# IKO Roof Shingles



## I'm Howard

I have IKO Renaisscance Shingles on my home, supposed to be good for thirty years, but have since discovered people are having to replace them in as little as nine years.

Mine are the Renaisscance series, since discontinued, I assume due to all the problems.

Googling turns up many people in similar situation and it appears a less than satisfactory response from IKO.

The replacement of shingles on my home would be about $15,000,IKO's response appears to be denial, then an offer of a few hundred.

i would suggest you discuss this with your roofer if you are having shingles replaced?


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## donald

I would hire a repurable roofing company that offers 5 plus yrs of workmanship warranty,any roofing product failure would show up in the first 1 yr or 2.You as the homeowner should not be the one calling a roofing manufacture,your roofer is the one to go to bat for you,a company that wants to stay in business long-term and does alot of voulme with the supply house will easily be able to take the proper steps and have the contacts.

I would stay away from "handy-men or that buddys cousins that shingles on the side,for these exact reasons,also there are "specks" that have to be followed in order for a warranty to be coverd ieroper underlayment,proper nail placement,proper vent requirements,these are important.Each province has a shingling contractors association and the companys that are in that association are the ones you want to hire"not the fly by nighters".


When interviewing your roofer,a professional will go over all the things above,you as the home owner can ask specificly which shingle you want,There are many different lines besides iko,a professional should and would go over all this for you.


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## hystat

donald said:


> a company that wants to stay in business long-term and does alot of voulme with the supply house will easily be able to take the proper steps and have the contacts.


from what I have heard, IKO is basically telling all contractors including the biggest and best to pretty much get lost... offering a few skids of replacement shingles here and there. 

I had IKO 30 year shingles put on in 2008.... I figure they'll make a good sound barrier under a steel roof in about 2018 - 2020... I'm budgeting for that

In non-hail prone areas, they should just make steel roofing minimum code.

http://www.ikoshingleslawsuit.com/


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## donald

They cant afford to tell the large roofing contractors to go suck it,there are numurious shingle manufactors out there all competing for market share,like i was saying thats why its more important to hire the right company doing your install more than anything,If contractor xyz spends 200k a mth at a supply house,the supply house does everything they can not to lose there large accts.The contractor,the supply house and the manufacteur are all "partners".Its way to competitive,and iko or who ever can't and dont dictate,none of the big players in the roofing industry would partner up with iko,it just would not happen.

A rep,prof,roofing company will and do stand by there warranties,on a side note roofing products are and have switched over now to fiberglass based shingles,the product howard was taking about was one of the first lines of fiberglass shingles,like any business when the industry swiches over,infancy products will not be 100% tested yet,and that was the case and now that line has been discontuined.


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## donald

And most people can not afford metal roofs,they are about 30-40% more than getting your roof done with shingles,also most people do not like the commercial look of metal,limited colour selection,you need unsightly railing boards on your roof,so snow does'nt take out anybody out.


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## sprocket1200

IKO are horrible. we checked into pricing for metal and it was a lot closer than that.


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## donald

The truth of the matter is they are "all not that great".Iko,bp,certianteed ect are all billion dollar corporations,they really dont want there products to last,this is way off topic but,the main thing is hire the right roofing contractor.


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## OhGreatGuru

I truly don't understand how the industry arrrives at its "20-25-30 year "etc, warranties. How long a shingle roof will last is dependent on so many environmental variables. (eg.slope; direction of sun/wind exposure; attic ventilation; shape of the roof; local climate, etc.)

A few decades ago asphalt shingles were classed by weight (a 210lb. shingle was 210lb/Square, with 1 Square = 100 sq.ft.) I think 185lb. was the cheapest, 210lb. was a medium upgrade, and 235lb. was considered premium. Corresponding warranties were something like 10, 15, & 20 years.

The shingle industry successfully argued that the "weight" classification was an arbitrary measure that stood in the way of making shingles with better materials. They started making shingles thinner, substituting fibreglass for the traditional cellulose fibre, and offering longer warranties, even though the product was lighter & thinner. IMHO, since the durability of the shingle has a lot to do with it's thickness, I don't know how they manage this. I suspect it is because their "manufacturer's warranty" is not worth very much after the first few years.

a) The warranty is only good for the original owner. At the rate Canadians change houses, how many customers occupy a house for the length of the warranty? (it's like "life-time" muffler warranties)

b) It is only warranted against manufacturing defects. Since so many environmental conditons affect shingle life how do you prove a shingle was defective?

c) It only covers material costs, not labour (again like muffler warranties)

d) I'm not sure, but I suspect the Warranties are pro-rated, so your "coverge" diminishes with time like a tread-wear warranty on tires.

I don't know if you can pick out IKO as the only offender. BP, Certainteed, etc. are all making similar products at the same prices. It's an industry wide problem.

The industry is making thicker shingles now with 30+ year warranties. The extra cost is usually small compared to the labour of installation. So the usual advice is to buy the most premium shingle you can afford, or change to different roof product. But don't expect any shingle you buy to last for the period of the nominal warrany unless it happens to be situated in ideal conditions.


