A COMPARISON OF WARRANTIES BETWEEN WOOD SHAKES, ASPHALT SHINGLES AND CONCRETE ROOF TILES

Consumers often compare the quality and value of roofing products by comparing the warranties. The public assumes that the warranty should be the best indication of the expected life span of a product. Unfortunately this is often not the case. To quote directly from the warranty booklet from "Elk Prestique" - a large asphalt shingle manufacturer; "NO LIMITED WARRANTY ASSURES THAT THE COVERED PRODUCTS WILL LAST THE ENTIRE LIFE OF THE APPLICABLE WARRANTY PERIOD."

Most warranties appear generous for the first 1/3 of the warranty period. This is very misleading however as there is very little risk of a material failure during the first ½ of the warranty period. Often the warranty serves as more of a marketing tool for the manufacturer, than as a valid protection to the consumer and is designed more to protect the issuing company than the homebuyer. Many warranties have very limiting transferring clauses, where any change in house ownership either eliminates or greatly reduces the value of the original warranty. This makes little sense in today's world, as homeowners are very transient, (the average stay in a home is around 4 years). No one takes the roof when they go, so the full warranty should logically stay with the home- but this is seldom the case. Buyer beware is a critical attitude when comparing warranties.

The best place to check the value of a warranty is after the ½ way point in the warranty - this is when you will most likely have need of it. The chart on the following page is taken from a complete 50-year analysis of eleven different representative roofing products. It highlights the key concerns of transferability and duration, and compares the warranty value at the ½ way, ¾ way, and final year of the warranty.

What does the warranty actually cover? As a rule, manufacturers provide a material only warranty. This is generally for materials that have failed to the point of allowing roof leaks, and is only for the failed materials actually leaking. It doesn't matter how bad the roof covering looks; - "Is it leaking?" This is why the first 10 years of roof life are unlikely to produce many warranty claims for the manufacturers.

The roofing company generally covers the warranty on the installation labour. This installation cost will be a significant portion of the overall cost, so it is wise to check out the installers workmanship warranty carefully. Roofing companies will usually offer anywhere from a 1 to 5 year warranty on the installation. This may seem like a short time period, but the chances are good that if there is an installation problem it will show up in the form of a roof leak very early in the life of the roof. There are some asphalt shingle manufacturing companies that will cover the cost of the materials and the labour for up to five years, but again this only applies to material defects, and will not help in the more typical case of a roof leak appearing in the first five years due to a workmanship issue. By the time the material is likely to deteriorate enough to cause a roof leak, the warranty coverage will usually not include labor and be a tiny fraction of the cost of new material.

The following chart compares warranties at ½ way, ¾ way, and the last year of warranty coverage. It should be noted that these periods are based on the original warranty period and therefore result in comparisons at different linear times. For example ½ way for Medium Cedar is actually 10 years from the original installation, whereas for Asphalt Shingles ½ way varies from 13 years to 20 years and for Unicrete Roof Tiles ½ way is 25 years. The chart is based on a new installation of 3000 sq.ft. of roof, and assumes a complete failure of the roofing materials.

One recent situation that demonstrates the murky nature of roof product warranties is the untreated pine shake warranty. When untreated pine shakes were being sold everywhere, "ShakeMaster" had large signs in bold red letters on their roofs proclaiming: "25 YEAR WARRANTY." But a warranty is only as good as the company behind it, and the company making this attractive offer has long since gone bankrupt. In any event, however, careful reading would have revealed that this was really far from being a true 25-year warranty. It was actually a 5-year money grab. After 5 years the company would contact you and offer to inspect your roof for whatever they chose to charge (just before their bankruptcy it was $12 per 100 sq.ft. or around $400 on the average 3300 sq.ft. roof). If you refused, considering this a little steep for a 5-year-old roof that should have no problems, you automatically voided the "remaining" 20 years of your "warranty."

As can be clearly seen in the chart, warranties for asphalt singles also deserve close scrutiny. They often have so many limitations as to be in effect non-transferable to successive owners. If you bought the house even a year after the shingles were installed you might have little or no warranty left. They are also pro-rated, and so worth very little in the second half of the roof life, when likely to be needed the most. Furthermore, coverage typically extends only to a diminishing portion of the cost of any leaking shingles, (Never mind how bad the shingles look, are they actually leaking?). None of the Green River Cedar Product warranties are transferable to a second owner, and the Supatimber CCA Pine warranty is only transferable in the first 6 years.

Almost all warranties rely upon proper registration. Usually they require registration within 30 days, and are often non-transferable to a new owner, or transferable to a second owner only by re-registering at a fee within 30 days of the sale. The one notable exception to this is the case of Unicrete Concrete Roof Tiles which always stays with the house and is applicable simply by turning over any tile on the roof and finding the formed in Unicrete name. Unicrete Roof Tiles have been manufactured for almost 25 years, and concrete roof tiles have been known to last for over 100 years on roofs. The non- pro rated 50 year material warranty offered by them has stood the test of time and really does stand in a class of it's own.