How we approach it · Warranties
What a Warranty Actually Covers
Owners treat a warranty as protection against leaks. It is generally protection against material defects, which is a much narrower thing.
Where it appears inside, when it happens, and what has already been tried. That is enough to plan an investigation.
Test first
Water testing before scope, not sealant and hope
Uphill
Water enters above where it appears, almost always
Systems
The envelope fails at transitions, not in the field
Licensed
General contractor, licensed in the state of Florida
The exclusions are where the failures are
Manufacturer warranties typically exclude installation error, design deficiency, damage from other trades, ponding water, and anything installed on the roof afterwards. Those categories cover the overwhelming majority of envelope failures, which means the warranty covers the smallest part of the risk.
What to read before relying on it
- Whether it covers labor, materials or both.
- Whether installation error is excluded.
- Whether ponding water voids it.
- What maintenance obligations it imposes on you.
- Who to notify, and within what period.
What a warranty actually covers
Warranty documents are frequently the least-read part of an envelope project and the most misunderstood. Owners hear twenty years and reasonably assume twenty years of dry building. What is usually being warranted is narrower: a specific material, against specific defects, under defined maintenance conditions, often excluding consequential damage — which is to say excluding the interior repairs that are the expensive part of a leak.
Two exclusions catch buildings repeatedly. Maintenance conditions: many warranties require documented periodic inspection, and a board that has not kept those records may find the warranty unenforceable regardless of the material's condition. And transitions again: the warranty covers the field of the material, not the joint where it meets something else. Read what you are buying before you price a job around it, and keep the maintenance records from day one.
How we handle it
- 01Tell you what a proposed warranty actually covers.
- 02Install so that the warranty is not voided by our work.
- 03Hand over the maintenance obligations clearly.
- 04Not present a warranty as protection it does not provide.
Read the maintenance obligations in your warranty. Most impose inspection and upkeep requirements, most owners never do them, and a claim is the moment that gets discovered.
Said plainly
Where we stop
We do not issue manufacturer warranties. We install so they are not voided and we will tell you plainly where a warranty does not cover the risk you think it does.
FAQ
Common questions
- Does a roof warranty cover leaks?
- Generally material defects. Installation error, design and ponding are commonly excluded.
- What voids a warranty?
- Frequently ponding water, work by others, and failure to meet maintenance obligations.
- Are there maintenance obligations?
- Usually. Most owners never do them, and a claim is when that surfaces.
- Do you issue the warranty?
- No. Manufacturers do. We install so it is not voided.
What we work on
Commercial Roofing
Low-slope commercial roofs fail at penetrations, terminations and parapets. The field of the membrane is rarely the problem.
Read more →
Walls & Stucco
Stucco is a water-shedding surface over a system that is meant to handle what gets through. When it leaks, both have failed.
Read more →
Glazing & Curtain Wall
Glazing systems are designed to manage water that gets past the outer seal. When they leak, the drainage path is usually blocked rather than the seal being absent.
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Sealants & Joints
Sealant joints have a service life measured in years, and almost no building has a program for replacing them before they fail.
Read more →
Below-Grade Waterproofing
Below-grade water is not weather. It is constant hydrostatic pressure, and it exploits every weakness continuously.
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Plaza & Terrace Decks
Occupied space under a walkable deck, where the membrane is buried under a finish nobody wants to remove.
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More how we approach it
Investigate First
Water enters an envelope somewhere other than where it appears inside, and the only reliable way to find where is to test.
Read more →
Test After Repairing
A repair is not finished when it is installed. It is finished when it has been tested and the water has not come through.
Read more →
Systems, Not Products
Envelope materials work as systems, and a repair that introduces an incompatible product creates the next failure.
Read more →
Next step
Find out what is actually wrong with it.
An inspection, photographs of what we found, and a written scope. If the honest answer is that it can wait another season, that is the answer you will get.