Are Roofing Warranties to be Trusted?
The simplest and most honest answer is: NO. Roof Warranties issued by roofing manufactures for composition roofing shingles are not accurate and thus not to be trusted.
Remember 30 years ago when a company salesperson would say a dishwasher should “last you a good long while”. It probably came with a 5 years warranty, but lasted 30 plus years. Now that same product comes with a lifetime warranty (fine print) and your lucky to get 15 years. So what gives?
The simplest and most honest answer is: NO. Roof Warranties issued by roofing manufactures for composition roofing shingles are not accurate and thus not to be trusted.
Remember 30 years ago when a company salesperson would say a dishwasher should “last you a good long while”. It probably came with a 5 years warranty, but lasted 30 plus years. Now that same product comes with a lifetime warranty (fine print) and your lucky to get 15 years. So what gives?
I recently ask one of our roofing manufactures how they were able to offer such great new warranties, in fact, much better then 10 years ago. I asked does your plant manager and engineers design and use better roofing products to create a longer lasting composition roofing shingle? has an innovative new design been created or a new piece of expensive equipment added to better the quality of the newly warrantied shingles?
His simple answer is: The marketing division takes it upstairs to the legal division and they work on it together. Forget the engineers and designers. It’s the same roofing shingle and in some instances it’s even less quality than the one it is replacing. They just tack on a fancy warranty with lots of small print and we have a newly improved roofing product to sell.
If it sound discouraging, it can be. If it sound misleading, I would agree. So from one honest Roofing Contractor and fellow homeowner to another, lets discuss picking the correct roofing shingle for your home and future needs in my next post.