Certainteed shingle lawsuit

[Jeff Monson]

Are there any fellow creekers that have some experience with Certainteed's organic shingle lawsuit? I have the Horizon shingles on my house, they are starting to curl and crack. I was informed by an insurance agent that there is a class action lawsuit against Certainteed. I recieved a "claim packet" in the mail last week, its a lot of hoops to jump through....so it got me to wondering if it's worth pursuing. The Horizon shingle carries a 25 year warranty and my home is 13 years old. Just looking for some advice on what to expect, or if I'm wasting my time with this.

[glenn bradley]

I guess that depends on whether they honor the warranty or not. I'll assume there has been some reluctance as the bottom feeders have organized. What did they say when you told them their product was failing before the warranty period was up?

[Matt Meiser]

My shop had them and I had to have them replaced last year. I can't remember if that's the exact shingle but I had a few extra bundles so I knew what was on there and they were part of the lawsuit. My favorite requirement was the one that showed your address sign and the bad roof in the same photo. Impossible with my shop since its behind the house. My roofer said he'd never seen them honor the the class action--it was always installation error, improper submittal, etc. Plus the cost of submitting a claim was pretty high due to the strict sample removal requirements and shipping requirements. And I think you had to leave the roof in place until your claim was handled so that meant removing some according to the requirements and temporarily patching.

Instead, I'll just never allow another Certainteed product to be used on my house.

[Jeff Monson]

My roofer said he'd never seen them honor the the class action--it was always installation error, improper submittal, etc.

Thats what I was afraid of Matt. Yes they have some ridiculous guidlines, the "address sign and bad roof in the same photo" got a chuckle out of me also. I will safely assume it will take me a couple hours to take photos, measurements, removal of bad shingle, shipping and filling out 8 pages of questions. I'm going to do it....but I think it will be a waste of time.

I'll agree on your last statement 100%

[Chuck Wintle]

My shop had them and I had to have them replaced last year. I can't remember if that's the exact shingle but I had a few extra bundles so I knew what was on there and they were part of the lawsuit. My favorite requirement was the one that showed your address sign and the bad roof in the same photo. Impossible with my shop since its behind the house. My roofer said he'd never seen them honor the the class action--it was always installation error, improper submittal, etc. Plus the cost of submitting a claim was pretty high due to the strict sample removal requirements and shipping requirements. And I think you had to leave the roof in place until your claim was handled so that meant removing some according to the requirements and temporarily patching.

Instead, I'll just never allow another Certainteed product to be used on my house.
it sounds so typical of large companies who hedge on honoring warranties...put in enough hoops to jump through and miles of paperwork....it's sure to discourage anyone from trying. Instead i like the idea of never buying the product again. it's cheaper for them this way than to own up to a faulty product....the accountants surely have run the numbers.

[Chuck Wintle]

Are there any fellow creekers that have some experience with Certainteed's organic shingle lawsuit? I have the Horizon shingles on my house, they are starting to curl and crack. I was informed by an insurance agent that there is a class action lawsuit against Certainteed. I recieved a "claim packet" in the mail last week, its a lot of hoops to jump through....so it got me to wondering if it's worth pursuing. The Horizon shingle carries a 25 year warranty and my home is 13 years old. Just looking for some advice on what to expect, or if I'm wasting my time with this.
was there ever a reason given for the premature failure? making shingles is not complicated...

[Jeff Monson]

was there ever a reason given for the premature failure? making shingles is not complicated...

Chuck, I'm guessing there is a word in "certainteed organic shingles" that sums up the origin of the problem.

[Matt Meiser]

Probably 2 words. And I'm pretty sure "shingles" isn't one of them.

We replaced it with Owens Corning Duration shingles which look great. 2 of the 3 companies I had quote the job did OC exclusively. Of course OC's headquarters are 15 miles from me so that might influence the number used locally.

[David Larsen]

The class action suit is one part of a process. The other part is just submitting a warranty claim.

Download the warranty claim paperwork online. It is pretty straight forward. You take 2 bad shingles and replace them. (there is a stipulation in the warranty that they will pay you up to $50 to reimburse you for having a contractor do this for you. Just include a copy of the invoice along with your claim.) If it is only a couple of squares then I wouldn't bother, because they will depreciate the life of the shingle, but you can usually get a few hundred dollars back on a roof. That is worth the effort of submitting the warranty. And...above that, it keeps Certainteed accountable even if they don't give you a lot back. You will need to submit copies of original invoices from the original shingle job. Take some photos of the house. (I haven't seen where the warranty paperwork requires the photo of the house number. That may be on the class action paperwork) Mail in the required items and that is all there is to it. I have done it before and helped others do it. It has been worth my time even though it doesn't amount a lot of money after they depreciate it.

I think the last one I remember worked out to be about $15 reimbursement per square after they depreciated it out. So if you have 25 sq. on your roof you could possibly get back $375 plus $50 to replace the two shingles that need to be sent in. Don't hold me to that number because I don't know their depreciation formula, but it gives you an idea of similar claims I have seen submitted. Anyway you might be able to get at least a couple hundred back.

There were a lot of bad shingles that went out by Certainteed around 1996. That is causing the problems. I have been told that they were attempting to formulate a new shingle to meet government requests for elimination of asphalt based material dependency and the resulting products failed miserably.

[David G Baker]

I will not buy Certainteed products due to them not honoring their warranty. My roof was less than 2 years old before it started falling off of my building. The sticky tabs were failing. I sent them a sample of the failures along with 12 photos of the shingles. Their answer was installers failure. Over a period of three months approximately 30 shingles fell. The roof was very steep but that didn't cause the sticky tabs to fail.

