Workmanship Warranty vs. Manufacturer Warranty

The callback starts friendly.

"The roof is leaking again. You said it had a warranty."

Then you open the file and realize the word "warranty" is doing four different jobs. The shingle manufacturer has a product warranty. Your crew gave the homeowner a one-year workmanship promise. The skylight was customer-supplied. The repair was a change order after hidden rot was found. The leak report arrived fifteen months after final sign-off, after another company installed holiday light clips through the flashing.

That is not one warranty question. It is five paperwork questions.

Small contractors do not need a warranty that sounds big. They need a warranty that says exactly what is covered, for how long, when the clock starts, what the customer must do, what is excluded, and whether the manufacturer's warranty is separate from the contractor's workmanship promise.

The place to write that is not a text message after the complaint. Put the warranty shape in the quote estimate, carry it into the contract agreement, adjust it with any change order, confirm the start date with a completion certificate, and hand over a clean warranty document at closeout.

Start with the warranty you actually mean

Most warranty fights come from using one word for different promises.

Those should not be blended into one sentence that says, "All work guaranteed."

A better structure is:

Contractor provides a limited workmanship warranty for the installation labor described in this agreement. Manufacturer warranties on products, materials, equipment, fixtures, and components are separate and are passed through to the customer to the extent available from the manufacturer. Contractor will provide reasonable claim documentation listed in this warranty but does not guarantee manufacturer approval unless expressly stated in writing.

That does not solve every state-law issue. It does solve the first practical problem: the customer can see the difference between the thing you installed and the way you installed it.

If the warranty is tied to construction closeout, use a dedicated construction warranty or trade-specific version such as a roofing warranty. If the job is more general service work, a service report should record the part, serial number, diagnosis, and same-failure limits before anyone argues about coverage.

Federal warranty rules matter when products are involved

The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act is not a general "all contractor work" statute. The FTC's Businessperson's Guide to Federal Warranty Law says the Act does not require a business to provide a written warranty, covers written warranties rather than oral warranties, and applies to consumer products rather than services alone. The FTC also notes an important contractor trap: service-only warranties are outside the Act, but if a written warranty covers both repair parts and the workmanship used to make that repair, the Act can apply to that written warranty.

That matters for trades that sell or install consumer products: HVAC equipment, water heaters, appliances, pool pumps, solar components, windows, doors, garage door openers, fixtures, roofing materials, and other tangible items that may be attached to real property.

If the job is purely commercial, purely service-only, or outside the consumer-product rules, Magnuson-Moss may not be the controlling problem. You still have state warranty law, UCC goods issues, licensing rules, contract promises, and whatever your own paperwork says.

Do not turn that into panic. Turn it into cleaner paperwork.

Under 15 U.S.C. Section 2303 and 16 CFR Section 700.6, written warranties on covered consumer products that actually cost the consumer more than $10, excluding tax, must be designated "full" or "limited" when the rule applies. The word "full" has a legal meaning. It is not a marketing adjective.

When your written warranty is in that covered consumer-product zone, the safer default is usually a plainly labeled limited warranty, reviewed for the state and trade involved:

Limited Workmanship Warranty

Then define the actual limits. Do not call a warranty "full" because you stand behind your work or because it sounds better on the sales page. For service-only workmanship promises, the federal title rule may not be the issue, but the same plain-language habit still helps.

The FTC disclosure rule at 16 CFR Section 701.3 is also useful as a writing checklist. For covered consumer-product warranties on products that actually cost the consumer more than $15, it requires simple-language disclosures about who gets the warranty, what is covered and excluded, what the warrantor will do, when the warranty starts and how long it lasts, and the procedure the consumer follows to get warranty performance. Even when your job is mostly services and the federal consumer-product rule is not the whole answer, that list is exactly how a good contractor warranty should read.

Do not forget implied warranties

A written warranty is not the only warranty risk in the file.

