This is the choice people agonize over and get the least useful advice about, usually because whoever is selling has a preference. Both work in Montgomery County. Here is the honest comparison.
Lifespan
Metal wins, and it is not close. A quality metal roof on a shed will typically outlast a shingle roof by a wide margin with essentially no attention. Shingles are a wear item; eventually they granulate, curl and need replacing. If you intend to own the building for twenty years and never think about the roof, buy metal.
Snow and ice
Metal sheds snow and ice, which is a real advantage in central Illinois where we get heavy wet snow and ice more than deep powder. The catch is that it sheds it all at once, in a sheet, wherever the roof slopes. Do not put the shed door, a walkway or anything you park under the low side of a metal roof.
Shingles hold snow, which is fine structurally on a properly built building but means the load sits there. They also hold leaf litter and moisture, which is where shingle roofs actually start to fail on sheds parked under trees.
Noise
Metal is louder in rain. Whether that matters depends entirely on what the building is. For storage, it is irrelevant and honestly kind of pleasant. For an office, a studio, a she shed or a cabin somebody sleeps in, it is worth thinking about. Spray foam insulation on the roof deck reduces it substantially, so if you are insulating anyway the noise argument mostly disappears.
Looks
This is the strongest argument for shingles. Behind a house with an architectural shingle roof, a matching shingle roof on the shed makes the building read as part of the property. A bright metal roof next to a shingled house reads as a farm building parked in a yard. If the building will be visible from the street or the patio, matching matters more than most people expect.
Metal comes in a wide range of colors, though, so if you want metal on a visible building, pick a color in the same family as your house shingles rather than a contrast. Try combinations in the 3D Shed Builder and see them next to each other.
Repairs
Shingles are easier and cheaper to patch. A limb takes out a few shingles and it is a small job. A dented or punctured metal panel usually means replacing a panel, which is more involved. Neither is a common event.
Cost
The gap between the two is smaller than people assume and it moves with size and profile, so price your actual building both ways rather than going on general impressions.
How to decide in one sentence each
Buy metal if the building is functional, out of sight, under open sky, and you want to ignore it for twenty years. Buy shingles if the building is visible from the house or the street and matching the roof line matters to you.
Either way
Keep limbs off it. That is the single biggest thing that shortens either roof, and you need the clearance for delivery anyway, since we require roughly 13 feet of overhead room. Every Cardinal building carries our 10 year guarantee covering acts of nature such as storm damage and settling plus our craftsmanship, with LP SmartSide siding under a 50 year warranty and AdvanTech flooring under a lifetime warranty, all handled by us. Sizes 6×8 to 16×60, starting at $1,900. Rent-to-own has no credit check, 24 to 60 months, from $75.44 a month, no early payoff fee.
Get Started on Your Litchfield Building
You do not have to drive to a lot to get moving. Use our 3D Shed Builder to pick your size, siding, colors, doors, windows and add-ons and see the building take shape on screen. When it looks right, send it to us and we will confirm pricing and a delivery date for Litchfield.
Prefer to talk it through? Call our main office at 618-518-5578. We will walk you through building styles, custom options and rent-to-own and financing, and answer anything on our FAQ page. You can also see what we serve nearby on our location page.