[Jeff Monson]

The class action suit is one part of a process. The other part is just submitting a warranty claim.

Download the warranty claim paperwork online. It is pretty straight forward. You take 2 bad shingles and replace them. (there is a stipulation in the warranty that they will pay you up to $50 to reimburse you for having a contractor do this for you. Just include a copy of the invoice along with your claim.) If it is only a couple of squares then I wouldn't bother, because they will depreciate the life of the shingle, but you can usually get a few hundred dollars back on a roof. That is worth the effort of submitting the warranty. And...above that, it keeps Certainteed accountable even if they don't give you a lot back. You will need to submit copies of original invoices from the original shingle job. Take some photos of the house. (I haven't seen where the warranty paperwork requires the photo of the house number. That may be on the class action paperwork) Mail in the required items and that is all there is to it. I have done it before and helped others do it. It has been worth my time even though it doesn't amount a lot of money after they depreciate it.

I think the last one I remember worked out to be about $15 reimbursement per square after they depreciated it out. So if you have 25 sq. on your roof you could possibly get back $375 plus $50 to replace the two shingles that need to be sent in. Don't hold me to that number because I don't know their depreciation formula, but it gives you an idea of similar claims I have seen submitted. Anyway you might be able to get at least a couple hundred back.

There were a lot of bad shingles that went out by Certainteed around 1996. That is causing the problems. I have been told that they were attempting to formulate a new shingle to meet government requests for elimination of asphalt based material dependency and the resulting products failed miserably.

Thanks David, that is helpful information. I measured the roof at lunch today and I have 38 squares for the total roof, I'd say about 10 square is curled, and the rest is very spider cracked. I do not have the original invoice for the shingles, the home was built in 1997 by a friend, we purchased it from him 4 years ago. He does not have the original shingle invoice either, but we have 2 unused bundles of the original Horizon shingles.

[David Larsen]

I will not buy Certainteed products due to them not honoring their warranty. My roof was less than 2 years old before it started falling off of my building. The sticky tabs were failing. I sent them a sample of the failures along with 12 photos of the shingles. Their answer was installers failure. Over a period of three months approximately 30 shingles fell. The roof was very steep but that didn't cause the sticky tabs to fail.

The only times I have seen shingles come off a roof were because of wind or installer failure. Not to say that it couldn't happen, but the problems Certainteed has had with their shingles has been longevity.

[Larry Frank]

I had the Certainteed shingles and mine started curling and deteriorating within a few years. It was a little strange as there were patches on the roof that were bad and then good areas. It was like that some of the bundles were good and some were bad. Of course, I had not saved a wrapper and the claim process was very difficult. I was in the class action lawsuit but have not followed through as it was too much of a pain with too little payback.

[David G Baker]

David L.
The whole shingle did not come off but the upper decorator portion that was held on by the glue tabs and not stapled or nailed that fell.

[David Larsen]

@ David Baker. How can they call that installation error?

[Neal Clayton]

Probably 2 words. And I'm pretty sure "shingles" isn't one of them.



every time i go to the paint store i ask jokingly where they keep the lead white and washed linseed oil. they have the oil, but never seem to have the lead white :(

i assume that any product containing a marketing term like "organic" should be avoided.

[David G Baker]

David L.
That was my opinion but unless I wanted to go through the expense of hiring an attorney they can say what they want. I ended up getting compensated for the shingles, I had a new roof put on my house and as a condition of giving the contractor the job I made him remove and install new shingles on the building with the problem. Around one year later a couple more shingles separated and fell off, I called the installer and had them come out and replace the damaged shingles. This was a couple of years ago and so far no more have fallen off. The separation happens in early Spring when the Sun heats up the roof/shingles after a long cold Winter.

[David Larsen]

So, Certainteed compensated you for the shingles, but still maintains that it was installation error? Hummmmm!!!!!!!!

If I owned a shingle company and someone installed my product incorrectly, I wouldn't compensate you for the materials!

Have you ran across anyone else that had this problem?

[David G Baker]

Certainteed didn't compensate me for the shingles, I blackmailed the contractor to get the shingles replaced. No replacement, no contract. I am sure that the contractor hid the cost of the replacement somewhere in the cost of the job but I felt better about the roof being fixed. I have not had contact with anyone that had the same problem. The rake of the roof was very steep, almost vertical. Most buildings that have the rake similar to mine use metal sheet roofing. The roof style was Gabriel, the problem was on the steep sides. The top where the rake was minimal the shingles were fine.

[David Larsen]

Gambrel . . . .

[Jeff Monson]

Thought I'd post a follow up on this, I made my claim the day I started this thread. Well less than a month later I got a check from Certainteed, $627.72. Its more than I really expected....but its only a drop in the bucket compared to what it will cost to get my roof redone. For anyone with these defective shingles, its worth the time. Had I been the original owner of the house, it would have been double of what I received.

[Larry Edgerton]

Every Certainteed shingle I see from 10 years or so old is bad, even the over $200.00 a square shingles. They always say it is installer error, from some office in "wherever". As an installer, why, I kind of have a problem with that.

I refuse to install Certainteed products. If the customer insists, they can get someone else.

As a side note, I am building a new house and I never want to go up on the roof again in this lifetime. I did a lot of research, and the shingle I used was GAF Timberline lifetime. Seems to have the fewest claims of anything out there. Problem is, things can change, and claims are a indicator of the past, not the present. Got my fingers crossed because I have been in the business long enough to know the warranty is not worth the paper it is written on. If you are going to have any luck at all getting your supplier involved in the only way I have ever been able to get any satisfaction at all, and thats not a certainty. No pun intended.....

Larry