Is There a Quietest Roofing Material? The Truth About Metal, Shingles, and Jet Noise

Key Takeaways

• There is no quietest roofing material. Neither asphalt shingles, nor metal, or any other roof, meaningfully blocks jet noise on its own.

• Bare metal panels are measurably louder than asphalt shingles in rain and hail testing, about 52 decibels versus 46

• What actually reduces jet noise indoors is attic insulation, air sealing, and windows and doors. Not the roofing material or shingle brand.

• Homes near Madison's Truax Field may qualify for federal funding that covers exactly those upgrades. Not roofing.

• If you're re-roofing anyway, get the rest of the roof right while the crew is up there. Just don't expect a new roof, on its own, to quiet down F-35 training flights.

F-35 fighter jets at Truax Field have intensified aircraft-noise concerns for nearby Madison neighborhoods. Roofing material itself does little to block that low-frequency airborne noise; insulation, air sealing, windows, and doors matter much more.

If F-35 noise on Madison's east side has you researching a new roof, you're not imagining the problem. But here's the honest answer: no roofing material, including metal, will meaningfully quiet down jet noise.

Independent testing shows bare metal roofs are actually louder than asphalt shingles for impact noise, but for airborne aircraft noise specifically, the material on your roof barely matters. What works is attic insulation, air sealing, and your windows and doors. Those are also the exact upgrades a federal program near the airport is now funding.

How Loud Are Madison's F-35s?

Since the 115th Fighter Wing's F-35s replaced the base's F-16s at Truax Field and Dane County Regional Airport in late April 2023, noise complaints from Madison's east and north sides have piled up.

Independent monitoring backs up what residents are hearing. Scott Pigg, who has tracked the jets with a network of 20 sound meters near the airfield, has measured F-35s at roughly 40% louder than the F-16s they replaced. Public readings near the airfield itself have topped 120 decibels.

This is a readiness mission, not a problem that's going away. So the real question for homeowners becomes what's actually in their control.

Which Neighborhoods Are Most Affected?

The noise concentrates on the east and north sides, close to MSN airport. If you want to see how exposure maps to your specific street, Safe Skies Clean Water Wisconsin's noise mapping and MSNSound's independent monitoring both track it in detail.

Why Are Jets Flying at Night Now?

If you've noticed jets after dark, that's not your imagination either. The Wisconsin National Guard has publicly confirmed evening training flights. Pilots and maintenance crews are required to log evening hours as part of their readiness training.

Do Metal Roofs Really Reduce Noise?

Some metal roofing companies market their roofs as quieter than asphalt shingles.

Testing widely cited across the roofing industry says otherwise.

In that testing, rain on asphalt shingle measured about 46 decibels, while rain on a bare metal panel measured about 52. That's a real, audible difference, and metal comes out louder, not quieter.

The marketing claim isn't purely made up, though. A metal roof installed over solid decking (the wood sheathing underneath), synthetic underlayment (a water-resistant layer under the roofing material), and a properly insulated attic performs close to identically to an asphalt shingle roof for interior noise. “Quieter than you'd think” is true. It's just being measured against old, uninsulated barn tin, not against a shingle roof.

What doesn't change, installed or not, is the price. A metal roof still costs two to three times as much as a comparable asphalt system in Wisconsin. Sun Vault Roofing doesn't install metal roofs because they are the wrong choice for most Wisconsin homeowners.

Does Roof Material Affect Jet Noise the Same Way It Affects Rain Noise?

Rain noise is an impact problem. A raindrop physically strikes the roof surface, and the material's mass and rigidity determine how much of that impact turns into sound inside your house.

Jet noise is a different mechanism entirely. It's airborne, low-frequency sound arriving from many directions at once, not a series of small impacts on your roof deck.

Roof pitch shows how easily the two get confused. Steeper pitches are commonly credited with reducing rain noise, because a shallower strike angle means less impact energy transfers when a raindrop hits. That's a real impact-noise mechanism. It does essentially nothing for jet noise.

One national roofing guide published earlier this year leans on this same kind of reasoning, using a material's lab-tested sound rating to argue for a denser roofing material as the fix. The physics it's citing isn't wrong. It's just answering the rain-noise question, not the jet-noise one.

For jet noise specifically, the roofing material sitting on top of your house is close to irrelevant. What actually matters is everything underneath it.

So What Actually Reduces Aircraft Noise in a House?

This isn't the first time a surface property of your roof has been sold as the answer to a problem it barely affects. Shingle color works the same way for temperature: what actually drives your attic's performance is insulation and ventilation, not the surface on top of it. Noise is no different.

