[tsunamicontract]

I know some people offer different warranties. Just wondering who offers what and why. Some people only offer a warranty on the coat(s) they applied and if anything fails (previous coatings or substrate) they are not responsible, but to me, that seems like something that should be addressed in the prep work.
I want to start offering a warranty but I also don't want to have it be my demise. Any advice from you veterans?

 

[timhag]

tsun here is a past thread but, I'm sure there will be more replies. http://www.painttalk.com/showthread.php?t=145&highlight=warranty

 

[vermontpainter]

Its important to offer a reasonable warranty, meaning fair to the customer and to you. I would guess that alot of us consider 1-2 years to be pretty reasonable.

You definitely dont want to be held accountable for the previous three painters' material choices and workmanship. Unless you strip the house, you cannot possibly address that enough in prep to take responsibility for it.

Our warranty states as much as anything what is NOT covered by warranty. I would start there and work backwards.

 

[Brian]

I know some people offer different warranties. Just wondering who offers what and why. Some people only offer a warranty on the coat(s) they applied and if anything fails (previous coatings or substrate) they are not responsible, but to me, that seems like something that should be addressed in the prep work.
I want to start offering a warranty but I also don't want to have it be my demise. Any advice from you veterans?

Your post is interesting in that you state that the failure of previous coatings "should be addressed in the prep work." But then you imply that you aren't offering a warranty now. If not, why not? (Not trying to beat you up, I just find that interesting.)

The guy from Vermont offers good advice. Identify what isn't covered and work back. For example, we don't warranty things out of our control, like a hail storm, or the teenage son driving into the side of the garage, or a squirrel chewing through the siding.

We offer 2 years on most exterior surfaces, but only 1 year on doors and walking surfaces. If there is a problem with our work it should show up within 2 years. We only do 1 year on doors and walking surfaces because they take a lot of abuse.

Brian Phillips

 

[tsunamicontract]

Brian- you make a good point. The reason I have not yet offered a warranty is because so far I have only done jobs where there would not likely be failure or any issues or the substrate has been in such bad shape its one of those well how long can you postpone the inevitable (replacement) so there was no consideration of offering a warranty. I have now got a couple maintenance coat jobs lined up for june (just wash and re-stain) that I would feel comfortable offering a warrantee and I went with a two year labor but I have not given the HO a copy of a warrantee (hopefully going to sign contract and get down payments tomorrow).

TH- How did you find that? I tried searching and got nothing. And that one was useful, too; I was thinking I will search first before starting a new thread to see if I could answer my own question.