Expert: Ron Haynes - 5/11/2006

Question
Hello,

I had about 60-75% of the shingles on my southern slope of a ranch residential home torn off in an April 2nd storm.  On the northern slope, no shingles were torn off, however there are a lot of shingles that are lifted off.  The insurance company was claiming this as a manufacturing defect and therefore would not compensate me at all for that side of the house.  After one month of debunking the several barriers they laid in front of me and persisting I was unhappy with their offer, they are agreeing to pay for re-sealing the shingles.  My contractor is refusing to re-seal stating the base sheet gets cracked when the shingles are lifted up and therefore will sometimes leak more when the shingles are just re-sealed.  I would like to have an opinion on whether or not re-sealing shingles has possible negative consequences.  Also, does having two different types of shingles on opposite slopes devalue my home?

FYI: I have Celotex shingles, 30-year dimensional shake.  They are almost 8 year-old shingles.  I am changing to Owens-Corning Oak Ridge II on my southern slope, which my research and several contractors say is the top of the line.

Thanks,
Corey Huegen

Answer
Corey,
Don't get me started on insurance.  Obviously insurance companies are in the business to collect premiums and manipulate in any way possible to avoid payouts.  

Yes, having two different shingles on opposite slopes does  devalue the home, even if they can't be seen at the same time.  Just ask a realtor or appraiser.

I'm no insurance expert (you might check the AllExperts. com Insurance category for some help also) but if your policy is a replacement value policy, the insurance should be paying for a complete new roof. or at lest that is what they tell you when they're trying sell it to you.  If it is damage repair policy it gets a little greyer as to what the insurance responsibility is.  In such cases, the pro-rata tactic is often attempted to try to pro rate based on time shingles have been in place and degree of damage.

The fact that the shingles lifted on the side opposite your primary wind damage is not necessarily a manufacturing defect. There are various conditions that affect whether or not the shingles actually seal to themselves that are beyond the manufacturer, installer, or homeowner control. And, a shingle wind warranty from the manufacturer has a limited duration and is limited in wind speed, most commonly 5 years and somewhere between 60-80 mph depending on the shingle, because as the shingles weather and as they might be affected by numerous storms, their intended self-sealing bond can weaken.  Why is it a manufacturing defect if the shingle at 7-8 years old has outlived the industry standard wind warranty duration?  That's a good question for the adjuster.  What was the maximum wind gust at your house during the wind storm?  You might be able to get some data on the wind speed in the area from the National Weather Service, newspaper reporting on the storm, or through the historical data available at wunderground.com .    

Also, as an example, read the wind warranty language in the Owens-Corning shingle warranty at the following link:  http://www.owenscorning.com/around/roofing/Intern-Rf-Shngl-Wrnty.pdf .

Back to the argument of a manufacturing defect, if that were so, the same could be said for the side of the roof where the shingles blew off.  Also, I'm not aware of standard insurance policy that excludes manufacturing defects in the roof.  Maybe your adjuster can show you otherwise, but I doubt it.  Heck, what about a construction defect that allows the damage to occur?  Are broken water pipes a manufacturing defect for which insurance is not responsible? A toaster that catches fire?  

As for the latest wind storm that affected your shingles, the winds may intermittently change direction or have a swirl effect during the wind event, sometimes called secondary winds.  Typically there is a primary wind direction (i.e., the direction of the storm or weather front) that is the strongest but that does not mean that wind action is only in that direction.  The secondary winds may result in a change in direction when the primary wind intermittently weakens or pauses.  These secondary winds or even a swirling action of a primary wind can be strong enough to damage all roof slopes.  Also, the wind force as it moves across a roof ridge creates an upward vacuum force(it's a proven phenomenon called the Bernouli effect) that literally sucks at the shingles and can tend to lift them.

Your contractor is correct. When shingles are lifted the felt underlayment can also be adversely affected and perhaps more importantly the lifted shingles may have torn around the shingle nails or pryed at the nails leaving a hole in the shingle that is covered by the overlying shingle.  You might be able to see this by lifting the loose shingles and looking at the nailing line in the shingle below that is about 1 inch or so above the bottom of the overlying shingle. Re-sealing the shingles will not prevent leaks at these points.  And, these leaks might not be heavy enough to be readily noticable inside or even in the attic but they can slowly cause the plywood deck to delaminate and or rot from the top down.

Re-sealing in this scenerio is also labor intensive as each shingle needs to be checked and sealed as necessary. Ask the contractor to give you a quote for re-sealing the shingles along with any disclaimers he might want to attach.  Then, you decide if you want to share it with the insurance company to support your position on price and effectiveness.

Ask the insurance company to provide you with the name of a contactor that will re-seal the shingles and guarantee their performance.

I believe you also have another issue.  Celotex Shingle Division was purchased by Certainteed some years ago.  There may no longer be a pattern match for your Celotex 30-yr shingle.  Also, unless you have a copy of the warranty for the Celotex shingles it is going to be hard to find out what type of wind warranty might have been intended for that particular shingle.  If it were 10 years (possible but I doubt it) the insurance company has a better argument though not bullet proof.  If it was 5 years, the insurance company has no argument.  Make sure you distinguish between material warranty and wind warranty.  They are different things with different durations.  The 30-yr warranty you mention is a prorated material warranty.  The wind warranty, if there was one, is something less and as mentioned most likely 5 yrs.

I would keep pushing the insurance company with the logic of:

1.  There is no manufacturing defect in that the shingles outlived the industry standard 5-year wind resistance warranty.  
2.  The wind obviously affected and damaged the northern slope.  To a lesser degree but nonetheless damaged.
3.  Re-sealing the shingles does not address less obvious damage like nail pull through or other tears that can allow water to seep through the shingles even if leakage to the interior is not obvious.
4.  Any other logic from the above desertation (it's gettting late).


In a worst case scenerio for you, with a good argument, I would expect the insurance company to pay for the replacement on the southern slope and at least 1/2 the replacement cost on the northern slope.  You'll want to make sure the agreed cost is reasonable.  Often insurance wants to pay on the front end at a rate per squre foot that they determine, which is less than the going rate at the time.  Get 3 quotes for full replacement on your own, most contractors will quote for free, and make sure your insurance compensation is within the range acceptable.

Regarding the replacement shingles, I believe the Oak Ridge II series may now be referred to as Oak Ridge Pro 30, though I'm not sure of this.  Anyway, you might also want to check the GAF Timberline series and Elk's architectural shingle line. If you held the 30-yr architectual shingle from these 3 manufacturer's, I think you'd determine the Owens Corning shingle is the lightest in weight, GAF is second, and Elk is the heaviest.  That says something in itself.

Best of luck.  I'd really like to know how this turns out for you.  You could send me an update by typing in the "Ask a Question" block and check the "Private Question" block to keep it from being posted on the site.

Again, good luck!

Ron