Airborne, low-frequency noise is a mass and air-sealing problem for the whole roof and attic, not a surface-material one, and the fix lives in the building envelope (the insulation, air sealing, and windows and doors separating inside air from outside), not on the roof deck.

The driver is density, not R-value (a material's resistance to heat flow), so a high-R product can still underperform acoustically against something denser but lower-R.

What Attic Insulation and Air Sealing Do for Aircraft Noise

Attic insulation type and depth matter more than most homeowners assume. Denser, more tightly packed insulation, mineral wool or well-installed cellulose, outperforms a thin or gapped fiberglass batt for airborne sound the same way it outperforms it for heat.

Air sealing matters just as much. Gaps around vents, chimneys, and other roof penetrations are direct paths for low-frequency sound, the same gaps we already seal for ice dam prevention (ice buildup at the roof edge that can force water back under shingles) and energy efficiency.

Baffled soffit and ridge ventilation (vents designed to let air move through the attic without blocking the airflow with insulation) doesn't fight that goal. It's not something you seal shut, just something you manage correctly.

Are Windows and Doors a Bigger Noise Leak Than the Roof?

Usually, yes. Windows and exterior doors are typically the biggest noise leak in a house, bigger than the roof. That's true even though it's not something Sun Vault Roofing sells. It's also the honest answer, and it lines up with what comes next.

Is There Financial Help for Noise-Reduction Upgrades In Madison, WI?

The FAA approved a sound insulation program for homes inside a defined noise boundary around Dane County Regional Airport in July 2026. It funds windows, exterior doors, HVAC systems, and insulation for qualifying homes. It does not fund roofing material.

If your home is inside that boundary, check your eligibility directly with the airport rather than assuming based on your neighborhood. The qualifying boundary is more specific than “close enough to hear the jets.”

We're not the ones administering that program, and we don't sell windows or HVAC systems. But it's the same conclusion independent acoustic testing reaches: the fix lives in the building envelope, not on the roof deck.

What Should You Do If You're Re-Roofing on the East Side?

Homeowners across the east side have been coming to us this year for a different reason: the April 14 hailstorm, which is bringing a wave of insurance-covered replacements to the same neighborhoods dealing with the jet noise.

A Real East-Side Example: Choosing Asphalt Over Metal

Clarissa, in the Atwood neighborhood, was one of them. She'd already gotten a quote from an out-of-state metal roofing company that told her their roof would cut down the jet noise. That claim raised red flags for us immediately, so we walked her through the same testing above: the material itself would make almost no real difference to what she was hearing overhead.

If noise reduction was actually her priority, she'd get more for her money putting that difference toward new windows and air sealing than toward a metal roof that costs two to three times as much as asphalt for the same house.

Clarissa went with asphalt. Her roof is done, she's a little less bothered by the jets these days, and she has roughly $10,000 still in the bank that a metal roof would have taken from her, for a noise problem it likely wouldn't have solved anyway.

If you're re-roofing regardless of what's driving it, hail, age, or something else, that's still the moment for Sun Vault Roofing to get the rest of the roof right while the crew is up there: attic insulation depth, sealed penetrations, properly baffled ventilation, solid decking.

It won't quiet down F-35 training flights. But it's the actual lever for everything else the roof is supposed to do. If you're also still weighing which roofing material makes sense for your home more broadly, that's a separate, legitimate question, just not one noise reduction should be deciding for you.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a quietest roofing material?

Not in any way that matters for jet or rain noise. Asphalt shingle measurably outperforms bare metal panel for impact noise, about 46 decibels versus 52. For airborne aircraft noise, material choice makes almost no difference at all.

Does a metal roof reduce noise?

No. Testing shows bare metal is louder than asphalt shingle in rain and hail impact tests, not quieter. The “quieter than you'd think” marketing claim compares a modern, insulated metal roof to old, uninsulated barn tin, not to a shingle roof.

Can a new roof reduce airplane or jet noise?

Only marginally. Airborne aircraft noise is governed by the mass and air sealing of the whole building envelope, attic insulation, sealed penetrations, windows, and doors, not by which roofing material sits on top.

What actually reduces aircraft noise in a house?

Attic insulation depth and type, air sealing around roof penetrations, and upgraded windows and exterior doors move the needle far more than any roofing material decision.

Am I eligible for Dane County's airport noise insulation program?

Eligibility is based on whether your home falls inside the FAA-approved noise boundary around the airport. Check your specific address with the airport directly rather than assuming based on your neighborhood.

Talk to Someone Who Isn't Selling You Noise Reduction

If you're weighing a re-roof and want an honest read on your attic, ventilation, and decking instead of a sales pitch dressed up as an acoustic study, schedule a free inspection with Sun Vault Roofing.