If I tell you that I’ll warrant your toaster against manufacturing defects for 30, 40, 50 years, or a “lifetime”, do you think your toaster will last for 30, 40, 50 years, or a “lifetime”? Notice, I didn’t say I’d warrant your toaster’s serviceability for a “lifetime”.
Time and time again, I’m told that someone has replaced their roof with a 30, 40, 50, or “Lifetime” asphalt roof. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the only thing that’s “Lifetime” about an asphalt roof is that you’ll be replacing it over and over again…for a LIFETIME. What’s really covered for those time periods? Do you know? Well, if you’re like me and want to know what you’re buying, you’ll research expensive purchases pretty thoroughly. Most people don’t, unfortunately. They’re the ones who keep buying asphalt roofs and wonder why they’ve failed “prematurely”. The thing is, they haven’t failed prematurely in most cases, they’ve just failed against a homeowner’s unrealistic expectations that they’d last 30, 40, 50 years, or a “Lifetime”.
Asphalt roofing warranties will typically tell you that most things that can happen to an asphalt roof (blow offs, failure to seal, granule loss, streaking, etc.) are only covered for a VERY limited period of time, and often pro-rated during that time, or immediately after. What IS covered for 30, 40, 50 years, or “Lifetime” is manufacturing defects.
When’s the last time you used a warranty for a “manufacturing defect” to get a replacement for anything you’ve purchased? Yep, that’s what I thought. We’re too smart to be fooled by asphalt warranties that have been used as marketing ploys for years by the asphalt roofing industry. Metal roofing warranties really mean “lifetime” when they say it….your lifetime, and even then, many are transferable to the next owner. Please call me and I’ll send you an asphalt warranty and our metal roofing warranty and you’ll see exactly what I’m talking about once you compare and contrast the two. An excerpt from one of the major asphalt players appears next to this post. Unfathomable that they say “lifetime” and “15 years” in the very same sentence, no? And later in the warranty, it tells us that the algae warranty is pro-rated after the first year. Tricky stuff!