When it comes to bad quality shingles in Vancouver they tend to die and leave the market fairly quickly. Over the years they way in which shingles are manufactured and install has not change that much all over the years. The shingle market became the predominant product in Roofing in the city of Vancouver after the late sixties.
At the beginning shingles had a base made out of paper and was commonly called a duroid. Duroids were paper based and socked in asphalt and the granulated. Duroids actually have a little positive aspect, this is why they were available right up to 2009 in Vancouver. With the paper soaked in asphalt the duroid had the ability to move with the deck, which is probably shiplap if built prior to 1980. I mention duroid due to the fact that it is not available in the Pacific North West but is still available in many places else where. The predominant weakness of the duroid is that if you live in a really wet City like Vancouver where the rains fall nine months of the year the paper based duroid has a hard time withstanding the elements especially if the ventilation or installation is inadequate.
In the early 90`s laminate fiberglass entered the market and was the first inorganic major product to enter the field of roofing. The benefit was that fiberglass shingles were inorganic unlike the duroid cousin meaning that in a city like Vancouver this would be ideal and affordable. Laminate fiberglass does have it’s weaknesses and that it does not work well with shiplap in some cases. the fiberglass base does not move with the deck and does tend to tear if there is a sudden shift
In the many years that asphalt shingles have been available in Vancouver only four companies predominate the market all who offer the same product. the warranties, wind speed strength, colour and even thickness does not differ all that much. That being said if you stick to the big four then you have a pretty good idea of what you are paid for. Smaller shingle manufactures’ do come and go but in the end they cannot compete with these four very large shingle producers