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## Cal

OhGreatGuru said:


> I truly don't understand how the industry arrrives at its "20-25-30 year "etc, warranties. How long a shingle roof will last is dependent on so many environmental variables. (eg.slope; direction of sun/wind exposure; attic ventilation; shape of the roof; local climate, etc.)
> 
> A few decades ago asphalt shingles were classed by weight (a 210lb. shingle was 210lb/Square, with 1 Square = 100 sq.ft.) I think 185lb. was the cheapest, 215lb. was a medium upgrade, and 235lb. was considered premium. Corresponding warranties were something like 10, 15, & 20 years.
> ..... QUOTE]
> 
> 
> The last guy that did my roof told me that black shingles don't last as long as stated b/c the color black drew more heat from the sun, which caused them to break down faster. Now I don't expect that it would cause 30 yr shingles to break down in 9 years. But where else can I share that information. I ended up getting light brown shingles.


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## hystat

donald said:


> They cant afford to tell the large roofing contractors to go suck it,


sure they can.... as long as the competition has the same attitude towards warranty, which they do.

I guess you didn't follow the link..... those aren't all homeowners filing those class action suits
A good portion of the litigants are roofing companies.


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## donald

While,you can upon inspection determine defects,ie premature cracking,birds mouthing(when the shingle doesnt lay flat ect.)Its def pro rated,but if you did have product faliure you would get covered for the labour and the material if you went through a roofing co,the roofing co would get paid from iko direct for the labour and be reinbursed for the material,so long as it was proven it had nothing to do with a bad install.

Canada is prob the worst climate for a roof life,because of the four seasons,Alot of people do get the advantage of having a roof sometime in there life get coverd by house insurance for hail damage(the odds are good you will get a good hail storm in a decade)

Its like anything,everything is built just good enough,iko ect dont want there products to last to long otherwise they wouldnt be able to keep the cycle of selling there products,and thats not just iko thats all of them.


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## donald

I dont agree with you hystat,just hear me out: If you hired a prof roofing co and there was product failure why wouldnt you get coverd? thats like saying,you go and buy a flat screen say from best buy and its a sony,if you went back to best buy they would step up to the plate and give you a new flat screen(defect)do you think sony would tell best buy to go suck it?best buy would say kiss my *** and deal with the others.

Iko business relys on roofing co using there product,and iko knows its not joe homeowner who drives there products its the contractors that do,i understand what your saying about the law suits ect and those are legit cliams,but because there are so many different shingle makers no company(iko) could bully a industry like that.


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## Berubeland

What a timely thread! This year I had 4 roof failures. living room, my son's room, dining room and just last week I came home to find my bed soaked because of a roof leak. 

The roof was installed 8-9 years ago. I got a great deal on IKO shingles because they were being discontinued and I believe they were renaissance kind. Now the installer was a roofer friend of mine and I did get a deal. Still ridiculous that it would leak so early. I was suspecting the problem was that instead of taking all the planks off my house and replacing them with plywood I left them up. I figured if the planks were good for the 50 years before that they would continue to be good. 

So nice to hear that there is a problem with these shingles...it answers a lot of questions. From what I could see the shingles seem to have shrunk in width a little bit, leaving a gap which can leak. Needless to say, this is not supposed to happen.


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## hystat

donald said:


> I dont agree with you hystat,just hear me out: If you hired a prof roofing co and there was product failure why wouldnt you get coverd? thats like saying,you go and buy a flat screen say from best buy and its a sony,


Best Buy knows better than to propose that anything they sell will last 30 years...or even 2 years
If you want any real warranty, they sell it to you. 

Retail also doesn't often deal exclusively in products that a retailer only buys once per decade. 

I don't understand the shingle companies lack of support, but it is reality. The roofing companies don't offer the warranty the way the retailer you refer to does. They warranty their labour, which is why IKO and others always say "these shingles weren't installed correctly". But no one warranties labour for decades. 

There's no bestbuytvlawsuit.com, but there is a ikoshinglelawsuit.com, and the lack of support from IKO is well documented all over the internet, television and print media. They aren't supporting the consumer, and they aren't backing the installers.


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## donald

It does look like they did correct things,if you click on the link you posted and than click on the-shingle list update- you will notice they have discontunied all organic shingles,now that does not mean squat for the unfortunate people that unwillingly put those shingles on but they obviously had to take steps and im sure they lost unseen amts of money from those cliams.My point was more that if you hire a reputable roofing co that has ethics and standards and you paid them 12k to do your roof and after a yr it failed i think most roofing co owners would step up to the plate and redo,if you hired right from the start...the bestbuy anology was prob not a good one.

Most people hire the cheapest guy in the half-ton,that doesnt have workers comp,and his quote was on a napkin,instead of the actual real roofing companies.


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## OhGreatGuru

donald said:


> It does look like they did correct things,if you click on the link you posted and than click on the-shingle list update- you will notice they have discontunied all organic shingles,...


It took me a few minutes to verify what an "organic" shingle is. It's old-technology shingle construction, in which cellulose fibre is embedded in asphalt. This is being replaced by fibreglass, which has better fire performance, can achieve same strength with a thinner shingle; and the fibreglass is not subject to weakening by moisture. 

But the use of "organic" shingles per se was not the problem in reduced durability - it was reducing the amount of ashphalt. Older organic shingles seem to have lasted longer than their lighter replacements.

Similarly fibreglass may be a superior replacement for cellulose fibre, but if you simultaneously reduce the thickness of the shingle too much you are losing durability.

PS: according to this web site, the weight of a standard composition shingle before 1973 was 240 lbs./square, now it is down to 190 lbs/square.
http://www.usinspect.com/resources-...c-components-and-systems-home/roofs/materials


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