Last reviewed October 31, 2026.
Two roofing quotes sit on the kitchen table, nearly identical except for one line. The second roofer wrote “Class 4 impact resistant” next to the shingle name, priced it higher, and mentioned on the way out the door that your insurance might drop. Before you sign either one, find out what that label was tested against, which products actually carry it, and whether anyone in New York has to reward you for it.
How UL 2218 grades a shingle
UL 2218 drops steel. Malarkey, a shingle maker, describes the Class 4 run on its site (February 2021): a two-inch steel ball falls 20 feet onto the shingle, twice in roughly the same spot. The shingle passes only if its back shows no visible tearing, fracturing, cracking or splitting.
An Owens Corning data sheet lays out the ladder beneath it. Class 1 uses a 1.25 inch ball, Class 2 a 1.5 inch ball, Class 3 a 1.75 inch ball and Class 4 the two-inch ball.
All of this happens on new material. IKO points out in a July 2023 article that shingles hold up to these impacts when they are new and may become less resistant as they age.
FM 4473 and the ice ball test
Some packages also list FM 4473, a standard from FM Approvals. The edition FM Approvals posts online is dated July 2005, and its stated scope is rigid roofing made as tiles or planks from slate, concrete or clay. Owens Corning still lists asphalt shingles as rated under it.
Instead of steel, FM 4473 uses balls of distilled water frozen in molds at the same four diameters, 1.25 to 2 inches, for Classes 1 to 4. A launcher fires them at speeds set to match the energy of hail that size falling freely. Each target point takes two hits, and the targets include edges, corners, overlaps, joints and unsupported areas. To pass, the sample must show no evidence of visible cracking or breakage.
The standard explains its choice of ice. Ice balls are generally harder and denser than real hailstones, so they stand in for the worst case.
Shingle lines with a Class 4 rating
Owens Corning’s data sheet puts two asphalt lines at Class 4 under both UL 2218 and FM 4473:
- TruDefinition Duration FLEX, which blends SBS polymer into the asphalt for what the company calls a rubberizing effect.
- TruDefinition Duration STORM, which has a polymer-based mesh embedded in the back of the shingle.
The same sheet rates the standard Duration series at Class 3. CertainTeed rates Landmark ClimateFlex at UL 2218 Class 4 and credits its polymer-modified asphalt.
We could not open GAF’s product pages. For a GAF quote, or any other brand, ask the roofer for the data sheet that names the standard and the class.
Asphalt is not the only route. Our slate page and cedar page cover synthetic slate and polymer shakes with Class 4 ratings, and the metal roof vs shingles guide compares metal.
What Long Island roofers charge for the upgrade
Home Team Construction in Mastic said in July 2026 that impact-resistant shingles run 15 to 25 percent more than standard architectural shingles. It prices the impact-resistant roof at about $7 to $10 per square foot installed.
County Roofing Systems in Melville sums it up as $550 to $750 per square installed for Class 4 against $450 to $600 for standard shingles. A square is 100 square feet. It says the upgrade adds $2,000 to $3,000 to a typical Long Island roof, but other sections of that same page put the added cost anywhere from $1,000 to $3,000, so treat these as rough.
Our roof replacement cost guide lines up installed prices for every roofing material side by side.
New York does not require an impact discount
The Department of Financial Services guide from February 2026 splits what insurers must do from what they may do. Discounts are required for hurricane-resistant shutters and for hurricane-resistant windows and doors. Hail-resistant roofs land under additional potential discounts, next to roof renovations and high wind rated coverings. The guide tells homeowners to confirm with their insurer, before any upgrade, that the materials and installation will qualify.
Owens Corning says higher impact classes often earn bigger discounts but leaves the call to each insurance company. County Roofing goes further and warns that some insurers do not recognize Class 4 in low-hail areas such as Long Island.
We found no figure from a New York regulator or insurer for how large the discount usually is. Ask your carrier for one in writing.
Hail coverage and matching ridge caps
The rating is not a promise. In the fine print of its data sheet, Owens Corning says the Class 4 test result does not guarantee the shingle will resist all weather conditions, and that hail damage is excluded from its warranty. That leaves your homeowners policy, and our roof insurance claims guide covers how New York handles those claims.
The same sheet says its ImpactRidge hip and ridge shingles are required to complete a Class 4 roof system with Duration FLEX or STORM. If a quote lists a Class 4 field shingle, check that the ridge caps on it match.
Deciding whether the upgrade fits your house
County Roofing says Long Island is not a major hail zone and that local building codes here do not require impact-resistant roofing.
Home Team makes a different case for Suffolk homeowners. In its view the benefit is less about hail and more about debris thrown by wind in coastal storms, and it suggests the extra cost makes sense under mature trees or on a house that has already had storm damage.
The asphalt shingle page covers the wind ratings that matter for those same storms.