The Uniform Commercial Code, as adopted and modified by state law, addresses implied warranties for goods. UCC Section 2-314 covers implied warranty of merchantability when a seller is a merchant with respect to goods of that kind. UCC Section 2-315 covers fitness for a particular purpose when the seller has reason to know the buyer's purpose and the buyer relies on the seller's skill or judgment.

That shows up in ordinary trade work.

If a customer asks you which pump can handle a certain pool volume and you recommend one, the product recommendation is part of the record. If an appliance repair shop supplies a control board, the goods piece is not the same as the diagnostic labor. If a contractor sells a window package, the product warranty, installation warranty, and implied-goods issues may overlap.

The operating rule is simple: do not try to "disclaim everything" with a throwaway line. State your express warranty clearly, separate product from labor, and get state-specific help before limiting implied warranties, consequential damages, or transfer rights. Some states restrict those limits. Federal law can also block implied-warranty disclaimers when you give a written warranty on a covered consumer product; 15 U.S.C. Section 2308 is the federal rule to check before you copy a broad disclaimer. Consumer contracts are not the place for copied language from a commercial subcontract.

State warranty floors can override your favorite duration

You may want to offer one year. The state may say something else.

Minnesota is a good example. Minnesota Statutes Chapter 327A sets statutory warranties for new dwellings and certain home-improvement work. Depending on the covered work, it includes one-year coverage for faulty workmanship or defective materials due to noncompliance with building standards, two-year coverage for faulty installation of plumbing, electrical, heating, or cooling systems due to noncompliance with building standards, and ten-year coverage for major construction defects in new dwellings or covered major structural home-improvement work.

That does not mean Minnesota's rules apply to your job in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Texas, or Ohio. It means you should stop treating "one year" as a universal answer. The state, the trade, the product, and the type of property can all change the floor.

Georgia gives another useful example. Georgia Rule 553-7-.01 requires a licensed residential contractor on covered one- or two-family residence contracts over $2,500 to offer a written warranty and says the warranty should address covered work, exclusions, evaluation standards, term start, claim procedures, response options, and assignable manufacturer warranties. It also points to the NAHB Residential Construction Performance Guidelines as the performance standard for evaluating covered work.

NAHB says the sixth edition of its Residential Construction Performance Guidelines is a widely used reference for how homes should perform during the warranty period. That makes it useful as an evaluation tool, especially for remodelers and residential builders. It does not replace your state law, your contract, your plans, your manufacturer's instructions, or the building code. It gives both sides a better yardstick than "looks wrong to me."

Pick the term by risk, not by ego

Longer is not automatically better. Shorter is not automatically safer.

Use this decision table before you write the warranty line:

The warranty term should match the part of the job you control and any minimum rule you cannot contract around.

For a faucet replacement, the manufacturer's cartridge warranty is not your promise to provide free labor forever. For a roof leak caused by bad flashing, the shingle warranty is not a defense to bad installation. For a customer-supplied tile that crazes or stains, your labor warranty should not quietly become a product warranty on materials you did not buy.

Write those boundaries before the work begins.

The warranty start date is a contract decision

"One year" from when?

Possible start dates include:

• contract signing;
• deposit date;
• first day on site;
• substantial completion;
• final inspection approval;
• customer sign-off;
• invoice date;
• product registration date;
• equipment startup date;
• punch-list completion.

Those are not interchangeable.

For most field-service and small construction jobs, the cleanest start date is usually tied to substantial completion, customer sign-off, beneficial use, or the date the covered system is placed into service, as long as that matches your state and contract. If the customer delays the final signature but starts using the equipment, you do not want the warranty clock waiting in the dark.

Tie the date to a document. A completion certificate signoff, construction inspection report, startup sheet, final daily report log, or signed service report gives you a real date later.

This connects to schedule language too. If your contract says substantial completion controls warranty start, read it alongside Time Is of the Essence vs. Reasonable Time. Schedule dates, completion dates, warranty dates, liquidated damages, and final payment dates often get tangled because nobody defined the milestone.

A plain start-date line helps:

The workmanship warranty begins when the covered scope is substantially complete and available for the customer's intended use, or when the customer first uses that covered work, whichever occurs first, unless a different start date is required by applicable law or stated in a signed warranty or change order. Punch-list items that do not prevent intended use do not extend the start date unless the parties agree in writing.

