Glendale’s houses have some years on them. According to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (2020 to 2024), the median Glendale home was built in 1986, and 79% were built before 2000. Among the Valley’s large cities, that’s the highest pre-2000 share. Nearly half the city’s homes, 44%, date from just two decades, 1980 through 1999.
Older houses can lead an owner to assume the roof is old too. It might be. It might not. Here’s how we’d sort it out with you.
Glendale next to the county
| Census measure | Glendale | Maricopa County |
|---|---|---|
| Median year home built | 1986 | 1993 |
| Homes built before 2000 | 79% | 63% |
| Owner-occupied homes | 57% | 65% |
| Median resident age | 34.6 | 37.6 |
| Population, July 2025 estimate | 260,572 | 4,689,558 |
Sources: ACS 2024 five-year tables via Census Reporter, and the Census Bureau’s Vintage 2025 population estimates. Glendale grew from a 2020 base of 248,371.
The deed year and the roof year
A house built in 1986 has stood through four decades of Valley summers. Its roof may not have. Roofs get replaced after storms, before sales, or because they simply wore out. The roof on a 1986 house could be the original, a replacement from the 2000s, or something put on last spring.
So when a Glendale owner asks if their roof is a candidate, we don’t start with the year on the deed. A few places the roof’s own age may turn up:
- Purchase papers or the seller’s disclosure from when you bought
- A contract or receipt from whoever last worked on the roof
- The previous owner, if you can still reach them
- Leftover shingle bundles in the garage, which often carry the maker’s name
No paperwork? That’s common. We’ll judge by what the shingles look like.
Tile or shingle comes first
A lot of Valley homes are roofed in concrete or clay tile. We don’t treat tile, foam or metal. Roof rejuvenation is for asphalt shingles only, so if you have tile, our page on tile and foam roofs is the one to read. Not sure what you have? Fine. We’ll tell you.
If it is shingle, the shingles themselves tell us most of what we need. How much granule cover is left. Whether the tabs still lie flat or the edges have started to curl. Whether any are cracked, torn or missing. Damaged shingles call for a roofer’s repair before treatment is even worth discussing.
What decades of sun do to asphalt
Asphalt shingles stiffen as they age. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory researchers put it plainly in a peer-reviewed overview of roof weathering: “As a result of oxidation, asphalt becomes harder and embrittled.” Heat speeds that along. Phoenix Sky Harbor’s July average high is 106.5°F in NOAA’s 1991 to 2020 normals.
The product we apply comes from SoyLei Innovations in Ames, Iowa. SoyLei says it is “powered by SESO, short for semi-epoxidized soybean oil”, and that it is meant to soak into aging shingles rather than sit on top. One honest caveat. SoyLei’s lab tests ran at about 140°F, and it hasn’t published field results from a desert climate. Our page on Arizona heat and asphalt shingles goes into that.
If you rent in Glendale
Only 57% of occupied Glendale homes are lived in by their owners, so plenty of people reading this pay rent. The roof is your landlord’s call. If you’ve noticed grit piling up in the gutters or shingles that look bleached and flat, pass this page along to them.
Next step for Glendale owners
Glendale is one of several Valley cities we serve. Book a free roof evaluation and we’ll confirm the roof is shingle, check the condition of the shingles, and tell you plainly whether treatment makes sense or whether it’s a job for a roofer.
