You have the document in your hand: a roof warranty which provides a customized insurance policy for your Michigan home’s roof. But then you start to think about it. What does the roof warranty really mean? What does it cover? And what voids a roof warranty?
Bizarro World
If somehow you were trying to deliberately void your home’s roof warranty, you could take seven steps into Bizarro World and do precisely that.
Of course, you should not do it, but the following seven screw-ups could ruin your chances of ever making a claim on your roof warranty.
Roof warranties are provided by roofing materials manufacturers and typically cover two things:
- Manufacturing defects and errors
- Installer errors
They most definitely do not protect you against your own bizarre behavior, so pursuing any of these seven best ways to void the warranty will result in, predictably, a voided roof warranty.
1. Improper Installation
If you try to save a few dollars by hiring a low-bidding roofer, handyman service, or storm-chasing roofer to install your Michigan home’s roof, you will pay a huge price for all of those “savings.”
If a roofing material manufacturer provides detailed instructions on proper installation techniques, offers factory training to roofing technicians, and even prints information on the materials themselves, the manufacturer expects professional installation.
Shoddy installation, cut corners, or incorrect methods will void the warranty. Leave roofing work to trained, skilled professionals like your local residential roofer. Avoid handyman services, roofers offering bargains, or roofers with no local physical address.
2. Improper Ventilation
Though a roof is not alive, it must breathe. That is, it must draw in air from its eaves and exhaust air from its ridge. The constant circulation of air helps to maintain attic air temperatures and humidity levels which protect your roof. If the air inside the attic space gets too hot or humid, damage to your roof can void your roof warranty.
3. Improper Insulation
Overstuffing your attic space with insulation may seem like a great way to save energy and money, but too much insulation can cause your attic to become too hot. Too hot a roof can constitute improper installation, resulting in a voided roof warranty.
Combine inadequate ventilation with improperly installed insulation, and your roof could literally bake from beneath, shortening the lifespan of sheathing, underlayment, and the roofing material.
4. Two Roofs
Some Michigan municipalities may permit the installation of a new roof over an old one, but most do not. Most roofers with good reputations do not perform this, either. Two roofs put a tremendous strain on your house rafters. They also work against each other, with the original roof often deceiving roofers searching for roof leaks.
Roofing materials manufacturers also explicitly ban this practice in their warranty details. You may think you are saving a few dollars on carting costs to remove the old roof, but you are short-changing yourself by voiding your roof warranty.
5. Pressure Washing
While roofs are sturdy, they are not impenetrable. Blasting a stream of water against shingles, tiles, metal, or low-slope roofing materials can punch holes in even the sturdiest roofing materials.
Using a pressure washer to clean a roof is a bad idea for several reasons:
- The roof becomes even slipperier and more dangerous with the added water.
- Shingles can be torn, cracked, or uplifted and ruined by the water stream.
- You can start a roof leak which will continue through every storm and downpour.
- The roofing warranty can be voided by the use of a pressure washer.
- Small problems can be literally blasted open, becoming massive headaches.
6. Antennae and Satellite Dishes
After-market products added to your roof by inexperienced, third-party technicians can unintentionally void your roof warranty. A satellite dish installer has little or no regard for the preservation of your roof when drilling into your roof and sheathing.
Carriage bolts and a dab of caulk may be all the satellite technician uses to hold the equipment in place. Roofing materials manufacturers frown on anyone but professional roofers working on their products.
7. Solar Panels and Skylights
Only skilled, trained roofers should be installing skylights through your roof. Solar panel installers often work with roofers to ensure their work complies with the roof warranty. Choose your installers wisely, and make sure they help you maintain the warranty, no matter what they attach to your roof.
While three building trades—solar energy, roofing, carpentry—all may vie for your business, you will do well to work with all three together. Each has expertise, each can provide specialized tools and skills, and together they can protect your roof’s warranty.
Contact us today at Victors Roofing for superior roofing services throughout southeast Michigan. We offer a complete range of roofing services, from partial roof replacement to roof repair to complete roof replacement.
