Special report on asphalt shingles, made by CBC Marketplace program.
We’re heading out to test some roofs that are dying an early death. I’m with roofing contractor Mike Cavanaugh who sees a big problem with asphalt roofing shingles wearing out way before the warranty is up. We are finding at twelve years they are falling apart.
“So what have we got here?”
“Well I’m gonna show you a toasted roof.”
Mike installed this roof just twelve years ago.
“How is it looking up there?”
“Pretty bad. I’m lifting the shingles up and just to lift them up a little bit, the pieces are coming off in my hand.”
Like a lot of shingles these ones came with a twenty five-year warranty.
“Look at that, it’s just crumbling.”
Just crumbing – twelve years old. This roof is supposed to last twenty five years and this is basically looks to me to be garbage. Canadian roofing shingle company sell products with warranties of twenty-five, thirty or forty years. Some are even called “lifetime.” So here’s what we want to know: if your roof wears out early, how well are you covered
Ten years ago Larry Bingley forked out three thousand dollars for a new roof. He bought twenty-five years shingles.
“You know I figured twenty five years singles, about the premium so you know, that would last me a lifetime.”
But last year his roof sprung a leak. Then another one.
“So finally I said what’s with this 25 year warranty, and that’s when I found out about the limited section, portion of it.”
Mike Cavanaugh, Larry’s roofer says his shingles don’t have much life in them even and are beyond the roof repair option, even though they’re only twelve years old.
“You can see all kinds of granules. In larger pieces of shingles in your gutters – these ones are drying out very quickly and they are not going to last much longer.”
A new roof costs about six thousand dollars. So Larry made a warranty claim with the manufacturer, in this case IKO, and discovered that the coverage was worth as thin as his shingles.
“They offered me twenty six bundles of Cambridge 30 year shingles which has a value of something like six hundred dollars. This is the offer they want to give me.”
Yep, just six hundred dollars worth of shingles towards a six thousand dollar new roof.
So much for that twenty five-year warranty.
“I think they should cover should cover the full costs of the roof replacement.”
Turns out with IKO and with other shingle companies too, the longer you’ve had your roof the less your warranty is worth and the biggest cost – the labor- often isn’t covered at all.
“They don’t offer any money for the labor, for removing the old shingles, for disposing of the old shingles or for putting the new shingles on.”
Same goes for the thirty, forty, and lifetime shingles. Good luck getting much money back if they wear out early.
So we called Canada’s big shingle companies – they tell us they don’t get many warranty claims saying “we stand behind our product and our warranties” and that their shingles holdup when properly installed.
But we say – shingle companies, you are busted for misleading consumers with long-term warranties that, just like your shingles, don’t always hold up.