Certainteed Shingle Warranty

[GaryRW]

Has anyone had any experiences with their SureStart, SureStart PLUS, Integrity Roof, etc warranties. Interest in value, claims experience, etc.

[Greg]

I don't know anyonme who actually saw a dime from a shingle warranty. Responsible roofing companies have come through but the homeowner usually doesn't get much from the manufacturer.

[HRL]

Don't know about warranties but I got a 28% discount in my homeowners insurance by putting on Class 4 hail resistant tile. I happen to live in "hail alley". You need to check with your agent to see if that applies in your area.

[John Willis]

On 20 Sep 2004 19:10:15 GMT, [e-mail] (Greg) scribbled this interesting note:

I do.

A couple of decades ago GAF had some issues with the manufacture of their shingles. Without fail, whenever we recommended to our customers that they should contact GAF for warranty service, it was honored.

This is a good recommendation for GAF, in my opinion. Other shingle manufacturers aren't so happy when their shingles fail and usually try to find any other minor item to blame the failure on instead of owning up to the fact that they manufactured a defective product that wouldn't perform as the warranty claimed.

Remember, the warranty from the manufacturer only covers the cost of the materials, pro-rated for the length of service the customer received, so the actual amount you may recover in any warranty service will most likely be small since in asphalt composition roof shingles manufacturing defect usually show up only in the last few years of the warranty.

-- John Willis (Remove the Primes before e-mailing me)

[Greg]

My point exactly. Say you bought a 30 year roof. 15-20% of the price was the wholesale cost of the shingles. It fails in 15 years. You get 7-10% of what it cost you 15 years ago asssuming you can prove you did nothing to shorten the life of the shingles.

[John Willis]

On 21 Sep 2004 00:01:42 GMT, [e-mail] (Greg) scribbled this interesting note:

Which is my point about GAF. They had a manufacturing defect for a period of time. It was corrected. But for those people who purchased the defective product, they did exactly what their warranty said they would do. This is something I've not seen any other shingle manufacturer do in the way they have.

As for the rest, why should a manufacturer warrant someone else's labor? They have no control over that. They specifically state in their warranties that they are stating their product will perform to certain standards and will replace the nominal cost to the original purchaser the unused portion of the product (meaning they will pay on a pro-rated basis the unused portion of the product.) This seems very fair to me. And I work with these products every day. And I guarantee our labor and would find it very odd if the shingle manufacturer did too!:~)

Of course around here periodic hail storms take care of most roofs well before any warranty would run out. Not that I'm in favor of hail storms-I don't like that much work!:~)

-- John Willis (Remove the Primes before e-mailing me)

[Art]

Shingle manufacturers often have a habbit of going out of business making the warranty useless.... like the shingles on my house.

[Michael Baugh]

It's very common for the roof not to have the minimum amount of ventilation, voiding the warrantee

[GaryRW]

Additional info for discussion, comment, and recommendation:

CertainTeed's SureStart Plus warranty covers materials, labor, tearoff, disposal, and workmanship for 15 or 50 yrs at it's highest level (5 Star). It is essentially a manufacturer's warranty covering everything and is not prorated over that period. After that period, the material only warranty is prorated. In order to even be able to offer this coverage only the highest CertainTeed certified (SELECT Shingle Roofer) qualify. Very few roofers listed on their website have the highest level of certification. I'm aware that this could merely be a meaningless certification that only means the roofer paid to be on the list rather than being both tested and apprenticed. If it's run correctly it provides insurance for the buyer that they're covered even if the roofer goes out of business. For the beginning legitimate roofing companies it can offer an equalizing sales position to well established roofers with good reputations because it covers the risk to the buyer from the manufacturer which is hopefully the least risky party of the equation.

As I read the new CertainTeed SureStart 2004 Asphalt Shingle Products Limited Warranty Form 20-20-1890 (which supercedes 20-20-1856), I see the following issues:

A. Transferability (pg 2): Only first subsequent owner; 100% of remaining SureStart warranty period. However, Lifetime warrantied products are reduced to 50 yrs. "For product warranties transferred after the SureStart period has elapsed, the remaining duration of the transferred warranty will be limited to TWO years from the date of real estate transfer."

So does this mean the maximum remaining 15 yrs prorated material warranty is reduced to 2 yrs? What if the house is sold during the SureStart warranty? Do you then have 15yrs prorated after SureStart or just two years?

B. SureStart Protection (pg 2): "SureStart protection does not extend to any shingles applied to any non-ventilated roof deck systems." This is fine and proper, but is a full-length ridge vent sufficient, or do you have to balance it with the properly sized under-eave or ventilated dripstrip? What constitutes a minimally acceptable system?

C. Self-Sealing Strip (pg 3): "Shingles which do not receive direct sunlight or which are not exposed to to adequate surface temperatures may never seal and must be hand sealed at time of application." "Failure of the shingles to seal under any circumstances is NOT a manufacturing defect and CertainTeed will not be responsible for repairing, replacing or hand-sealing any shingles under any such circumstances." This is perfectly understandable but how do you hedge applying in, say, October when there may not be sufficient warmth?

[GaryRW]

You are correct about ventilation. A full-length ridge vent is not enough to maintain warranty. Installation instructions specify balanced airflow and there's a formula for venting in/out. And gable vents don't qualify. You need eave vents. If you don't have under-eave venting already, it is expensive to retrofit. An alternative is a ventilated drip-edge. You cutoff a section of the deck and install this as a replacement for the lower deck.

Does any> It's very common for the roof not to have the

[GaryRW]

[GaryRW]

The big problem is that only a limited time, if any, of the shingle warranty is transferred to a new owner. It's like a muffler warranty. Because of this limitation, it's not even very valuable in resale value.

Certainteed offers their SureStart Plus warranty that offers 100% of the cost of materials, labor, disposal, workmanship, etc for 15 yrs and it is transferrable 100% to the first new owner. However, after the 15 yrs is up only an additional 2 yrs of the remaining 15 yrs is in effect. By the way, this SureStart Plus Warranty is a work and material warranty independent of contractor. So if your roofer goes bust, you still have coverage. It is only available through only some Certainteed certified roofers. This was introduced because the public's general view of roofers is that they are highly suspect. New roofing contractors can compete with established reputable roofers by offering this SureStart Plus Warranty. Only a very few roofers hold this level of certification.

I'm sure other sh> I don't know anyonme who actually saw a dime from a shingle warranty.