What Does It Mean to Hire a CertainTeed ShingleMaster Premier?

ShingleMaster Premier is the top tier of CertainTeed's contractor credential program. The short version of what it means for you is this: the manufacturer has verified the contractor's training, insurance, licensing, and business standing, and it is willing to put its highest level of warranty coverage behind that contractor's work as a result.

That is the whole point of it. It is not something a roofer says about himself on his own website. It is something the shingle manufacturer says about the roofer after checking.

Bob Harvey Roofing holds ShingleMaster Premier status. In this article I want to explain what the credential actually requires, what it changes about the warranty on your roof, and how you can confirm any contractor's status yourself without taking anybody's word for it.

What is a CertainTeed ShingleMaster Premier?

CertainTeed is one of the largest shingle manufacturers in North America, and like most major manufacturers, it runs a credential program for the contractors who install its products. The program has several levels. Each level up asks more of the contractor: more verified training, proof of insurance and licensing, documented product knowledge, and a track record the manufacturer is willing to stand behind. ShingleMaster Premier sits at the top of that structure.

Here is the reason the manufacturer bothers. CertainTeed is the party paying the warranty claim. When it agrees to back a roof with its most complete coverage, it wants to know that roof was installed by people it has trained and verified. The credential is CertainTeed protecting its own exposure, and that is exactly why it is useful to you. A company does not put money behind a contractor it has not checked.

What it takes to earn the credential

The requirements are set by CertainTeed, not by us, and they have to be met continuously rather than once.

• Trained installers. All supervisors and at least 75 percent of installers must hold CertainTeed's Master Craftsman roofing credential.
• A master-level specialist on staff. At least one employee must hold CertainTeed's highest individual installer credential.
• Documented product knowledge. Two or more employees must pass a test on CertainTeed's shingle technology manual.
• Continuing education. Two credits every year through approved training or workshops.
• Insurance and licensing. Workers compensation as required by law, plus liability insurance that actually covers roofing work.
• Time in business and credit standing. A minimum of five years in business, or a year at the tier below, or comparable industry experience CertainTeed accepts. Credit history has to be in good standing.
• A customer satisfaction rating of at least 4 out of 5. The manufacturer tracks it.

There is also a code of ethics covering legal compliance, workmanship standards, customer service, and how the business is run.

Notice what is not on that list. There is no line item for writing a check. The credential is earned by the company and it can be taken away. Fall below the standard and it goes.

What the credential does for your warranty

This is where it stops being about the contractor and starts being about you.

Every CertainTeed shingle carries standard SureStart protection, no matter who installs it. That covers the shingles against manufacturing defects for the first years after installation, typically ten. After that period ends, you are covered for shingles only, at a reduced rate as the roof ages. Any contractor can offer this, including whoever bought the bundles at a supply house this morning.

SureStart PLUS is the enhancement, and only credentialed contractors can register it. At the coverage level we include on our roofs, that adds several things the standard warranty does not touch:

• Workmanship coverage for fifteen years. Not just the shingle, the installation.
• Tear-off and disposal. If a covered claim requires replacement, removing and hauling the old roof is included rather than billed to you.
• A non-prorated period of fifty years on a single-family detached home. Coverage terms are shorter on other structure types and on certain shingle lines, so ask which product is on your estimate.
• Transferability for twenty years. If you sell the house, the coverage goes with it, which is worth real money at closing.

Picture two identical roofs. Same house, same shingles, same week. One is installed by a credentialed contractor and registered for extended coverage. The other is installed by a crew with no manufacturer standing. The first homeowner has protection backed by the manufacturer covering both the materials and the installation. The second has a basic material warranty plus a workmanship promise that is only as good as the company that made it. If that company is gone in five years, so is the promise.

Holding a credential and actually registering the coverage on your roof are two different things, and that difference is worth asking about directly. A contractor can be credentialed and still quote you a lower warranty tier, because the better tiers cost the contractor more to register. Ask which warranty is named in your written estimate, not which logo is on the truck. If your estimate does not name a warranty tier at all, that is a conversation worth having before you sign. We walk through what a complete estimate should contain in our article on what is included in a roofing estimate.

Why the whole roof has to qualify, not just the shingles

SureStart PLUS is not a shingle warranty. It is a system warranty, and it requires a complete CertainTeed system on the roof. That means six components working together:

• Waterproofing underlayment at the vulnerable areas, meaning eaves and valleys
• Water-resistant underlayment as the secondary barrier across the deck
• Starter shingles along the eaves and rakes
• The shingles themselves
• Ventilation, both ridge exhaust and intake
• Hip and ridge cap

That list is the honest answer to why the coverage is broader. A shingle-only warranty covers one layer of your roof. A system warranty covers the parts that actually fail together. Underlayment, starter, and ventilation are the components that get substituted with something cheaper when a bid needs to come down, and they are the ones you never see once the roof is on.

Does certification change how the roof actually turns out?

Yes, and I say that as someone who has spent nearly 40 years tearing off roofs that failed early.

The failures I find are rarely the shingle's fault. I have pulled roofs off homes in Layton and Kaysville where the product was fine and the installation was the problem. Nails driven above the nailing strip so the shingle had nothing holding it. Missing starter courses at the rake edge. Flashing at a wall transition caulked instead of woven in. Ventilation that was never balanced, so the attic cooked the shingles from underneath for a decade.

The shingle gets blamed for all of that. The install caused it.

Manufacturer training exists to attack exactly those failures. It is not marketing content. It is nailing patterns, ventilation math, flashing details, and the specific way each product line needs to be handled in a climate like ours. A certified installation is one where the manufacturer's engineers set the standard rather than whatever a crew got in the habit of doing.

We have stuck with CertainTeed for a long time, and the credential is part of the reason. It gives us access to coverage we can put on your roof, and it gives you a way to check us that does not depend on trusting a website.