Out of everything that can go wrong with your house–and homeowners know it seems to always be something–roof leaks are one of the worst. From the sinking feeling you get in the bottom of your stomach when you see those first few drops on the floor to frantically gathering buckets from the garage and the broom closet. After the mess is cleaned up, the obvious next step is to find someone to fix the leak; who do you call for help?
Traditionally, of course, you’d turn to your local roofer, but what if you have a solar system too? It likely won’t be so easy.
On average, a rooftop solar system creates dozens of penetrations into a home’s roof via screws and mounting hardware. That is equivalent to cutting a 6”x6” hole in the roof. Generally speaking, as soon as a hole is drilled into the roof its warranty is at risk of being voided. Though it would be ideal for solar contractors to work things out with the roofing provider before installation, it’s not always feasible or common practice. Leaks can also be tricky and not always easy to track where they’re coming from or why they are there. It’s easy for parties to start pointing fingers while you wait with room in your buckets—and patience—running out.
The residential solar market is already booming, seeing its best quarter in history in Q1 2021 with just over 5 GW of solar capacity installed, a 46% increase over the first quarter of 2020 and the largest Q1 on record. System costs have been sliced in half or more in the last decade and thousands of homeowners are putting solar on their roofs every year. Even as the industry has come so far, many are ignoring the elephant in the room. For homeowners with solar, who is responsible for leaks on the roof?
Unfortunately, there’s still a lot of gray area.
What’s worse, what if your roofing or solar contractor goes out of business? Where do you turn?
Homeowners who do the right thing by their energy bills and the environment deserve better. Thankfully, the industry as a whole is working to set standards and best practices for solar and roof warranties that makes it a streamlined process to install, maintain, and manage roofs of the future. The idea that homeowners can choose a single warranty “under one roof” where they work with one roofing company to install solar with their new roof is revolutionary in the industry and puts the customer experience first.
As the world’s largest roofing and waterproofing company, we already work with thousands of local roofing contractors around the country, so we embraced the opportunity to offer the option of adding roof-integrated solar to our customers too. Then, we warranty the entire solution from shingles to panels to keep your home leak free for 25 years. So when you get a new roof and solar installation from GAF Energy you have one number to call.
Providing a single warranty to cover all the materials on the roof provides a simple and clear solution that gives homeowners peace of mind. With the assurance, they can feel confident considering transforming their roofs into income-generating assets while benefiting the environment with solar.