How long a roof lasts in Michigan, and what we can and cannot source

Why there is no official number

People ask as if someone in government had settled this, but nobody has. We looked for a lifespan table from the U.S. Department of Energy, ENERGY STAR, HUD and the state of Michigan, and none of the pages we could reach carried one. A figure you see on a roofing company’s site, an insurance blog or a cost site is that author’s estimate, and we do not repeat those here.

So the answer to “how old is too old” lies with the roof itself: what the surface looks like, what the attic shows, and what an inspector finds. We do not give an age at which to replace a roof, and you should be wary of anyone who gives you one without climbing up there or sending a report. A roof inspection is the service that looks.

The one chart we found

InterNACHI, a trade association of home inspectors, publishes a Standard Estimated Life Expectancy chart. It is not a government table, and we read its roofing rows through a summary instead of the source page, so treat the figures as medium confidence and check the chart yourself. The numbers are national and not adjusted for Michigan. As printed:

Roof covering	Years as printed
Asphalt, 3-tab	20
Asphalt, architectural	30
Metal	40 to 80
Slate	60 to 150
Clay or concrete tile	100+
Copper	70+
Wood	25
Fiber cement	25

The same chart lists the flat-roof systems separately. Built-up roofing (BUR) is 30 years, EPDM rubber is 15 to 25, modified bitumen is 20, and TPO is 7 to 20. The wide spread on TPO and EPDM shows the chart is describing a range of products and installations. It reflects what its authors expect across many roofs, and what happens on your house depends on how it was installed, how it is ventilated and what has hit it since.

What Michigan’s code and insurance regulator look at

The sources we did find ask what shape a roof is in and never how old it is.

Under the 2015 Michigan Residential Code, which LARA still lists as of Oct 19, 2026 and which may change, a roof replacement includes removing the existing layers down to the roof deck. It bars putting a new covering over an old one when the old one is water soaked or deteriorated so that it is not adequate as a base, when it is slate, clay, cement or asbestos-cement tile, or when it already has two or more applications of roof covering. The same chapter says existing flashings and vents that are part of the assembly shall be replaced where they are rusted, damaged or deteriorated. Every one of those tests is about condition. We cover the layer rule in how many layers of shingles Michigan allows.

On the insurance side, the Department of Insurance and Financial Services (DIFS) is equally quiet about age. Its homeowners guide says an eligible person cannot be denied insurance solely because of the age of the house, its location or the type of neighborhood. It also says a home may be ineligible if its physical condition presents an extreme likelihood of a significant loss, and it lists the age and condition of your home, along with your claim history, among the premium factors. We found no DIFS rule that sets a roof age for coverage. If your insurer sends a non-renewal or asks for an inspection, the policy wording and a call to DIFS are where you go.

What Michigan winters do and do not tell us

Michigan’s amended Table R301.2(1) says an ice barrier underlayment is required, and it lists a ground snow load for each county, from 20 pounds per square foot in places like Lenawee and most of Wayne to 90 to 100 in Keweenaw. Those are design inputs for how a roof is built, not a measurement of how long one survives, and we found no source linking Michigan’s climate to a shorter or longer roof life, so we make no such claim. If you want to see what your county’s number is, we list them in Michigan roof snow load by county.

DIFS does say a standard homeowners policy covers a wide range of winter events, including ice dams, wind damage, leaky roofs and a building collapse caused by the weight of ice or snow, with coverage still depending on cause and policy wording. That describes what pays after a loss and says nothing about how long a roof lasts.

What aging research exists

The Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS) runs a Roof Aging Farm program that began in 2013. It tests roof samples exposed for 5, 10, 15 and 20 years against wind, hail and wildfire. We read about it on IBHS’s own site, at medium confidence. It supports the idea that roofs perform differently as they age, but it gives no lifespan numbers, so it cannot say that a Michigan shingle fails at a given year.

How to judge your own roof without an age rule

Start with the paperwork: when the current roof was installed, by whom, and whether there is a written contract. Then ask a roofing company or inspector for a written report with photos of what they find, including the flashing, the vents and the eaves, not only the shingle surface. Compare two reports if the answer is replacement. The repair or replace tool asks the questions a person would ask on a first visit, and the cost guide explains what we can and cannot say about price.

Do not climb on a roof you suspect is damaged, and never when it is wet or snowy. OSHA says falls are the leading cause of death in construction, and a homeowner can read the roof well enough from the ground, the attic and a pair of binoculars.