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Roofing Shingles Discontinued or Mismatched: What do you do?

If your roof has been damaged by a storm and a portion needs to be replaced, you will want the new roofing section to match the old one. What happens when your contractor tells you that even though the same type and color are available, but they will not match “exactly”? Or perhaps the color or style is discontinued? There are two sides to this answer. For Roof Damage alone, the first step is insurance claims and the second is aesthetics.

First, the real question here is should you file an insurance claim or pay out of pocket so your rate doesn’t go up and secondly, if you do file a claim, do they owe for the entire roof?

Some contractors want to promise a homeowner a new roof because of “mismatch” or discontinuation, thinking all insurance policies will cover a complete roof, but most times it is out of the contractors hands of what your insurance will and will not approve or deny. It is solely up to the insurance and your contractor just assists your insurance with your needs, not the other way around.

It depends. In the case of discontinuation, many policies will cover complete replacement. In the case of “Mismatch” it becomes a grey area. Most policies will cover slope and or line of sight. Meaning if enough damage is sustained to warrant slope replacement they may also include adjacent slopes based on line of sight.

Know Your Insurance Policy

This really depends on your insurance policy. Generally, the more expensive the policy, the more likely it is to cover a new roof if your roof has been significantly damaged and your shingles are discontinued or can’t be “matched”.

However, the policy may be written in such a way that it doesn’t cover the job as you expect, and you could end up paying a substantial amount above and beyond your policy coverage or pay out of pocket completely if the policy states the insurance company will not cover anything.

Most policies only pay to repair damaged shingles up to a threshold of 10% or so and then move to slope replacement. Once slope replacement is involved then other factors such as line of sight and slope overlay come into play. It really all depends on the carrier.

If you have a “replacement cost” policy you generally have the best coverage, however “match” and “discontinuation” may still become an issue.

Can You Make a Claim for Discontinued Roofing Shingles?

You cannot specifically make a “claim” for discontinued roofing shingles in the event of a loss. However, depending on the extent of damage you may well have the coverage for replacement. Sometimes it really comes down to how the contractor justifies the scope and costs.

A good contractor, who is doing the best job for you, will not try to pressure you to argue a claim about non-matching shingles, however discontinued shingles may well be a different scenario. You shouldn’t make a call unless you have gotten some opinions from different roofing companies and they all say the same thing: “these shingles are no longer available” such as Atlas Chalet and therefore we cannot perform a satisfactory repair.

If the roof damage repairs are minor, Future Roof and Restoration will do its best to provide samples that match as much as possible. However, even the same shingles may not match the ones on your roof that have been weathered for years.

Ask your roofing contractor to hold up samples next to your existing roof and use his expertise to choose something you can live with.