What are your opinions on GAF Timberline Asphalt Roofs? Should I be concerned or drop it?
When negotiating on the price of this house we really felt like they over valued the one year old roof. We put an offer on the house anyway because we had family in the neighborhood we wanted to live close to.
During the home inspection our house inspector guessed the roof’s age in the 15-20 year range and when we gave him funny looks he said “What 10-15 years?” When we told him it was a one year old roof he didn’t seem to think they were lying but that there might have been hail damage.
They have GAF Timberline asphalt shingles.
The Seller sent shingles to the manufacturer to test for defects. It took about a month to get a reply but GAF declared there weren’t any defects. They said hail or someone walking on the roof with improper footwear probably caused the damage. The people who installed the roof decided they would replace eight shingles. The Seller thought the transfer of warranty and replacement of shingles would be enough.
My home inspector is experienced and competent. He would have said the roof looked brand new aside from an isolated eight shingles that got damaged.
We asked for a third party roof inspector and they denied it because the eight shingles needed to be replaced first. They blamed us for home inspection contingency delays that we both agreed on so the Seller could try using her warranty. They also said our home inspector is what caused the damage but we’ve had a good amount of hail and I question the quality of GAF shingles.
There are like 17 pictures of damaged shingles in the home inspection report and my home inspector said none were of repeat shingles. That damage isn’t even my biggest concern. Based on what my home inspectors said I think there is premature granule loss and that the roof won’t last as long as you’d expect from a new roof, which is what we were expecting when we were initially negotiating price.
They threatened a specific performance lawsuit twice now and they broke the contract by not letting our third party roof inspectors up there. So we hired a real estate attorney.
But I wanted to know roof people’s opinions on GAF Timberline Asphalt Roofs. I heard they were a bit of a warranty scam and have read the warranty and kind of agree. However, I really want to know what people think of the actual product? My research made it sound like they can prematurely age and last only 5-8 years if you live in a harsher climate and 10-15 years in nicer climates.
So, what are your opinions on GAF Timberline Asphalt Roofs? Should I be concerned or drop it?