How Long Will My Roof Last?

Walk down any street lined with historic homes and you’ll notice one overlooked truth: A roof is like a long-term relationship. Some are dependable. Some are high-maintenance. Some are gorgeous but moody. And some…well, they give up way too early and leave you cold and soggy in the rain.

If you own an old house, you’re not just picking a roof. You’re choosing which long-term commitment will quietly hover above your head for decades—sometimes more than a century—before deciding to fall apart at the worst possible moment.

So today, we’re putting every major roofing system through a battle royale, historic-home edition. Slate, tile, wood, metal, asphalt, and TPO roofing—each one will enter the ring. Only one will walk out crowned Supreme Ruler of the Roof Universe.

Let the battle begin.

Slate: The Heavyweight Champion

Show me a 100-year-old home with its original slate roof still ticking, and I’ll show you a building material that laughs in the face of time. Expected lifespan: 80–150+ years depending on slate quality. Arguably the longest-lasting roofing material commonly installed on historic homes.

What fails? It’s rarely the stone itself. Slate ages like rock royalty. All the other elements of the roof that keep things together are what fail first on a slate roof. Not the slate itself.

• Flashing
• Underlayment
• Poor repairs by inexperienced roofers
• Broken tiles from foot traffic

Most slate roofs don’t need to have their slate replaced. Rather, a qualified roofer can remove the existing slate, change the underlayments, flashing, and fasteners, and then reinstall the old slate just like it was. If a slate roof starts leaking at year 110, 95% of the time it’s rusty flashing, not bad slate.

Cost to Install: $25–$50 per sq ft (installed)

Cost Per Year of Life: A good slate roof at $40/sq ft lasting 120 years = $0.33 per sq ft per year.

That’s cheaper than a bottled water habit.

Maintenance Tips:

• Replace failing flashing proactively
• Hire slate-trained roofers only
• Don’t walk on it unless you enjoy breaking expensive rocks

Tile: The Mediterranean Machine

Tile roofs were built for sunshine, salt air, and long siestas. Perfect for historic Spanish Revival homes and anywhere alligators sunbathe on sidewalks. With an expected lifespan of 50–100 years for clay tile and 40–75 years for concrete tiles these are some hardy roofing materials. They don’t look right on every style building, but if you’ve got the right historic style then by all means jump on the tile boat.

What fails? Like slate, tiles usually survive. Everything around them doesn’t.

• Underlayment dries out
• Fasteners corrode
• Flashing cracks
• Tiles shift if installers skipped proper battens

Cost to Install: Clay: $20–$35 per sq ft and Concrete: $12–$20 per sq ft

Cost Per Year of Life: Clay at $28 installed lasting 80 years ≈ $0.35 per sq ft per year

Maintenance Tips:

• Keep valleys clear of debris
• Replace broken tiles immediately
• Re-secure slipping tiles before storms redecorate your yard

Wood Shingles: The Old-School Purist

Nothing beats the warmth of cedar shingles on a historic bungalow or Colonial Revival. It’s old-world charm with a splash of lumberjack energy (flannel not included.) These have fallen out of favor recently due to the risk of fires, and insurance companies make houses with wood shinglers prohibitively expensive to insure, especially in fire and lightning prone regions like California and Florida.

What’s the expected lifespan of a wood shingle? Shingles get 20–30 years and shakes get 25–40 years. What’s the difference between the two? The short answer, is that shakes are split and shingles are sawn. These lifespans vary dramatically by climate with wet climates showing much shorter lifespans.

What fails? Wood is worlds apart from slate and tile and fails expectedly in very different ways.

• UV exposure dries them out
• Fungus & rot in humid regions
• Moss in shady areas
• Wind uplift over time
• Cheap fasteners corroding

Cost to Install: $8–$15 per sq ft

Cost Per Year of Life: $12 installed lasting 30 years = $0.40 per sq ft per year

Maintenance Tips:

• Clean moss annually
• Keep trees trimmed
• Allow good attic ventilation
• Treat for fire resistance if required

Asphalt Shingles: The Cheap Date

The classic. The default. The “everyone has one” roof. Asphalt shingles aren’t glamorous, but they’re affordable and available in more colors than craft-store yarn. They’re also ubiquitous and cheap. The lifespans of these roofs are some of the shortest with them falling into the following categories.

