A new roof is a significant investment that will not only protect you, your home and your assets, but will also add value to your property. As the beneficiary of a newly installed roofing system, you are covered by a roofing warranty, which is your insurance against a series of damage associated poor workmanship or low quality of materials. Before you agree to have your roof installed, remember to look at the fine print of your warranty for some of the most important information.
The first thing you need to know about your roofing warranty is that workmanship warranties are only as good as the roofing company behind them. Therefore, you need to make sure that you select a reputable company that has been in business for several decades and holds a history of honored warranties and happy creditors. Hiring a company that has changed its name several times is not a smart idea. If you think about it, the most difficult thing for a business is to build a name and therefore a reputation. Why would you change your name as a business if you have achieved all that?
Many people are so excited about the low price of their roofing installation that they forget about the warranty at all. This is a big mistake. When reading the fine print of your roof warranty, you have to consider what types of things can go wrong with your roof and how you will be compensated in the event that such damage occurs to have a good understanding of the warranty terms and conditions. So the second thing you need to check is whether your warranty is a leak-only warranty. What that means is that you cannot claim for roof problems like clawed, curled, deteriorated, or de-granulated shingles to be replaced unless your roof is leaking. Your claims will most likely be denied and the roofing company will not stand behind their warranty.
Watch out for pro-rated warranties. Although they may be more attractive because they are for a longer period of time, pro-rated warranties do not cover the full cost of repairs or replacement. Pro-rated warranties only cover a portion of the costs and do not replace at all. The percentage they cover gets smaller as the product gets older, which is exactly what you don’t want. Plus, a pro-rated roofing warranty is really complicated to understand and almost always favors the manufacturers,
Lifetime warranties sound amazing but reading the fine print may reveal a 20% material-only replacement value at only the 15 year mark. You should also check the breaching criteria, which may disqualify you to make claims on your roofing warranty. Some warranties contain a written clause where the warranty becomes void if the roof is improperly ventilated. That is a very important reason why you should check out the roofing company that you are working with. Many times a company will not follow the code requirements for ventilation and will install a roof that is not covered by your warranty.
As well, shingle manufacturers put limitations and conditions on the transferability of their products. Quite often, homeowners replace their roof prior to selling their home and yet the new owners may only be entitled to 2-5 years of a material-only warranty even if they follow the guidelines for transfer.
At Cherry & Clark Roofing, we offer some of the best warranties in the Toronto roofing industry. Our GAF System Plus warranty ensures clients are protected with a 50 year non-prorated warranty that includes labor and can be transferred one time within the first 20 years without any reduced term or conditions.
