What warranty should you offer? (and how to word it)

A warranty is a sales tool most tradespeople under-use

Two quotes, similar prices. One says nothing about what happens if the work fails. The other says "12 months on labour, parts covered by the manufacturer". The second wins — and it costs nothing, because you were going to come back and fix your own mistake anyway. You're being paid for a promise you already keep informally.

The three layers to separate

Clients confuse these constantly. Your document shouldn't:

1. Your workmanship warranty — your labour, your installation. This is the one you decide: commonly 12 months, sometimes 24 for high-value installs.
2. The manufacturer's warranty on parts — 2, 5, sometimes 10 years. Not yours to give or refuse; your job is to pass on the paperwork.
3. Statutory obligations — in many countries, structural or major works carry a legally mandated guarantee (in France, the 10-year garantie décennale; elsewhere, implied warranties of fitness). These apply whatever your document says. Check your local rules and your insurance.

The wording

Short, on every estimate and invoice:

Warranty. Workmanship guaranteed 12 months from completion. Parts are covered by their manufacturer's warranty (documentation supplied). Excluded: normal wear, damage from misuse or third-party intervention, pre-existing installations not part of this work, and lack of recommended maintenance.

Those four exclusions cover nearly every dispute that ever arises, and none of them reads as unfair to a reasonable client.

Exclusions that protect you specifically

• Work you didn't do. If you replace a valve on a 30-year-old pipe run, guarantee your valve, not the pipe. Note the condition of the existing installation on the estimate — that line ends the argument before it starts.
• Missed maintenance. A boiler that hasn't been serviced isn't a workmanship failure. Tie the warranty to the recommended service.
• Third-party tampering. Someone else opened it after you.

Turn a warranty into repeat revenue

The strongest move: pair the warranty with the maintenance it requires. "Workmanship covered 24 months, provided the annual service is done." That's not a restriction — it's an automatic reason to come back, and a paid visit each year. How to build that recurring stream.

Make it print automatically

Warranty terms only work if they're on every document, not in your head. In Pro Speak Artisan your terms and legal lines are configured once and printed on every estimate and invoice PDF, in the client's language.