makemenuconfig
Well-known member
I had a very bad experience with Zip system sheathing (From Huber). It was up for about a month and saw some rain. This caused most of the sheets to buckle, swell, and bow out or in between the studs. But it is structural 1 sheathing so should be able to take some rain. Don't say "oh, that's just OSB being crappy"; I had regular OSB on this project for interior shear walls and it didn't do this. I installed 70 sheets total, 43 were affected to some degree, and 26 were bowed over 1/2" between studs. This is a warning to anybody in the future who is researching Zip.
At the start the rep came out to look and told me it would be fully covered under warranty. Materials and labor, I could do whatever I needed / saw fit to fix the problem. I tried to save them money by replacing only the worst sheets and using a rainscreen to cover the minor ones. They said great! I was happy. They told me my claim was officially approved for materials and labor. Pulled the trigger on a framing crew to replace them.
Then when I was having the sheathing replaced, they said no rainscreen, and no to all of the sheets (just some). I insisted, and they said they would cover the rainscreen. But all of that was for not, because my claim was for $12k in labor and materials. Which considering I got a quote in the 20k range I thought was good. But they say there is a $4k cap, and are being generous offering me $6k. Considering materials costs were over half of that, it's insane that they think this is enough. I want other people to be aware their warranty process is difficult, you may not get what you are told, and they may impose arbitrary and low limits on claims. So take the guarantees they tout with a grain of salt.
So the waterproofing system part is neat, the tape does actually work really well. I want to like the product. But the support / warranty experience was terrible. Huber and the rep's character/reputation were severely tarnished for me as they went back on their word several times. I'm walking away with a loss here, I would advise everyone in the future to avoid the product unless you can guarantee the back side won't get wet during construction at all. And don't trust their warranty, they will throw some stupid low "limit" on it and won't really make you whole.
Gallery of woes:
At the start the rep came out to look and told me it would be fully covered under warranty. Materials and labor, I could do whatever I needed / saw fit to fix the problem. I tried to save them money by replacing only the worst sheets and using a rainscreen to cover the minor ones. They said great! I was happy. They told me my claim was officially approved for materials and labor. Pulled the trigger on a framing crew to replace them.
Then when I was having the sheathing replaced, they said no rainscreen, and no to all of the sheets (just some). I insisted, and they said they would cover the rainscreen. But all of that was for not, because my claim was for $12k in labor and materials. Which considering I got a quote in the 20k range I thought was good. But they say there is a $4k cap, and are being generous offering me $6k. Considering materials costs were over half of that, it's insane that they think this is enough. I want other people to be aware their warranty process is difficult, you may not get what you are told, and they may impose arbitrary and low limits on claims. So take the guarantees they tout with a grain of salt.
So the waterproofing system part is neat, the tape does actually work really well. I want to like the product. But the support / warranty experience was terrible. Huber and the rep's character/reputation were severely tarnished for me as they went back on their word several times. I'm walking away with a loss here, I would advise everyone in the future to avoid the product unless you can guarantee the back side won't get wet during construction at all. And don't trust their warranty, they will throw some stupid low "limit" on it and won't really make you whole.
Gallery of woes:
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