The GAF roofing system, component by component

Most homeowners shop roofs by shingle: a brand, a colour, a warranty length. But a shingle sitting on the wrong underlayment, without a starter course, over an unvented attic, will not deliver the life printed on the wrapper — and the warranty knows it. GAF builds its products to work as a set, and the accessories are where a roof is actually won or lost.

Southeast Roofing is a GAF Certified Contractor, which means GAF has vetted and trained us to install these systems to specification. Below is the vocabulary you'll see on our proposals, in GAF's own product names, so nothing on your estimate is a mystery line item.

The shingle: Timberline HDZ

Timberline HDZ is the architectural shingle we install most often. Its distinguishing feature is the LayerLock bonding and a widened nailing zone — a strip roughly 600% larger than the old standard — which matters because the single most common installation error in roofing is a nail placed above or below the correct line. A wider target means more nails land where they hold. Properly installed with the required accessories, HDZ carries GAF's WindProven limited wind warranty with no maximum wind speed, which is not a small thing on the Gulf Coast.

The leak barriers: WeatherWatch and StormGuard

These are GAF's peel-and-stick membranes for the places water concentrates: eaves, valleys, and around every penetration. WeatherWatch is the mineral-surfaced version; StormGuard is film-surfaced. Both self-seal around nail shanks, which is exactly what you want in the parts of a roof that see the most water and the most fasteners. In our climate this is less about ice and more about wind-driven rain finding its way uphill.

The underlayment: FeltBuster or Tiger Paw

Synthetic underlayment across the whole deck, replacing old felt paper. Felt tears in wind, wrinkles when it gets damp, and telegraphs those wrinkles through the shingles. Synthetic lies flat, stays intact through a rain event mid-project, and gives our crews a safer surface to walk.

The starter: Pro-Start

A purpose-made first course along the eaves and rakes with a factory-applied sealant bead positioned to grab the first row of shingles. Some contractors cut up field shingles and flip them backwards to save a few dollars a square — it puts the sealant in the wrong place, and edge blow-off in the first real storm is the result.

The ventilation: Cobra

Ridge exhaust that lets superheated attic air out at the peak, paired with intake at the soffits. This is the component homeowners skip and manufacturers care most about, because an unvented attic cooks shingles from underneath. Under-ventilating can void a shingle warranty outright.

The ridge cap: Seal-A-Ridge or TimberTex

Pre-formed, thicker caps shaped for the peak and hips. The shortcut here is cutting three-tab shingles into squares and bending them over the ridge — they aren't formulated to be folded, and they crack years early along the fold.

Explore GAF's own interactive diagram

GAF publishes an interactive tool showing how these components stack up on a real roof. Explore it below — the names in it are the same names on your Southeast Roofing proposal.