THE ROOF, THE ROOF, THE ROOF IS....... NOT UNDER WARRANTY

Just recently, I have been faced with questions about roof warranties. Of course, previous buyers were concerned about the roof, but either they were assured that they had a new roof, which the home inspector validated, or they needed a re-coating, or they needed a new roof, which the home inspector told them.

Of course, I work in an area with primarily flat roofs and the cost of a new state-of- the-art rubber roof generally runs from $1200 to $2200 for most houses. We are not dealing with $10,000 to $25,000 roofs. When buying a property here, I would always have budgeted money for a new roof, before I would do any work inside. I am always flabbergasted when someone does a rehab on a property and does not put a new roof on the house. It is such a big selling point, and general protection for the property and any work that has been done inside.

It seems, however, that I must be missing some current of conversation on this topic of ROOF WARRANTIES. All of a sudden, there has been a lot of emphasis put on this topic that wasn't there before. Generally, I always thought that the roof warranties did two things. One, forced you to re-coat the roof every three years whether it needed it or not, and two, did not really cover anything. So, I decided to do a little research to get to the bottom of it. See the following links:

NRCA (National Roofing Contractors Association) ROOFING WARRANTIES

Is Your Roof Warranty Worth the Paper It’s Written On?

It is as I suspected. The best warranty does not necessarily get you the best roofing materials or roof nor is it a guarantee that you will be covered when you have an event that needs said warranty. It may be that the company offering you the warranty is out of business or the small print in the warranty voids any ability to claim coverage.

Therefore, it would seem that doing the research and getting the best product and the best contractor for your roof and roof work would be the best way to go.