Your Whole Warranty on One Page

The problem in one breath

Two years after that roof went on, she calls about a brown stain over the bathroom door. Somebody asks what your warranty says. Nobody can put a hand on it: a line in a contract in a file cabinet, plus whatever your salesman said in her kitchen. So you argue about what you promised instead of fixing a roof.

Why it happens

The promise never got written in one place a person could read. It's split across the contract she signed, the maker's booklet that went out with the wrappers, and a warm sentence said to close the deal. Two years later there are three versions of it, and the loudest one wins.

The play

Call it the warranty page. One page, filled once, handed over the day the job closes. It is not a contract and not legal advice. It repeats in plain words what the contract she signed already says — nothing more, and nothing your shop can't do every time.

1. Write what your own work covers, and for how long. Both are blanks off the contract you sign — never off what the shop across town advertises, and never longer than that contract carries.

2. Keep the two warranties in two boxes. Yours is workmanship: how it went on and what your men touched. The maker's runs on their paperwork, and what it pays is theirs to say. Copy the product, the color, the term, the claim number and what it covers straight off that document — never from memory. Whether you file that claim for her is a blank too — your shop's own habit, not a promise we print.

3. List what is not covered, in her words — and copy every line off your own contract. They often read like this: weather after you left, another trade's hole, a part of the roof nobody touched, something she turned down in writing. If it isn't in your contract, it doesn't go on the page. Then the harder line: what ends the warranty early — copy that out word for word.

   The last blank in that box is the ceiling she's really calling about: who looks at damage inside the house, and who pays for it, is set by your contract, your policy and your state. Write what you actually do.

4. Print how she calls it in, and fill your own clock in beside it. The number a human answers, and how fast she hears back. The callback clock in Play 1 is a fair starting point; what you write is what somebody runs every single time. Fill the storm line too — a hail Monday is the week a fast number breaks — and fill the line that caps how long these times run, or a homeowner in year twelve still reads them as live. The page promises her one number and that getting it fixed is yours to run, never whose truck pulls up.

5. Answer the selling-the-house question before it gets asked. Does your workmanship warranty follow the house? Does the maker's? Both are blanks; both answers live in your contract and the product's paperwork.

6. Hand it over, and keep a copy where the phone rings. She gets it at closeout with her final paperwork. Shoot a photo of the signed copy into the job file, so whoever answers the phone in two years reads the promise instead of guessing.

This is not the checklist you run before a tear-off (Module 6, Play 18); that one settles the deal, this one you read from when it leaks. And a warranty promise is always the owner's own call, in the "always comes to me" box on the authority sheet (Module 1, Play 5).

Do this this week

Take the last roof you finished and fill this page in by hand off that job's signed contract. Side by side, line by line: anything on the page that isn't in the contract comes off. Twenty minutes, one sitting.

The tool

A printable one-pager. Every line on it is a blank you fill, response times included — no number on it is ours. Fill one master in pencil off your contract, and have your own attorney read it before a copy goes out; after that it's five minutes a job. A Spanish version lives on the Spanish cards page, for a Spanish-speaking homeowner.

YOUR WARRANTY ON ONE PAGE

This page is a short summary of the contract you signed with us.
Keep both - this page and that contract. If anything here does not
match your contract, call the number below and we will go through it
with you.

Homeowner: _____________________  Address: _________________________
Roof finished: _______________  Job number: ________________________
Us: ______________________________  License #: _____________________
Phone we answer: _________________

WHAT WE COVER - our workmanship
  How it was put on and what our men touched.
  How long: ______ from the finish date above.
  Also covered: _____________________________________________
  ___________________________________________________________

WHAT THE MAKER COVERS - off the product's own warranty paper
  Product and color: ________________________________________
  Maker: __________________________  Term: __________________
  What it covers, word for word off that paper: _____________
  ___________________________________________________________
  Whose name the warranty is in: ____________________________
  Registered on: ______   Maker's claim phone: ______________
  Do we file the maker's claim for you? ______
  Either way, we do not decide it - the maker does.

WHAT WE DO NOT COVER
  [ ] _______________________________________________________
  [ ] _______________________________________________________
  [ ] _______________________________________________________
  What ends this warranty early: ____________________________
  ___________________________________________________________
  Damage inside the house from a leak - what we do: __________
  ___________________________________________________________

HOW TO CALL IT IN - and what we promise back
  Call: _________________________  Ask for: ________________
  We call you back inside: ______
  Water coming into the house right now: somebody is on that
  roof, or it gets covered, inside ______ hours.
  No water inside - a stain, a lifted shingle, nail pops, a
  gutter, cleanup: we give you a day, and that day is inside
  ______ days.
  After a big storm: we cover it inside ______ and give you a
  date for the fix.
  These times run while the workmanship warranty above is in
  force: ______
  Who you call: us. Getting it fixed is ours to run, whoever
  does the work.

IF YOU SELL THE HOUSE
  Does our workmanship warranty go with the house? __________
  Does the maker's material warranty? _______________________
  What the new owner has to do: _____________________________

Given to: ____________________________  Date: ______
By: __________________________________  Date: ______
Homeowner's copy - keep this with your house papers.

If your crew is 1099

She may well see the sub's men: his crew built the roof and usually makes the fix. What she holds is your page, your phone number and your years, so the promise is yours to keep no matter whose truck pulls up. His own workmanship warranty and how long it runs are lines in the master agreement you both signed (Module 12, Play 2). Line the two terms up. Every year your page promises past his agreement is a year you pay for yourself.

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.