Find the Warranty for Your Project.

Usually not in the way it sounds. Three things typically shorten it. It may cover one component rather than the whole assembly. It may be prorated, so the payout falls every year: Versetta's 50 year document prorates linearly across 600 months from month one, and NewTechWood's 25 year ladder pays 100 percent through year ten and then 80, 60, 40, 20, and 10 percent for the last three years. And it may end when the house is sold, as GAF's residential membrane document does. Read the term, the proration and the transfer clause together, because the headline number is the first of the three and the least binding.

A material warranty covers the product and a system warranty answers a leak, and the gap between them is the installation. Carlisle's material document is the clearest version in print: it says it refers to the membrane material only, the remedy is repair material or a credit capped at what the membrane cost, a claim needs a physical sample sent in at the owner's expense, there is no labor in it, and it does not mention leaks at all. Carlisle's Golden Seal system document says Carlisle will repair any leak in a system installed by an authorized applicator, and that the fault being repaired can be a defect in the materials or in that applicator's workmanship. Ask which of the two you are being offered.

No dollar limit on covered repairs, and that is all it means. It does not shorten the exclusion list. GAF's Diamond Pledge specimen repairs leaks through GAF materials from a manufacturing defect, ordinary wear and tear, or workmanship in applying them with no cap on a covered repair, and leaks caused by anything that is not a GAF material, the deck included, are still outside it. Drexel publishes two no dollar limit types, and the difference between them is who is liable: on its Type 3 the manufacturer and the installer are jointly and severally liable, and on the Single Source Type 4 it is Drexel alone.

Usually no, and where it is, it is capped. James Hardie's siding document says in capitals that it will not refund or pay any costs in connection with labor or accessory materials, and its finish document reimburses labor only in the first year. Andersen® excludes labor from all four product warranties. Versetta excludes labor for removal or installation absolutely. Drexel's standard finish warranties say it shall not in any event be liable for the cost of labor expended by others. VELUX® covers labor only under its ten year installation section, and caps reinstallation of one unit at $1,000, excluding cranes and lifts. So the labor on your job is almost always the contractor's commitment rather than the manufacturer's.

It depends on the document, and the answer is often narrower than the brochure. James Hardie allows one further transfer. Andersen® transfers owner to owner but the clock does not restart. Versetta allows transfer only in the first 15 years and caps the new owner at year 15 of the original term. GAF's residential membrane document ends on the sale, and its NDL guarantee transfers for a $500 fee within 60 days plus any repairs GAF requires. Drexel's standard finish documents are non-transferable. If resale value is part of why you are buying the upgrade, ask for the transfer clause specifically, not the summary.

Often yes, and the window is short. Dec-Tec requires registration on its own page within ninety days of installation and accepts registrations no other way. GAF's residential membrane document has to be registered within thirty days or the plain material document applies instead. Drexel's finish warranties are self completed and take effect immediately, so there is no deadline but the file is yours to keep. We hold the invoice, the dates, the square footage and the product details on the day we finish and you mostly do not, so registering is a dated step in our process.

Only if you hold a document that says so, and most of them say the opposite. James Hardie does not warrant the installation of its products. Dec-Tec's own specification puts the leak promise on the installer's line rather than the manufacturer's. Andersen®'s installation warranty is a separate two year product and requires an Andersen Certified Installer. GAF's 30 years of workmanship coverage exists but only through a registered Golden Pledge® installed by a Master Elite® contractor with five accessories. Otherwise the installation is the contractor's, which is the honest reason to care who does the work.

Sometimes, and it is product by product rather than general. GAF states that hail damage is not covered under the limited warranty on Timberline HDZ® or UHDZ, whatever the impact rating says. Drexel excludes hail from its Weather Tightness Warranty. On the other side, GAF publishes a 15-year limited warranty against leaks caused by hail on select TimberSteel™ system components, James Hardie's 30 year document covers hail alongside woodpeckers and termites, and VELUX® covers hail breakage on laminated glass for 10 years, provided the National Weather Service confirms hail at the location and the stones were not more than two inches across. Where the manufacturer does not cover it, your insurer is the one who does.

Four, and none of them look reckless at the time. Attaching something to a finished roof without written approval, which Carlisle calls null and void and GAF excludes as overburden and additions. Letting a later trade work on it, which is how Dec-Tec's exclusion for damage from work performed after installation gets triggered. Cleaning it wrongly, from Versetta's exclusion of power washing and chemical washes to NewTechWood voiding everything for acidic or basic cleaners. And sealant or film applied where the manufacturer forbids it, which is how caulk voids a VELUX® skylight. Call us before any of the four rather than after.

An optional lifetime workmanship warranty, sold as an upgrade on full system replacements in every trade we work in. The terms are in the document and the document comes with your estimate rather than after the contract, so you can read it while you are still deciding. We have deliberately not summarized it on this page, for the same reason the rest of the page exists: a warranty condensed into a sentence is a warranty misstated, and you should be reading the instrument rather than our description of it.