded in the late 1800’s. The others started some time in the 1900’s. Owens Corning was established in 1938. Both of these companies provide more than just residential roofing products, and are boasting annual revenues in the billions of dollars. Both GAF and Owens Corning (and a few other popular brands) indicate on their sites how to go about finding an affiliated contractor who specializes in installing their roofing products.

Manufacturer sites tend to make use of ‘designer tools’ like a visualizer and color selector. Such tools can be very helpful in product selection. A couple years ago these tools were just using a few house types and then providing ability to change out roof color or style, along with changing siding color and trim color.

Mixing and matching colors is fun, and obviously can help in getting a look that is best in your opinion. The Visualizer tools now allow you to upload pic of your own house to make the design process even more helpful to your unique situation.

The “Where to Buy” tools on the sites are fairly basic and yet provide not just which Home Depot or Lowe’s nearest you has their products, but also what are the premier and pro dealers. Again, these are geared more toward professional contractors, though may help if you decide to go that route.

Both sites are great at providing additional information about their products and about roofs in general. While the Home Depot and Lowe’s websites capture some of that, they really just scratch the surface. If wanting to see full lines of products, it’s best to visit the manufacturer sites.

While we are emphasizing shopping and learning via websites, we do recognize that this can’t replace the in-store shopping experience. We obviously suggest you do both, but our hope is you walk into a retail home improvement store with some knowledge and better idea of questions to ask. Or possibly just walk in to pick up an order placed online and briefly chat with the service desk for any questions you have.

With regards to shopping for asphalt shingles and how to install them, we tried to be helpful without overwhelming you with too much information. There really is much we didn’t include. Nothing major, but enough to encourage you to do a little more research.

On the GAF website, there is a whole lot of information about products and tools to make the DIY approach as smooth as possible. It is honestly one of the better resources for the DIY approach, specifically dealing with roofing of residential homes. Both Home Depot and Lowe’s websites have plenty of information, videos and guides to help with DIY projects, but much of that goes beyond the scope of roofing.

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