Will installing solar void a roof warranty?

By Mike Wiener, Advertising Manager, QuickBOLT

Shingle roofs are trustworthy and a roofing basic, but that doesn’t mean they are a flawless solution. Their set up permits for and normally requires additional roof penetrations in contrast to other roofing components like tile or steel roofing. Even with all individuals nails and staples in the combine, shingles do their section in keeping the surfaces beneath them dry.

Credit rating: QuickBOLT

Solar mounting suppliers generally hear the problem, “What about the roof warranty?” Most installers are just masking their bases, viewing what assurances they can get over and above their individual top quality of labor. What appears to journey everybody up is that most roof warranties are only assurance for the excellent of manufacturing assurance that the products was created to the normal the producer supposed. So in which do the lines get blurred?

To offer perception into the challenge, we gathered guarantee documentation from the nation’s most common shingle suppliers. Initial we will dive into prevalent forms of warranties.

Sorts of warranties

Any supplier well worth its salt will offer a manufacturing or merchandise guarantee, ideally for a interval matching how very long it is been in small business anything for a longer period and the guarantee interval duration is speculation. Most solar mounting companies offer a 25-calendar year warranty on their mounting methods — this indicates they will exchange products with flaws attributed to the producing process for up to 25 a long time previous the manufacturing date.

A Assistance Guarantee is a various sort of providing that handles sorts of labor. Truck rolls, crew dimension and subsequent guarantee coverage are each individual a popular components of support warranties. It’s uncommon to see a company present a services warranty. Which is remaining to the secondary sector comprehensive of coverage/photo voltaic guarantee companies (like SolarInsure) who include areas and labor on guarantee claims.

The market place

Now we’ll run as a result of some suppliers alphabetically and break down their warranties. Anybody not stated possibly could not be arrived at, does not offer explicit documentation addressing the question or fell outside the house the scope of our lookup.

Atlas Roofing

Atlas Roofing seems to be the very first roofing organization to address the challenge of solar installations and roofing warranties. The corporation published an posting in 2014 outlining how its warranty is impacted by photo voltaic installations.

Atlas proposed homeowners check out with its house insurance coverage providers to see if solar is coated, and for installers to give a 3rd-party guarantee/insurance policies system.

CertainTeed

CertainTeed is the scarce case that delivers a combined manufacturing/service warranty – beneath the proper circumstances. Its guarantee protection is tied into its credentialed installer method by benefitting contractors with two levels of protection. When installed by “Credentialed” or “Master Installers,” Certainteed’s warranty covers any producing problems and flaws in workmanship for 15 or 25 a long time respectively. This makes for a really versatile providing only if you are a credentialed installer.

GAF

GAF warranties will remain in position if a solar system is set up over its roofing goods. GAF produced a technical bulletin a few several years ago detailing the protection and its constraints: If you have to have to remove the photo voltaic program for GAF to inspect the faulty shingles, that expense is not covered by its guarantee.

Malarkey Roofing Merchandise

Malarkey provides a clear-cut breakdown of its company guarantee in a useful technical bulletin. Photo voltaic installations are authorized on Malarkey roofing and do not void its maker warranty. But the bulletin states that “damage ensuing from the set up of a photo voltaic/PV procedure does not constitute a producing defect and is not lined by the guarantee.”

Owens Corning

Owens Corning’s guarantee is simple— the shingle warranties remain in spot even when a photo voltaic procedure is set up. That guarantee only covers production defects in Owen Corning’s have products, and the regular warranty doesn’t address other manufacturers’ solutions.

Like GAF disclaimed, Owens will not include the value of eliminating a solar process to switch a faulty roofing product or service coated by their normal guarantee.

TAMKO doesn’t have any documentation addressing solar set up, but its specialized team’s answer around a telephone get in touch with was, “The roof guarantee will keep on being intact” if PV is set up.

So, will your photo voltaic set up void the roof warranty?

Most likely, no, but that guarantee under no circumstances secured you or the property owner from anything at all other than a defective roof solution. At the finish of the working day, producing warranties are not virtually as critical as the top quality of your personal labor.

If you appear prepared for the roof, then you can raise your probabilities of having it appropriate the initial time. Using path from companies is key to properly making use of their products and solutions and putting in a cohesive solar program. If you believe you’ve bought a much better process, then permit them know so they can create a far better product or service or adjust their guidance using your subject expertise.

Other methods to program for a prosperous installation are by getting advantage of impressive mounting options — solutions that operate with the roof and not towards it. QuickBOLT has manufactured minimally invasive mounting remedies for a ten years, and most of our friends in the mounting sector now supply their possess top-mounted remedies.

The last three yrs have noticed a major boon to about-the-shingle, prime-mounted solar attachments which get the job done to lower the impact to the roofing components beneath them. The fewer penetrations you make in the roof and the significantly less you lift shingles, the improved the roof integrity remains.

Someday soon we will witness the swift decrease of ripping up shingles, destroying the roof’s present integrity and forcing installers to ponder with a pry bar in their hand, “Will this void the roof warranty?”