Are roof warranties valuable? Hmm maybe

Roof warranties, are they important or not? Well, the answer is yes, no, and it depends. So it depends on the type of warranty we're talking about. There are all kinds of warranties. A material warranty, for example, really isn't worth the paper it's written on. Unless you happen to get some faulty fluke run of materials used on your project, you will never exercise that warranty.

Contractor warranties this is another type of warranty that you have to be very cautious of. A warranty is only as strong as the company that stands behind it. Contractors, unfortunately, go out of business all the time or change names; therefore, no longer is your roof under warranty.

Now an NDL manufacturer warranty backed by one of the major manufacturers, Firestone, Carlisle, GAF. NDL stands for no dollar limit. It's a labor, material, non-prorated warranty. This warranty does offer some value. However, again, it's not necessarily what you might think. Many companies have a misperception that all leaks will be covered if they have a roof under warranty. This is only true if the leak that is occurring was caused by a poor installation or a material failure. If it was caused by anything other than those two items, it is a non-warrantable issue, and you're going to have to cover your own leaks. Those are typically what happens, especially after a few years down the road after a roof has been installed now.

Now, where's the value at? The value is in oversight. A manufacturer will not issue an NDL warranty unless they themselves come out and review the install. Everything done by the contractor who performed the work must have been done per industry standards and manufacturer requirements. If it was not, a punch list is given to them, and they have to make the corrections to make sure that everything was done exactly the way it should have been. This is an oversight that provides value so that you know the roof installed on your building was done properly.

Again, unfortunately, with contractor warranties, they are their own police officers that oversee their own project and issue their own warranties, and then when problems come up, they are the ones that determine whether or not it's covered under warranty. I'll give you a guess where that typically goes.