Workmanship guarantee
A guarantee is only worth having if you can understand it, find it and use it. So we keep ours short and put it on paper. On completion the guarantee is in your hands, not buried in a brochure or promised by phone.
The guarantee covers our workmanship for ten years from the date the work is completed. In everyday terms, that means the way the roof was fitted: how the battens were laid, how the slates or tiles were fixed, how a flashing was dressed into a wall, how a flat roof membrane was welded or glued, and how a valley or abutment was made watertight. If the fault comes from how we did the job, we put it right.
It is a workmanship guarantee given by Skyline Swindon Roofing. It is not an insurance policy, and it does not depend on one. It stands on our word and on the paperwork you are given.
What the 10 years covers
The guarantee is about faults that come from the work itself. If a ridge tile we bedded and fixed works loose through poor fixing, that is workmanship. If a lead flashing we dressed lifts away from the brickwork because it was not secured properly, that is workmanship. If a new flat roof starts to pond at a seam we made, or a valley we formed lets water in because of how it was laid, that is workmanship too.
The same applies to the small details that decide whether a roof stays dry. Nail fixings, headlaps, the overlap of an underlay, the way a vent is cut in, the finish around a chimney stack or a roof window: these are all parts of the job that a guarantee exists to stand behind.
The written guarantee names the work it applies to, so you can see which job and which roof it relates to. A repair to one slope is guaranteed for that repair. A full replacement is guaranteed for the new roof. If you are ever unsure what a particular guarantee takes in, ring us on 01793 626096 and we will read it through with you.
What a workmanship guarantee does not do
It helps to be clear about the edges, because that is where disagreements come from. A workmanship guarantee does not turn a roof into something that never needs looking at again. Slate, tile, lead, felt and single-ply membranes all age, and every roof is shaped by weather, trees, birds, neighbouring building work and plain time.
Damage from outside causes is a different matter from a fault in the work. A fallen bough after a gale, a ladder leant against a gutter, a satellite engineer walking across fragile slates or a vehicle striking a low roof are examples. Those are accidents, and they sit with home insurance rather than with a workmanship guarantee. Please tell your own insurer about them, and keep any photographs and receipts.
Maintenance matters too. Gutters that are never cleared, moss left to build up, or a chimney that is never inspected can cause problems that are unrelated to the original fitting of a roof. Our roof maintenance checklist sets out what is worth looking at each year, and a regular look is the best way to keep any roof in good order.
The guarantee is about workmanship. A manufacturer's warranty on a material is a separate document, and a material's typical lifespan is not a promise from anyone.
How the guarantee reaches you
Once a job is completed you receive the guarantee on paper, and the job details stay on our file too. It sits alongside the written quote you accepted, which already describes the work to be done. Keep the two together with your photographs from the survey. Years later, that small folder answers most questions in a few minutes.
The survey itself helps here. Ahead of any quote, our surveyor takes pictures of your own roof, and they travel with the written quote. They show the condition we found, so there is a clear record of what the roof looked like before we touched it.
If you sell your home, a guarantee in writing is a useful thing to pass on. A buyer's solicitor may ask about work done to the roof, and a dated guarantee with the matching quote answers that neatly. Please check the wording of your own guarantee for how it deals with a change of owner, and ask us if anything is unclear.
Why we guarantee workmanship and not the weather
Where we can, we advise only the work that cures the problem in front of us. That approach fits naturally with a workmanship guarantee. A repair to a few slipped slates is guaranteed as a repair. We do not dress it up as a new roof, and we do not suggest a new roof when a repair will do.
It also keeps the promise realistic. Nobody can truthfully guarantee a roof against every storm for ten years, and we would not want you to believe they could. What we can stand behind is our own part: that the work was done with the care and skill a competent roofer should show, and that if the fault is ours we will come back and fix it.
The law expects the same standard of any trader. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 writes a term into every service contract: the trader must carry out the work with reasonable care and skill, and the Act gives remedies such as repeat performance or a price reduction. You can read the section on legislation.gov.uk. Our written guarantee sits on top of that, and it does not take any of it away.
Making a claim
If you think a fault comes from our work, let us know the moment you notice it. The phone number is 01793 626096, and WhatsApp or the enquiry form on any page works equally well. Tell us the address, roughly when the work was done, and what you have seen: a ceiling stain, a slipped tile, water at a window reveal, a gutter that overflows.
Photographs help a great deal. A picture of the ceiling stain, one of the roof seen from the ground, and a line on the weather at the time give us a good start. If water is coming in, say so straight away, because leaks and storm damage go to the front of our list, and we stop the water getting in before we do anything else.
We then arrange to look at the roof. Should the fault lie in our workmanship, we correct it under the guarantee. Should the cause turn out to be something else, such as storm damage or a blocked gutter, we tell you what we found, show you the evidence and explain your options. Either way you get a straight explanation of what happened and why.
If you are not happy with the outcome
Sometimes you and we will see the cause differently. If that happens, our complaints procedure sets out how to raise it and what happens next. We would much rather hear about a problem and settle it than have you worry about a roof for months.
For the terms that apply to quotes, payment and cancellation, see our terms and conditions. They are written to be read before you accept a quote.
Note: this page is a first plain-English draft, and a qualified legal adviser is due to review it; wording may change once that review is done.