How do Impact resistant shingles benefit a home owner? 1) Impact resistant shingles save you money. Most property insurers offer anywhere from a  27% to a 34% discount on your annual insurance premium. 2) Impact resistant shingles last longer and are not as easily damaged as other typical asphalt shingles. This helps our environment and protects our landfills from being over saturated with damaged asphalt shingles every year.
What is an impact resistant shingle? Prior to 1996 it was common knowledge that certain materials offered better wind and hail protection than did others, but no defining standard existed. In 1996, in an effort to tackle the roof loss problem, several property insurance industry experts teamed with the Underwriter's Laboratory (UL) to develop the UL 2218 classification. UL 2218 set a national standard for roof impact resistance by rating materials from Class 1 through 4, based on their resistance to impact testing with steel balls simulating 90-mph hailstones of varying sizes. A Class 4 rating is the toughest.
Roofing manufacturers began producing affordable Class 4 roof materials that had been commercially unavailable before 1997. Property insurers with sizable market shares in storm-prone areas began an information campaign, telling policyholders, agents, roofers and state insurance departments about the advantages impact resistant coverings offered to property owners in terms of reduced roof maintenance and replacement costs. Manufacturers focused on introducing variations of commonly installed asphalt roofing shingles, often called "modified asphalt" shingles.
Modified asphalt shingles are stronger and more flexible than standard ones. The rubber-like quality prevents hail from fracturing the fiberglass mat, eliminating premature deterioration. The added flexibility also makes the shingles more wind resistant, making it harder for high winds to blow them off.
How do Impact resistant shingles benefit a home owner? 1) Impact resistant shingles save you money. Most property insurers offer anywhere from a  27% to a 34% discount on your annual insurance premium. 2) Impact resistant shingles last longer and are not as easily damaged as other typical asphalt shingles. This helps our environment and protects our landfills from being over saturated with damaged asphalt shingles every year.

UL Standard 2218

This test, developed and standardized in 1996, was designed for use in evaluating resistance to impact by replicating the impact energy of large hailstones on roof covering materials. The test involves dropping a series of varying sized and weighted steel balls from distances varying from 12 to 20 feet on test decks, built to replicate actual roof installations.   The steel balls are dropped twice on each of 6 locations selected to be most vulnerable such as (but not limited to) edges, corners, unsupported sections and joints.