Workmanship Guarantee
A workmanship guarantee is a promise that your own labor will hold up for a set period after the job. It covers what you did. Materials and damage by someone else are separate.
What it means
A workmanship guarantee needs three things to mean something: a stated period, a clear scope, and named exclusions. The period is how long you are on the hook. A common one runs from six months to two years, depending on the trade. The scope says which part of the job it covers. That is your labour and installation. It does not necessarily cover materials the client supplied, or a part that failed on its own.
Exclusions stop a guarantee from quietly becoming a promise against everything, forever. Wear and tear is not a defect. Misuse is not a defect. Work someone else did after you finished is not your defect either. Write these down once, in the terms you send with every quote. A callback then stops being a guessing game about who is on the hook.
You guarantee your plumbing work for 12 months. Eight months later, a joint you fitted starts leaking. You go back and fix it free. It is inside the period, and it is your work. A tap the client fitted themselves, leaking the same week, is not covered.
Promising to “stand behind the work” with no period and no scope written down. That sounds generous until a client calls two years later about a problem that may not be yours. You have nothing on paper to settle it.
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rates and rules vary by place; check yours. See our terms for the full version of this note.
See also
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