Roofing

Warranties
What Should You Be Looking For in
Product Guarantees?
Phil Smith, Managing Director UK & Ireland, Kingspan Insulated Panels
On the face of it, one manufacturer’s guarantee often looks similar to another’s.
But dig a little deeper, and there are enormous differences in what they are
worth and how much protection they offer; differences that can have a marked
impact on an installer’s reputation, customer relationships and bottom line.
What does it cover?
Words like ‘complete’ and ‘comprehensive’ are open to interpretation, and may
lull installers into a false sense of security. To begin with, you should ensure
that the guarantee covers the most important aspects of the product’s
performance. All too often, even those labelled as ‘comprehensive’ only cover
certain aesthetic aspects, such as coatings.
It is important to guard against coating degradation, especially as it can be
such an obviously visible failure. But there are other aspects of the building
envelope’s performance that are far more critical to the building, and that are
becoming more ‘visible’ as expectations, technology and behaviours change;
aspects like thermal performance. For example, the energy performance of
buildings has been pushed further up the agenda by the latest agreements
from COP21, regular audits under the Energy Saving Opportunities Scheme
(ESOS) and the implications of the 2018 Energy Act. This means that end
clients – building owners and occupiers – are under greater scrutiny than ever
before, and will in turn scrutinise the performance of their building portfolios
far more deeply. Energy efficiency increasingly informs the commercial
decisions made during new building projects.
With that in mind, it makes sense to choose products that guarantee thermal
performance. Over time, it will become more common for this metric to be
assessed regularly throughout a building’s life – as part of regular energy
reviews required for compliance. The best guarantees will specify a certain U-
value range to be achieved by the system for its useable life, which will be
verified by this ongoing performance scrutiny.
How robust is it?
There are other factors that determine the level of protection a guarantee offers
to installers and building owners. Perhaps the most obvious is term length.
Some manufacturers have begun offering ultra-long-term guarantees to match
typical building lifespans. These can be a very attractive proposition, but if the
supplier isn’t an established one, the guarantee may not be as
valuable as it seems. Many guarantees are only supported
while the original manufacturer remains solvent, and as term
lengths get longer, so the risk increases of the original
supplier no longer existing when it comes time to claim. While
there is no hard and fast rule for assessing a company’s ability
to fulfil a long-term commitment, the reputation, size and age
of the company will all provide useful markers.
It’s also important to dig deep into the terms and conditions
of a guarantee to understand where responsibilities and
liabilities begin and end. As performance requirements
become more stringent, installations of multi-component
systems become more complex. This introduces plenty of
potential pitfalls for installers to unintentionally compromise
the ‘optimal’ performance of products.
These issues occur most often in multi-component, built-up
systems, often at junctions that mark the boundary of different
contractor or manufacturer responsibility, leading to grey areas
and making claiming on any guarantees difficult. This, in turn,
can potentially lead to disputes, legal action or voided
guarantees. Single component systems covered by a guarantee
from one manufacturer may make any claims less of a problem.
Finally, it is also critical to understand the servicing and
maintenance burden that accompanies a given guarantee.
Most will be issued based on a commitment to undertake a
certain level of maintenance. Failure to comply with this
agreed level can void the agreement, so it is important to
know exactly what is demanded alongside each product
guarantee, and understand how these demands fit in with the
building end user’s own expectations for property
maintenance.
How to gain commercial advantage
It is in the interests of installers to understand the broad range
of guarantees available on the market to protect their
businesses, but there are also commercial opportunities to be
found in product guarantees.
Where they cover ever more complex performance, contractor
competence becomes critical in ensuring that the product is
properly installed. Over time, some manufacturers may begin
to offer their best guarantees only through fully certified and
trained installers. This will give a competitive edge to those
companies with robust skills development programmes, and a
willingness to engage with suppliers on product training and
even technical installation advice where required.
In an increasingly demanding sector, and with client
awareness at an all-time high, the guarantees an installer can
offer could prove the crucial point of difference when selecting
a contractor. The fact is, while differences exist in guarantees,
opportunities exist for those installers willing to understand
the market and their customers’ demands.
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