Have counsel tune that for your state and trade. The drafting move is what matters: pick the trigger and write it down.

Manufacturer pass-through is not the same as your warranty

Manufacturer warranties are useful, but they are not magic.

A manufacturer may require product registration, proof of purchase, serial numbers, model numbers, installation by a licensed contractor, maintenance records, startup forms, approved accessories, or claim submission through an authorized channel. Some warranties cover parts but not labor. Some are transferable only if the paperwork is done. Some have different periods for different components.

If you do not capture that at closeout, you may become the customer's paperwork department for free.

Use the closeout packet to record:

• manufacturer name;
• product model and serial number;
• product purchase date;
• installation date;
• startup or commissioning date;
• registration status;
• link or copy of manufacturer's written warranty;
• maintenance duties;
• who files claims;
• whether your labor to diagnose, remove, reinstall, ship, or replace a failed product is covered;
• whether trip charges apply after the workmanship period.

The FTC's pre-sale availability rule at 16 CFR Section 702.3 is written for consumer-product warranty availability, but it contains a practical lesson for contractors: warranty terms should be available before the customer is locked into the purchase. If the product warranty has major limits, do not wait until final payment to hand it over.

A manufacturer pass-through clause can be blunt:

Product and material warranties are provided by the applicable manufacturers and are assigned or passed through to the customer to the extent permitted by those manufacturers. Contractor will provide available product information, serial numbers, purchase documentation, and installation records in its possession. Unless stated otherwise in this warranty, manufacturer warranty claims do not include Contractor labor, diagnostic time, removal, reinstallation, shipping, access work, finish repair, temporary equipment, or trip charges after the workmanship warranty expires.

That clause is not unfriendly. It prevents the customer from believing a 25-year product warranty means 25 years of free labor from a two-truck shop.

Write exclusions like real job conditions

Bad exclusions read like copied legal filler. Good exclusions sound like the actual ways jobs fail.

For small contractors, useful exclusions often include:

Do not use exclusions to dodge work you caused. Use them to separate your work from conditions you did not control.

That boundary should connect to the original scope. If the site assessment found existing rot, out-of-level framing, poor drainage, unsafe wiring, or a substrate problem, attach that record to the site assessment checklist and contract. If the customer declined the repair, put it in the scope exclusions. Hidden Conditions and Scope Gaps is the companion workflow: document the condition before the warranty turns into a blame fight.

Change orders can change warranties

A change order should not only change price.

It may also change:

• what work is covered;
• what materials are warranted;
• whether old work remains excluded;
• whether the completion date moves;
• whether the warranty start date moves;
• whether manufacturer registration changes;
• whether a different standard applies;
• whether additional access or maintenance duties apply.

Example: you quote a tile floor over a prepared substrate. During demo, you find deflection and water damage. The customer declines the structural correction and asks you to proceed with a patch. If your change order changes only price, you may have left the warranty exposed. The file should say whether cracked grout, loose tile, movement, waterproofing failure, or substrate movement is excluded because the recommended correction was declined.

Use Change Orders: Get the Signature Before You Pick Up the Tool for the signature habit, then add warranty impact as one of the fields you always check.

A useful change-order warranty line:

Warranty impact: This change order adds replacement of the visible damaged sheathing only. Existing framing movement, concealed moisture damage, owner-declined structural correction, and finish cracking caused by those existing conditions are excluded from the workmanship warranty.

That sentence can save a year of arguments.

Claims need a procedure, not a mood

When a warranty claim arrives, the first answer should not be yes, no, or "send pictures."

It should be the claim procedure you already wrote.

At minimum, the warranty should tell the customer:

1. How to report the issue.
2. What information to include.
3. How quickly they must report it after discovery.
4. Whether emergency mitigation is allowed.
5. Whether they must preserve the condition for inspection.
6. When you will inspect or respond.
7. What remedies you may choose: repair, replacement, refund, credit, manufacturer claim assistance, or no-charge return visit.
8. What is not covered: damage from delay, unrelated work, third-party work, or unauthorized repairs.

