What the Fire Rating on Your Shingle Wrapper Tells You

Every asphalt shingle bundle carries a set of ratings printed on the wrapper, and the fire rating is the one most homeowners never read. It sits beside the wind and impact figures, often in smaller type, and it answers a different question. A fire rating describes how the roof covering behaves when flame or burning debris lands on it. Before you choose a product, or before you accept a quote that names one, it helps to know what the letter on the wrapper means and what it does not promise.

Material and spec

Roof coverings are tested for fire under standards written by ASTM and UL, most commonly ASTM E108 and UL 790. The result is given as Class A, Class B or Class C. Class A is the most resistant result, and it is the classification that most laminated asphalt shingles on the market are tested to meet. Class B and Class C describe roof coverings that hold up less well under the same test. The class describes a roof covering tested in a specific assembly, so the number is a laboratory result for that assembly, not a general grade of shingle quality.

The fire class is separate from the wind rating and from the impact rating. A shingle can have a strong wind figure and a Class A fire result, or a good impact result and a lesser fire class, because each figure comes from a different test. If your quote mentions impact resistance, read that line on its own. Do not assume it tells you anything about how the roof behaves in a fire. Each number on the wrapper needs its own question.

St. Louis is not a wildfire region in the way parts of the western states are, so the fire class rarely decides a job by itself. It still matters for two reasons. It is a line in the spec that a permit reviewer may check, and it is a number that should match between the wrapper, the proposal and the installed roof. A mismatch among those three is easy to miss on a busy roofing day and hard to fix once the shingles are nailed down.

What the rating depends on

A fire rating belongs to the roof as it was tested. Manufacturers publish installation instructions alongside the rating, and the rating holds for an installation that follows those instructions. Nails placed in the wrong spot, a deck type the listing does not cover, or a substituted underlayment can all put the roof outside the conditions the test used. That is the reason the rating on a wrapper is not a guarantee for every roof built from that bundle. The spec in your contract should name the product line, not just the brand, and should say the shingles will be installed to the manufacturer's instructions.

Some jurisdictions set a stricter requirement for roof coverings than the default, and some lots near wooded or open land can fall into a category that calls for a higher class. The residential code used in the region sets minimum fire classes for roof coverings, and local building staff decide which class applies at a particular address. Do not guess from the neighborhood or from what the house next door has. Ask the permit desk for the answer in writing. The municipality where the house sits is the authority on this question, not the wrapper and not the crew.

Reading the wrapper takes a minute. Find the fire line, note the class letter, and check whether the wrapper names the standard it was tested to. Then match the product name on the wrapper against the product name in your proposal. If the wrapper says one thing and the proposal says a different line or a generic description, the mismatch is worth raising before the order is placed, while the bundles are still on a pallet at the supplier.

What it costs

The fire class usually does not show up as a separate line on a roof quote. It comes with the shingle product, so a Class A shingle and a lesser-rated one would be a product difference, and any price difference would appear in the material line rather than in a fire line. Quotes that name a specific Atlas or Malarkey product should be compared on that name first. If one bid lists a particular shingle and another lists only an architectural shingle, the fire class may differ without anyone stating it, and the lower price may be the lower class.

Changing the fire class after the order is placed is a product change. It can bring a restocking cost, a delay, or both, if the bundles are already allocated to your job. If the permit desk asks for a specific class, get that requirement into the proposal before you sign. A shingle that is already sitting on a supplier's pallet cannot be swapped for free. A quote that does not say which class it is priced at is incomplete on this point, and the gap usually shows up on the day the material arrives.

When two quotes differ in price and the difference is not explained by crew size, tear-off method or the number of squares, the product line is the next place to look. A rating difference inside the same product family is rare, but a difference between two product families is common, and each family can carry a different fire class. The comparison is simple once the product names are on the table side by side.

What to ask

• Which exact product line and colour name appears on the bundle the crew will open, and does the quote name the same product?
• What fire class is printed on the wrapper for that product, and which standard was it tested to?
• Has the permit desk for this address set a minimum fire class for the roof covering, and if so, is that class written into the proposal?
• Will the shingles be installed to the manufacturer's instructions, and will the crew photograph the bundle labels before the first course goes on?
• If the product changes after signing, who approves the substitute, and what is its fire class?

Ask for the answers in writing. A verbal assurance that the roof is fire rated tells you nothing about which class, which standard or which product. The question on the proposal is short: name the product, name the class, name any permit requirement. If the answers do not match the wrapper, call the office at (314) 220-2333 before the bundles are ordered, because the order is the last point where the product is easy to change.