CertainTeed Should Be Held Responsible

Cedar Falls, IABrenda Duhaime sees a lot of defective CertainTeed shingles in her line of work—she is a residential home appraiser. "So many roofs of homes built in the 1990s are in terrible condition due to cupped and curled CertainTeed shingles," says Duhaime. And so many people are filing [lawsuits] against CertainTeed.

Their defective shingles are so prevalent that most of the shingles supplied by Duhaime's local lumber company are CertainTeed. And Duhaime, along with thousands of other homeowners, had to get her roof replaced way before its normal life span.

In fact, there are so many [homeowners] with defective CertainTeed shingles that she just came from an appraisal of one home with minor roofing problems. "This time, the homeowner is choosing to fix them himself," says Duhaime. "He called CertainTeed and the necessary paperwork they wanted him to fill out wasn't worth the aggravation."

"Personally, we built our home 11 years ago and just sold it in July. I realized our roof was in bad condition but there were no water leaks. The buyers had a house inspector assigned and he inspected prior to closing. He took photos and told us that we needed a new roof. We weren't surprised because I had noticed over the last few months that the shingles had curled up."

But she was surprised at CertainTeed's response. Her husband said they had a 30-year warranty with CertainTeed shingles. Luckily (or so she thought), Duhaime's lumber company had all the receipts from their home when it was first built, including the shingles. Then she called CertainTeed, but not before going online and finding more information about the defective shingles. She also learned that the warranty covered a prorated material cost of the actual shingles. "My roof was over $7,000 to replace. I didn't go ahead and do the math but I am guessing that CertainTeed will only cover less than $2,000 of that cost," says Duhaime. "We had no choice."

"I called CertainTeed but there is no customer service—they just refer you to directions online. It is so frustrating. Now I have shingles in my garage - you have to package them according to their directions. They have made it so difficult to take advantage of their warranty that they are counting on people like me who do not have the time or inclination to go ahead and try to get this pro-rated reimbursement.

I am sure there are a lot of people like me - who don't get the warranty back. Part of my job is reviewing home sales contracts. Pertaining to the sale of our home, I am convinced if the shingles had not been defective there would have been sufficient life left. The roof would have passed the home inspection and we would not be out the $7,000 cost of replacing the roof.

I am very frustrated because CertainTeed is not being reasonable. I understand that they would prorate for the life of the roof that has been used on the shingles. But they also need to prorate and compensate for the labor and other materials: the cost of my roof was not the shingles only. I basically lost 20 years—2/3 of my labor charge and all the other materials. And CertainTeed should be held responsible."