Do not write a response deadline you cannot meet. If you are a three-person operation, "all claims inspected within 24 hours" may be a promise you break during busy season. "Emergency water intrusion should be reported immediately; non-emergency claims will be reviewed within three business days" may be more realistic.

Use a service report, HVAC service report, plumbing service report, or pool service report to document the claim visit. The report should state the complaint, date, photos, conditions observed, maintenance condition, suspected cause, action taken, parts used, whether the visit was accepted as warranty work, and whether follow-up is billable.

If the claim is disputed, keep the tone factual. Warranty fights get expensive when the file is emotional and thin.

What to hand the customer at closeout

The warranty handoff should be boring and complete.

For most jobs, include:

• signed contract and approved scope;
• final approved change orders;
• completion certificate or final sign-off;
• warranty document;
• product warranty copies or links;
• model and serial numbers;
• manufacturer registration proof or instructions;
• inspection, startup, or commissioning records;
• maintenance requirements;
• claim contact and procedure;
• photos of completed work;
• open punch-list items and whether they affect warranty start;
• exclusions tied to known site conditions.

That packet helps the customer. It also helps you. A clean packet makes the callback conversation specific:

"This is covered under our workmanship warranty."

"This appears to be a manufacturer parts claim; here are the documents."

"This is excluded because the customer declined the drainage correction in Change Order 003."

"This is outside the term, but we can quote a service visit."

That is a different conversation from "we guarantee our work."

A practical warranty structure

For a small trade business, a usable warranty document usually has these sections:

You can build that into a general warranty for most trades, a construction warranty for remodel and project work, or a roofing warranty when leak, penetration, and material terms need their own treatment.

The best warranty is narrow, clear, and honored

A vague warranty feels generous when you are selling the job. It feels dangerous when a callback arrives.

A clear warranty does the opposite. It may look less dramatic on the front end, but it gives the customer something more useful: a real promise, a real process, and a real paper trail.

For the contractor, it protects margin without hiding from responsibility.

Write the workmanship term you can actually honor. Pass through manufacturer warranties without pretending they are yours. Check state law before choosing duration. Tie the start date to closeout. Put exclusions in job language. Require written claims. Keep photos, serial numbers, service reports, and signatures in the file.

Also keep the warranty period separate from the longer legal tail. A one-year workmanship promise does not always mean every possible defect claim disappears after one year. Statutes of Repose vs. Statutes of Limitations: The Job Dates Contractors Need to Keep explains how completion dates, discovery dates, repose periods, and warranty terms can overlap.

Then when the phone rings, you are not arguing about what "guaranteed" meant. You are following the warranty you wrote.

Sources

• Federal Trade Commission, Businessperson's Guide to Federal Warranty Law, especially the sections on consumer products, service-only warranties, parts-plus-workmanship warranties, full/limited designations, implied warranties, disclosure, and pre-sale availability
• 15 U.S.C. Section 2303, Designation of written warranties, U.S. House Office of the Law Revision Counsel, and 15 U.S.C. Section 2308, Implied warranties
• 16 CFR Section 700.3, Written warranty, and 16 CFR Section 700.6, Designation of warranties
• 16 CFR Section 701.3, Written warranty terms, and 16 CFR Section 702.3, Pre-sale availability of written warranty terms
• UCC Section 2-314, Implied Warranty: Merchantability, and UCC Section 2-315, Implied Warranty: Fitness for Particular Purpose
• Minnesota Statutes Chapter 327A, Housing; Statutory Warranties, especially Sections 327A.01, 327A.02, 327A.03, 327A.04, and 327A.08
• Georgia Rule 553-7-.01, Written Warranty, Georgia Rules and Regulations
• NAHB, New Edition of Residential Construction Performance Guidelines Now Available, published August 24, 2022

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This article is for general information and is not legal, tax, or compliance advice. Verify all rules with your local authority, attorney, or CPA before acting.