Make sure your Insurance Settlement Amount is based on equivalent roofing material. Virtually all composition shingle manufacturers offer 3 weights of laminated (a.k.a. “Timberline” type) shingles. Typically, the lightest weight laminated composition shingle offered weighs ~250 pounds per 100 square feet of roof area. The middle weight shingles weigh ~285 pounds & the heavy weight is ~300 pounds per 100 square feet of roof area. These shingles were originally warranted for 25 years, 30 years, and 40 years respectively. Then in ~2002 virtually all shingle manufacturers increased the warranty periods to 30 years, 40 years, and 50 years respectively. So, lets assume you had a heavy weight (300 pound) 40 year warranted roof installed in 1997, then in 2008 your roof is a total loss due to hail damage. The shingles, equivalent to the 300 pound heavy weight shingles on your roof, are now warranted by the manufacturer for 50 years (or in some cases a “lifetime”). However, in many instances we have witnessed insurance companies offering a loss amount based upon the middle weight (285 pound) shingle, claiming the original roof installed in 1997 was a 40 year warranted shingle, so they are only going to offer a loss amount based upon the value of current 40 year warranted shingles. However, just because your 300 lb. shingles installed in 1997 may have only been warranted for 40 years at that time in history, you should be entitled to a 50 year warranted roof (by today’s standards), if you are to receive a loss amount sufficient to receive a new roof equivalent to the 300 lb. shingles you originally installed on your roof. Another situation we have observed which may result in an unfair loss amount involves those homeowners with cedar shake and cedar shingle roofs. Again, the loss amount “should” be based upon the cost to replace your roof with “equivalent” materials. Yet, we often find homeowners are offered a settlement amount sufficient to remove and replace their wood roof with a composition shingle type material that often is valued at much less than the cost to remove and replace the wood roof with an equivalent wood roof. The cost to remove and replace a wood roof is currently considerably more than the cost to remove and replace the wood roof with even the heavy weight / 300 lb. variety of laminated composition shingle. In fact, the cost to replace a wood roof with another wood roof is sufficient to afford one of the heavier weight (~365 pound or greater) composition shingles available in the market today. Granted most claims are settled fairly, but we caution you to be aware that settlement offers may occassionally not be based upon the amount necessary to replace your roof with “equivalent” materials.