CertainTeed: Chances better with Lawsuit than Warranty

December 7, 2007, 02:15:00PM. By Jane Mundy

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Troy, MI: Danny Moore bought a new home in 1992 and paid a premium for CertainTeed 'top of the line' shingles. "I thought the warranty indicated that they were good for 40 years but they haven't even lasted 15 years," he says.

"I really liked the shape of my roof so I paid extra to the builder for this product," says Moore (not his real name). He explains that they were a deeper cut and heavier than the 30-year shingles—at the time they were called "Independence shingles" and now the same line is called 'Independence shangles'. But more than the name changed in the manufacture of these shingles from the product Moore bought in 1992 until the product being sold today.

"I had a problem with a small leak in August of this year," says Moore. "We had severe wind and rain and my insurance company sent a contractor out to the house. He inspected it and did a temporary repair. A short time later, they sent another contractor out to do a permanent repair and he was going to replace a number of the shingles but instead, suggested that the shingles were too fragile to remove--they were curling and de-granulating.

This contractor was aware of CertainTeed's defective shingles. He asked me when I had the roof built and when I told him 1992, he replied that CertainTeed had a problem with shingles during this time and that they had since manufactured the shingles differently and they now come with a lifetime warranty.

He has now taken some of my shingles off the roof and sent them to CertainTeed. I didn't hear back from the company so I called CertainTeed and they basically gave me the run-around. I wasn't too worried at the time because the temporary repair has worked--so far. Also, it is cold here in Michigan and snowing so I probably wouldn't get it fixed until the spring.

Then I looked around on the internet and saw an article on your site regarding a class action lawsuit. It got me thinking about my warranty and perhaps CertainTeed won't do the right thing on my 15-year-old roof that was supposed to last 40 or 50 years. And there is the labor cost to consider' apparently they won't cover any of that.

Now I have looked into the replacement cost and had contractors out here with bids. I know that CertainTeed is going to retaliate and essentially try to get out of their warranty and prorate it. I also heard that CertainTeed knew there was a problem when these shingles were manufactured in the early 1990s but they have since changed the 'recipe'.

I think I will have more success with a lawsuit than getting anything out of CertainTeed."

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