When the Shingle Failed, Not Your Crew

The problem in one breath

Four years on, the shingles are curling on the south slope, or the granules are washing into the driveway, and your crew did nothing wrong. She wants somebody to pay, and the only phone number she kept is yours.

Why it happens

You sold her the roof, so in her head you own everything on it. The material carries a warranty of its own from the company that made it, and what that paper says is not yours to guess at from a driveway. She's never read it, and "call the manufacturer" makes you the roofer who disappeared.

The other half is yours: nobody here has ever filed one, so it starts late and half gathered. That's how a real failure turns into a denial and a review.

The play

1. Somebody walks the roof first. No claim starts off a phone call. The callback walk decides what this is (Play 2); this play opens only when the man who walked it says the product itself failed. If it's ours, it's ours — file nothing, fix it.

2. Read the paper before you tell her whose promise it is. The material warranty is the maker's own promise, and everything about it — whose name it's in, what it pays, whether it moves to the next owner, whether the install had to be registered, who may file — sits in the warranty document for the product you laid, the one your warranty page points at (Play 3). Read that first, and ask your supplier rep how that company wants a claim filed. Then say what you're doing about it: you're filing it, because you hold the invoice, the dates and the pictures.

3. Gather it all before you dial anybody. Call it the material claim packet: product and color, the finish date, her name and address the way they go on the claim, the supplier invoice, the install photos, photos of the failure, samples if they're wanted. One call with all of it in front of you beats six calls over three weeks.

4. The install photos are the whole argument. The first question anybody asks is whether the roof was put on right. The standing shot list is what you'll have to answer with — the bare deck, the ice-and-water, the underlayment down, every penetration flashed, and the afters. Show nothing instead and you have an opinion, and an opinion loses. That's the photo habit (Module 3, Play 10) paying off years later.

5. A denial isn't the end of it — it's a bucket. If the answer comes back that the roof was installed wrong, read what it turns on, get your rep on the phone, and send the photos if the deck shows different. Their letter is that company's decision about its own warranty, not a finding that your crew erred. If it stands, you're back to deciding it yourself — off the walk, your photos and your own contract, not off their paperwork. If it really is yours, write Ours in the log and handle it like any other one of yours. What you never do is forward that letter and go quiet.

6. The roof doesn't wait on paperwork. Water in the house is a callback, and the clock in Play 1 runs no matter who ends up paying. Keep her dry now; let the claim take the time it takes. While it's open she gets a call every two weeks — including the one that says nothing has moved, here's who you talked to, here's when you call next. Never promise what the maker will decide.

Do this this week

Pull the warranty document for the product you lay most and read it once. Write two lines on the front: how a claim gets filed, and whether an install has to be registered. Twenty minutes — your rep can answer both at the counter.

The tool

Print the card and keep blanks with the job folders. It's a gathering list, not a form anybody sends. The script block is what you say to her, and the four things you never say. The bottom block is for the day a denial lands.

THE MATERIAL CLAIM PACKET — gather it before you call anybody

Job / address: ______________________  Homeowner: _______________
Roof finished (date): __________   She called (date): __________
Product and color: ______________________________________________
Supplier and branch: ____________________________________________
Your rep and number: ____________________________________________

IN HAND BEFORE THE FIRST CALL
  [ ] Supplier invoice for the material on that roof
  [ ] The signed contract and the finish date
  [ ] Name and address the way they go on the claim
  [ ] The warranty document for that product, read once
  [ ] Install photos: bare deck, ice-and-water, underlayment,
      every penetration flashed, and the afters
  [ ] Photos of the failure - wide first, then close, tape in frame
  [ ] Which slopes, how much of the roof, when she first saw it
  [ ] Samples if they are wanted - bagged, labeled, kept dry
  [ ] Whatever the product's own paperwork asks for

WHAT YOU SAY TO HER
  "This one looks like the material, not our work. The warranty
   on it comes from the company that made it - here is what
   their paperwork says. We file it for you when their process
   lets us - here we can, because we have the invoice, the
   dates and the pictures. I can't tell
   you what they will decide. Either way I call you every two
   weeks, and the next one is [date]."
  Never say: they will cover it - you're getting a new roof -
  a dollar number - the day their answer comes.

WHO YOU CALL, IN ORDER
  1. Your supplier rep - how this company wants it filed
  2. The claim line or form named in the product's paperwork
  3. Her, the same day, with whatever number they gave you

IF IT COMES BACK DENIED AS AN INSTALL PROBLEM
  [ ] Read what the denial turns on   [ ] Pull the install photos
  [ ] Rep on the phone                [ ] Send photos if they help
  [ ] Their letter is about their warranty, not about your crew
  [ ] Still yours once you look? Log it Ours, tell her, fix it

What this maker asks for that isn't listed above: ______________
_________________________________________________________________

If your crew is 1099

Two things change. If his company bought the material, the invoice sits in his file — make handing it over part of the deal (Module 12, Play 2). And when it lands back on the install, the fix is the sub company's to make under its own agreement: hand the company the photos, what's wrong and the day it has to be right, and don't put his men to work yourself. Miss that day and you fix it and settle the money afterward (Module 12, Play 4). How much you may direct his men, and what may come off his check, is set by that agreement and by your state.

One more thing: this play is how we run a shop — it's not legal advice. Rules change by state and by contract, so before you act on the legal-sounding parts, run them past your own attorney or accountant. It's your business, and what you do with any of this is your call and your responsibility.