What Is the Warranty of A New Roof

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What Is the Warranty of A New Roof

There are two primary types of warranties that you’re likely to have on your roof: manufacturer’s and workmanship warranties. There’s also housing insurance, which can bail you out if you meet the criteria for getting your needs met. The biggest factor for determining which form of protection you’ll be able to make use of is the age of your roof. That’s less so the case because warranties expire and more so because of what’s likely to cause damage to your roof in the first place.

Manufacturer’s Warranty

Your manufacturer’s warranty is the warranty on the product itself. This roof warranty covers you in the event that your shingles blow off, crack, peel, grow mold, etc because you just happened to get units that were defective. This may be caused, for example, if your shingles are for some reason exposed to extreme cold by the manufacturer and arrive in an extra brittle state before installation. Or the adhesive strip that binds the shingles to your roof may lack stickiness for whatever reason. Shingles are made out of asphalt and fiberglass, so it may even be possible that you get a batch that’s lacking in fiberglass for whatever reason, leaving you with shingles that just aren’t waterproof.

The shingles of today are more resilient than the shingles of the past. In earlier years, shingles had a rectangular, flat appearance and were known as three tab shingles. Their lifespan was 20 years. These days the overwhelming majority of shingles are architectural shingles. These shingles have more contours, different colors, and last 30 to 50 years. They’re designed to look like cedar shake, meaning that they look like old cedar roofs. They’re bumpy and look more like a bunch of little shingles. They’re thicker, and their bumpiness is owed to multiple layers that provide texture and dimensionality. They’re also known as laminate shingles.

If your shingles are defective, the manufacturer will replace them all. In the case of Proven Contracting, shingles and the rest of the roof are made by GAF. In fact, Proven Contracting has master elite status from GAF, which is the highest rating a roofing contractor can have. It means that Proven Contracting is highly recommended by GAF.

Proven Contracting only uses components made by GAF. That includes all the underlayment as well, which is what protects the shingles from water infiltration. So, the synthetic underlayments, flashing and drip edge, and the shingles all have the same 50 year warranty. Since the underlayment are protected by the shingles, they’re not vulnerable to the elements and don’t really degrade.

It’s important for Proven Contracting to have achieved master elite status because it signifies a high level of workmanship. And, at the end of the day, if your roof experiences damage when it’s still a young roof, then the culprit is more likely to be defective workmanship than defective shingles or underlayment. The exception is extreme weather, of course. No matter how well your roof is installed and how good the materials are, 120 MPH winds can leave their mark!

Workmanship Warranty

The workmanship warranty means that the company will be standing by the workmanship/craftsmanship of their installers. If the contractors screw up and make boneheaded errors but the shingles are fine, then it’s on the company to cover the cost of roof repair. And it will become apparent by the time the first major storm comes around how good the workmanship is since a roof that survives extreme weather once is likely to do so again.
The majority of issues that folks have with their roofs is the direct result of shoddy workmanship and not a product defect. The manufacturer’s warranty is great, but it’s the application of the materials that determines the quality of the roof. When selecting a contractor, the homeowner needs to be more focused on the right contractor than the right roofing material. Ideally, both are of equally high quality, but if you need to weigh one over the other workmanship is most important.
It’s just like food. It’s just lok cooking: you can buy the best quality ingredients but if you don’t know what you’re doing in the kitchen you’re not going to get a good dinner. Luckily, with Proven Contracting, you get top of the line quality and top of the line materials!

Homeowner’s Insurance

Typically, homeowner’s insurance only covers repair if the roof damage is caused by an act of nature. It’s ultimately up to the insurance company to determine what actually counts as an act of nature and if the act of nature was indeed the culprit behind the damage. Additionally, in order to successfully file a claim the roof cannot exceed its intended life span. So if your roof is too old you won’t be compensated for the repair.

To make use of the homeowner’s insurance, you’ll have to responsibly maintain your roof. That may mean having licensed professionals regularly inspect your roof. Luckily, most companies will provide free inspections and estimates since they’re hoping to be the ones to provide those repairs! In some cases, proper maintenance will also entail trimming nearby trees to prevent debris from falling on your roof, and making sure your roof meets current building codes.

What If You Get No Financial Help?

Your roof is one of the biggest investments you can make into your home. For this reason, you don’t want to hold off on making any repairs! This is especially the case if your roof is over 15-years-old, after which is the age range when you’re most likely to need your roof replaced. By that point, a roof in need of repair may lead to significant damages to your home. If shingles are blowing off, peeling, cracking, or becoming less water resistant, then you probably should have already replaced your roof! That’s because these are signs of a roof already in need of replacing as opposed to the markers of a roof that needs to get replaced. Such damage is only going to exacerbate the urgency of replacing your roof.

There are plenty of options if you don’t have all the money to replace your roof right away. You can pay with a credit card, if you have enough equity you can take out a low-interest loan, you can do a cash out refinancing where you’ll change the conditions of your mortgage so that you get extra money that can then be applied to replacing your roof, you can arrange a payment plan (Proven Contracting is approved to put together a financing plan for you), you can talk to a local charity, try crowdfunding, or maybe get a county grant.

Why You Should Fully Replace Your Roof

You might be tempted to only do a roof leak repair if money is tight, if your debt averse, or if you want to save money in general. That would be a mistake for a number of reasons. By the time your roof is old enough to need replacing, your shingles are likely to be brittle, cracked, peeling, or lose their water resistance. At that point, just moving around your roof is going to lead to you further damaging already damaged shingles. And you’ll definitely not want to put a second layer of shingles on top of your existing layer of shingles, no matter how old they are.

Why You Shouldn’t Put A Second Layer Of Shingles On a New Roof

If your new roof is damaged and you can make use of any of your roofing warranties, you don’t your contractor to just put a second layer of shingles on your roof. To begin with, a second layer isn’t going to make your roof any more waterproof. The underlayments provide all the additional waterproofing you may need, and you can’t have those with a second layer of shingles.

Additionally, a second layer of shingles will lessen the lifespan of your roof because the shingles will be causing damage to your first layer of shingles. Shingles, afterall, are not designed to have a second layer of shingles on them! And your roof isn’t designed to have two layers of shingles either. That much stress and pressure may damage your frame or roof rafter system. That second layer will also make it impossible to see any damage your first layer is experiencing. So, don’t both and go the route of a full replace, or just have the defective or poorly installed shingles replaced.

Bottom Line

No matter what you do to pay for your roof replacement, make sure that when you need a roof replacement you get one! You can’t afford to delay replacing your roof because it’s far too important to delay. Damaged insulation, drywall, paint, or an electrical system will only add to the cost of replacing your roof! If you only spot repair your roof you’ll only be delaying the inevitable, so it’s best to just go the replacement route than throw money away doing spot repairs. Luckily, if you work with Proven Contracting, you can rest easy knowing that you’ll be working with a company that provides the perfect marriage of quality materials and quality workmanship!