UL Solutions, IBHS Drive Trust in Residential Roofing Shingles

Hailstorms take place relatively frequently in the United States. According to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Severe Storms database, there were 5,396 major hailstorms in the U.S. in 2019. Annual losses from hailstorms have reached a yearly average of $10 billion (USD). To help mitigate these losses and better serve the roofing industry, UL Solutions and the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS) have announced a new cooperative program for a roofing shingle performance evaluation.

UL Solutions' experience in residential roofing impact resistance testing

We have a rich history in the roofing industry and have been evaluating residential roofing shingles for the perils of fire for more than 60 years and wind performance for more than 25 years. In the 1990s, Underwriters Laboratories worked with industry and insurance companies to develop and publish UL 2218, the Standard for Impact Resistance of Prepared Roof Covering Materials. The UL 2218 testing and certification approach results in four ratings - Class 1, 2, 3 and 4 - based on replicating impact energies for natural hailstones by dropping steel balls from various heights.

This UL 2218 certification approach results in impact resistance-rated products that carry the UL Mark and appear in our certification database, UL Product iQ^®.

The UL Solutions-IBHS roofing shingle performance evaluation program

While UL 2218 impact-resistant (IR) asphalt shingle certifications have served the marketplace well by enabling improved product performance in hailstorms, IBHS saw an opportunity to bring new science to these evaluations. UL 2218 requirements are based on physical breach damage viewed from the back side of shingles, but do not account for denting or granule loss damage that a homeowner or insurance adjuster can observe.

IBHS gained a better understanding of the material properties of natural hail, researched a way to replicate hailstones in a laboratory environment and used them to develop a new impact resistance test protocol for asphalt shingles. This protocol more effectively determines which shingles may prove more resilient to hail in terms of aesthetic damage and breaching.