• Basic 3-tab: 12–20 years
• Architectural: 20–30 years
• Premium: 30–40 years (if you’re lucky)

But just because your shingle roof may last 20-30 years doesn’t mean your insurance company will allow you to keep it that long. In Florida, and other storm prone areas, insurers are denying coverage for asphalt shingle roofs older than 10 years, so keep that in mind before you buy.

What fails? On these roofs it’s the shingles themselves. The underlayment can usually hold up longer than these, the cheapest of all shingles.

• Curling
• Loss of granules
• Buckling from poor ventilation
• UV breakdown
• Wind tearing tabs loose

Cost to Install: $3–$6 per sq ft

Cost Per Year of Life: $5 installed lasting 20 years = $0.25 per sq ft per year (Yes, asphalt usually wins on pure cost efficiency.)

Maintenance Tips:

• Keep gutters clean to avoid water creeping under edges
• Improve attic ventilation to prevent premature curling
• Inspect after big windstorms

Metal Roofs: The Power Play

Tin, terne, copper, zinc, galvalume—you name it. Metal roofs have been used on homes since George Washington was complaining about his denture glue, and for good reason. These bad boys are tough and can go the distance. That’s why I put one on my house (you can read my story here.)

Expected lifespan? Steel and aluminum: 40–70 years and Copper or zinc 80–100+ years. But the one catch with a metal roof is that you can dramatically extend the life of these roofs with proper maintenance.

What fails? Rust and fasteners. The name of the game is rust prevention. If you can keep it clean and prevent rust by re-coating occasionally then I have seen a standard steel roof easily last 100+ years. When they do fail here’s what happens.

• Coating breakdown leading to rust
• Fastener fatigue
• Oil canning (cosmetic but annoying)
• Galvanic corrosion if metals mix poorly

Cost to Install: Steel/Aluminum: $10–$18 per sq ft Copper: $30–$50 per sq ft

Cost Per Year of Life: Steel at $14 installed lasting 55 years = $0.25 per sq ft per year Copper at $40 lasting 100 years = $0.40 per sq ft per year

Maintenance Tips:

• Keep dissimilar metals apart
• Touch up scratches to avoid rust
• Inspect fasteners every 2 years and replace as needed

TPO: The Flat Roof Fighter

Historic homes with additions or porches sometimes end up with flat roofs. And TPO is a stringy contender for these situations. TPO (Thermoplastic Polyolefin), (try to say that 5 times fast!) has a lifespan of about 15–25 years.

TPO is actually a great option for flat roofs in a southern climate because it is bright white and reflects the hot summer sun’s heat. This roof is rarely seen from the street either so aesthetics are not a concern.

What fails? Like anything, there are weak point and TPO is no different. As a relatively weak and thin material it is prone to damage from abuse or foot traffic.

• Seams splitting
• UV degradation
• Punctures from debris or rooftop gremlins

Cost to Install: $6–$10 per sq ft

Cost Per Year of Life: $8 installed lasting 20 years = $0.40 per sq ft per year

Maintenance Tips:

• Keep debris and standing water off the membrane.
• Inspect seams, flashings, and penetrations annually.
• Clean the membrane periodically with mild detergent and a soft brush.

Climate Effects: The Real Wildcards

Roofs react to climate like different personalities at a family reunion, and you need to choose a roof that will thrive in your climate. The right roof for a Cape Cod style home in, well…Cape Cod isn’t the same as the right roof for your winter home in Phoenix.

Here’s rundown of some climate specific things to think about when deciding what the right roof is for your house.

Hot, Humid (Florida, Gulf Coast)

• Wood roofs rot faster
• Asphalt shingles lose granules earlier
• Metal sweats (condensation) without good ventilation
• Tile thrives

Cold, Freeze-Thaw (Northeast, Midwest)

• Slate rules the kingdom
• Asphalt curls sooner
• Wood cracks
• Flat roofs struggle with ice dams

Hot, Dry (Southwest)

• Tile = nearly immortal
• Wood dries out too fast
• Asphalt fries like bacon on a sidewalk

Wind-Prone Regions

• Metal and tile excel
• Asphalt gets peeled like a banana
• Wood shakes can lift if not installed tightly

So, which roof is the champion? That completely depends on where you live and your style house. Please don’t put a barrel tile roof on your Folk Victorian or a standing seam roof on your bungalow. There are architectural concerns at play here.

At least you’ll now know the lifespan and costs of these different types of roofing so you can make an educated decision when the time comes (like it does for all of us) to buy a new roof.