Brava Composite Roofing vs. Asphalt Shingles: Is the Upgrade Worth It?

Almost everybody who calls us about Brava starts the conversation the same way. They saw a slate or cedar-shake roof somewhere, fell for it, priced out the real thing, and nearly had a heart attack. Then somebody mentioned composite could get them the look without the weight or the price of real stone. So now they're standing in the driveway asking the only question that matters: is it actually worth paying three or four times what a shingle roof costs?

Fair question. We install both, so we're not here to talk you into anything. Here's how Brava composite and plain old asphalt shingles really stack up on a Middle Tennessee home, including the parts most articles skip.

The quick version

Asphalt wins on price. It's not close. A new architectural shingle roof runs a third of what Brava does, and every roofer in Wilson County can install it.

Brava wins on basically everything else: how long it lasts, how it handles hail, and how it looks from the street. Whether that's worth the money depends almost entirely on one thing — how long you plan to own the house. Stay seven-plus years and the math gets interesting. Sell in three and it doesn't.

What Brava actually is

Brava is a composite tile, which is a fancy way of saying engineered plastic — the good kind. It's molded from real slate, cedar shake, and clay barrel tile, so it carries the actual texture and irregular edges of the materials it copies, not a flat stamped approximation. The color runs all the way through the tile instead of sitting on top, so a chip doesn't show a different shade underneath, and it doesn't fade out the way a cheap synthetic does.

It comes in three looks: Old World Slate, Cedar Shake, and Spanish Barrel Tile. The barrel tile is the one to know about if you've got a Mediterranean or Spanish-style house, because real clay tile weighs a ton and usually needs the roof structure beefed up. Brava gives you that look at a fraction of the weight, so the framing under your roof doesn't care.

It's rated Class 4 for impact, which is the highest there is, and it'll hit Class A for fire with the right underlayment. We're a certified Brava installer, which matters more than it sounds. Composite tile lives or dies on how it's flashed and fastened, and a crew that "does metal sometimes" will cost you down the line.

What you already know about asphalt

Asphalt shingles are on most of the houses in Tennessee for good reason. They're cheap, they go up fast, and a fresh architectural shingle roof looks clean and tidy. No argument there.

The problem is how long they last here. Our summers cook them. Attic temps push past 130°F, the asphalt heat-cycles day after day, and the oils that keep a shingle flexible slowly bake out of it. Add humidity, UV, and the hail we get every couple of years, and a Tennessee shingle roof is realistically a 15 to 22 year roof, not the 30 the package promises. The cheaper 3-tab version is worse, and we won't install it anymore.

Looks: this part isn't a contest

A Brava slate or shake roof reads as the real thing from the curb. People can't tell. You get the depth, the shadow lines, the slightly uneven edges that make natural slate look expensive — because Brava was molded off natural slate. You can also order custom color blends to match an older home.

Asphalt looks fine. It looks like a nice asphalt roof. If your house is a standard suburban build and curb appeal isn't keeping you up at night, that's perfectly good. But if you've got an upscale or older home where the roof is part of the character, asphalt is going to look like the budget choice — because it is.

Durability: what wrecks roofs in Middle Tennessee

Fifty-plus years versus fifteen-to-twenty-two is the headline. Over one Brava roof you'd buy asphalt three times. But the years matter less than how each one handles a bad afternoon in Middle Tennessee.

Hail is the big one. We sit in a hail corridor, and the Nashville area has taken several expensive hail seasons in the last decade. Asphalt is the material we tear off after those storms. Inch-and-a-quarter hail can strip the granules off a shingle in one pass, and once the granules go the shingle is on borrowed time. Brava's Class 4 rating means it flexes and takes the hit.

Wind: Brava handles 110+ mph installed right, which beats or matches most shingle ratings — and holds up better as it ages, because plastic doesn't get brittle the way old asphalt does. Fire: both get to Class A. And Brava won't rot, grow moss in the shade, or streak with algae the way shingles do on the north side of a lot of Lebanon houses.

The money, honestly

Here's where the eyebrows go up. In Middle Tennessee in 2026:

On a typical 2,200 sq ft home, after pitch and overhang you're usually looking at 22 to 28 roofing squares. That puts asphalt around $11,000 – $15,000 and Brava in the $40,000 – $55,000 range. That's a real gap and we're not going to soft-pedal it.

But run it out over the life of the house. Asphalt isn't one roof, it's three. You pay around $11,000 now, again around year 18, again around year 36 — each one more expensive because labor and material prices keep climbing — and you sit through two filthy tear-offs in your own driveway along the way. Stretch that across fifty years and you're realistically in the $45,000 – $55,000 neighborhood on asphalt anyway. Brava you buy once.

For somebody planning to stay, the gap closes hard, and once you fold in insurance and energy savings below, Brava can come out even or ahead. For somebody selling in a few years, asphalt is the smarter spend and we'll tell you so.

Energy, insurance, and resale

Brava can be ordered with reflective pigments, and the tile profile leaves little air gaps that slow heat into the attic. In a climate where the AC runs from late April into September, that shows up on your TVA bill. Asphalt does the opposite — it soaks up heat and holds it, which is part of why it ages so fast here and why the attic under a dark shingle roof feels like an oven in July.

On insurance, a lot of Tennessee carriers knock money off the premium for a Class 4 impact roof, and some drop or shrink the hail deductible. That adds up over the decades you own the place. Call your agent and ask — the discount varies.

On resale, a slate or shake roof is a selling point on the kind of home that suits it, and a buyer knows a Brava roof means they're not inheriting a five-figure problem in five years. That shows up in the appraisal and in the offer.

When we'll talk you out of it

We install Brava, but it's the wrong call for plenty of people — and we'd rather say so than sell you a roof you don't need.

If you're moving in a few years, you won't be there long enough to get your money back out of it. Buy a good asphalt roof. If the up-front number doesn't work and financing doesn't fix it, same answer. And if it's a rental or a shop where nobody's admiring the roofline, asphalt all day.

Brava earns its money on a home you're keeping, or a home where the look genuinely changes how the place presents. That's the honest line.

A few questions we get a lot

Come see it before you decide

Composite tile is only as good as the crew that installs it, and Brava in particular wants a certified hand. We're a certified Brava installer working across Lebanon, Mt. Juliet, Nashville, Franklin, Murfreesboro, and the rest of Middle Tennessee.

Bring us out — we'll put Brava samples next to a good asphalt option, walk your roof, and give you straight numbers for both so you can decide on your situation instead of a sales pitch.