Warranty and Guarantees

The GAF limited lifetime material warranty

We are a GAF Factory-Certified contractor, which is what allows qualifying installations to carry GAF's limited lifetime material warranty. That warranty is issued by GAF, registered to your property, and governed entirely by the certificate GAF provides. We are not a party to it, we do not control its terms, and nothing on this page changes what your certificate says.

In broad terms, the coverage applies to manufacturing defects in qualifying GAF shingles and accessories for as long as the original owner owns the home, with an initial period of stronger, non-prorated coverage that steps down to a prorated basis afterwards. The word "lifetime" in the industry refers to the duration of the original owner's ownership of the property, not to a promise without limits. Coverage levels, the length of the non-prorated period and the transfer terms depend on which GAF system was installed and whether the installation qualified for an enhanced warranty.

What this means in practice: if a shingle fails in a way attributable to how it was manufactured, the manufacturer's warranty is the route. If it fails because of how it was fastened, that is our workmanship warranty. If it fails because a branch went through it, that is your insurer. We will tell you honestly which of the three we think it is, including when the answer is the one that costs us money.

Read your certificate when it arrives, keep it with your closing documents, and register it if registration is required. A warranty nobody registered is a common and entirely avoidable problem.

Our two-year workmanship warranty

We provide a two-year workmanship warranty in writing on the installation work we perform, running from substantial completion of the work. It covers defects in our installation: fastening, flashing, penetration sealing, underlayment and membrane application, ventilation components we installed, and the integration details where the roof meets walls, chimneys, valleys and edges.

Leaks are the honest test of a workmanship warranty, because the overwhelming majority of roof leaks are not shingle failures. They occur at flashing, at penetrations, in valleys, and at the wall-to-roof junction — all of which are installation details. If water is entering through a detail we installed, within the warranty period, that is ours to correct.

The workmanship warranty is a warranty and not a maintenance agreement. It does not cover cleaning gutters, clearing debris, or re-sealing components that require periodic maintenance. It does not extend or modify the manufacturer's coverage, and the manufacturer's coverage does not extend or modify ours.

Where our scope included siding, gutters, windows or other exterior trades, the workmanship terms applicable to those portions are set out in your contract. Ask for them to be read to you at signing rather than after a problem, and if a term is not clear, say so then.

What neither warranty covers

• Storm and weather events. Hail, wind above the manufacturer's rated speed, falling trees and limbs, ice damming caused by weather conditions, and other acts of nature. These are typically covered perils under a homeowners policy, and we can help you document a claim.
• Work performed by others after us. Satellite dishes, solar mounts, antennae, HVAC and any other equipment fastened through the roof covering by another party. This is one of the most common causes of a leak on a roof that was watertight when we left it.
• Foot traffic and mechanical damage, including damage caused by other trades accessing the roof after our work is complete.
• Inadequate ventilation or structural conditions. If a roof assembly fails because the attic cannot breathe or because the structure is moving, that is a building condition rather than an installation defect. Where we identify a ventilation problem during inspection, it will be in your written scope with a recommendation.
• Pre-existing conditions we documented and you elected not to address. If our inspection report flagged deteriorated sheathing, failing fascia or a compromised chimney and the scope did not include correcting it, a later failure at that location is not a warranty matter. This is precisely why the photo condition report is written and given to you.
• Normal weathering, including granule loss consistent with age and colour variation from sun exposure.
• Consequential and interior damage, which is generally addressed by insurance rather than by either warranty. Read your certificate and your policy.
• Lack of maintenance, most commonly blocked gutters and downspouts, and debris accumulation in valleys and behind chimneys.

How to make a claim

1. Call the office and describe what you are seeing. Where the water appears inside, what the weather was doing, and when you first noticed it. Photographs from the ground and from inside help considerably. Do not go on the roof.
2. We schedule an inspection. Active water intrusion is prioritised over scheduled production work, because the interior damage compounds while it waits.
3. We identify the cause and tell you which route applies — manufacturer's material warranty, our workmanship warranty, or an insurance claim. You get that determination with the photographs that support it, in writing.
4. If it is ours, we correct it under the workmanship warranty at no charge to you within the warranty period, and you get written confirmation of what was done.
5. If it is a manufacturer matter, we help you file with GAF, including providing the installation documentation the claim requires. If it is an insurance matter, we can document it for your adjuster and meet them on site.

What we will not tell you

We will not tell you a roof is guaranteed never to leak. Nobody can honestly say that about an assembly of manufactured components installed by people on a building that moves with the seasons. We will not describe our workmanship warranty as lifetime, because it is two years. We will not describe the GAF warranty as unlimited, because the certificate limits it in several specific ways that are worth your time to read.

What we will tell you is which warranty applies to your situation, what it does and does not do, and what the realistic route to a resolution looks like. A contractor who over-promises at the sale is the same contractor who has to argue with you later about what was meant, and we would rather have the harder conversation at the start.

Warranty questions