What are the pros/cons of Ondura for roofing?

Question

I came across Ondura in Lowes this morning and had never heard of it. It looks pretty slick. Does anyone have experience with it to share? I found no matches when searching here and was sort of surprised, as it seems very DIY for re-roofing.

Answer 1

Don't use it---you will be sorry. I put it on a big job. Ondura turned the big job into big mistake. The material disintegrates in about 10 years. When they say it is environmentally friendly they mean it turns to compost right on your roof.

Answer 2

As a shingle replacement, the main attraction seems to be the distinctive appearance of the product.

Since they define lifetime as "as long as you own the structure", the warranty could be less than the standard 20 year of shingles ... something to think about.

Most of the other benefits that I've read about are marketing... if this product is being compared to a metal roof, it certainly has some more interesting points.

Some of the stuff they try to sell it on, isn't really that relevant... such as:

• Can be applied over a shingle roof ... so can new shingles.
• Only to 2 layers though ... if you have 3 layers up there already then the benefit of not stripping the roof disappears.
• Generally less expensive than high grade shingles ... fair enough, if you're considering high grade in the first place.
• Easy to install ... so are shingles really ... the hardest part of roofing is generally getting on, and staying on the roof.

I think for the residential market, especially if you will have to strip the roof anyway, that the real selling point has to be the appearance the product will give your roof... if you love the installed look (and I agree, it can look very sharp) then it's probably not a bad idea.