How many roofers close there doors during the winter months?

We have never closed our doors but I was surprised by the number of roofers that I've talked to, that said they close there doors Dec. - Feb. I can't see how that would be cost effective or goodwill with your customers. I'd be PO'D if I had a roof installed in the summer and couldn't reach my roofer during Dec./Feb. :unsure:

Roofing company! If you are really small, you don't have to worry about a bunch of people to keep paying when no money is coming in. (roofer) If you just sub everything out, then you are a company and not a roofer; course if that is the case, don't bitch about the quality of the "workers" you have.

If you could get $1,000 square for every square your company installed and you did 100 squares a week, you could afford to lay everyone off and pay them unemployment in the winter for 3 months and still pay your foremen a salary to do the repairs in the winter or to drink coffee or to take vacations for that matter. It is all a matter of dollars. Heck, join Roofers Success International. It sounds like that is what they encourage you to do, raise your prices and market to make the amount of volume go up with the price.

If you just give out "prices" or quotes, you are a price taker. If you do a lot of marketing and build the value and then give a high price and make lots of money, you are a salesman. Without sales, nothing is done. IF you want to have more than 2 or 3 people working, you had better become a good salesman so that you can earn a really good living.

I don't really enjoy selling, but I do like to make things and work with my hands. I will be comfortable and still swing a hammer, and sell when I feel like it. I will never be a "businessman" again.

For any roofing company to survive profitability through the winter months they have to be marketing themselves as a service provider with emergency services and focus on repairs all year round.

After losing my wife and then my business partner who was my dear father-the business matters have suffered while I rested and grieved. But a new year and it has its challenges. But I was fortunate in meeting g a woman who is now a very good, almost best friend and she has the business expertise to help me organize my entire financial matters and get that forward momentum going again. Lori is her name and she has helped me get some of the spark back into not only my life but also the business. The thought of closing for the winter is abhorrent to me and during this period of inclement and cold wintry weather is now upon jus-I will learn to love the paperwork and administrative detail end of business. We will really get the marketing and hustle together again. There is a bit of joy in life again. Thank God!!

That's how we roll anyway! Same to you!

GKRFG Said:

Old School Said: The trick is that you have to charge enough in the warm months so that you can work only when absolutely necessary in the winter. We just pick our days!

Thats just what I would say. There is no way I could or would close up and disappear! Winter is notorious for roof problems. And I have hundreds of roofs with my name on them. If somebody has a problem I want to respond ASAP. Customer Service is the most important part of this business!! But as far as production work goes it just doesnt pay for me to do roofing in the winter months. Way too risky. And doing roofing in cold, snowy conditions adds too many hours to make it profitable. There is no way I can make money in the winter. Most jobs cost me money and at this time of year I sure as hell cant afford to lose money.

This, imho, is the most important reason to play by the rules and be a legal company. Sure, I could call my help subs, I could avoid all of the tax laws, I could avoid workers comp insurance, I could not pay for any health insurance, I could hire a crew of illegals, I could charge so much less that nobody could ever compete with me,..............it could all be so much easier. But Ive seen all of those games. Been there, done that. Ive been 1099d, worked with no insurance, had no money when tax time came and lo and behold I OWE money, no chance to pull a loan to buy a house,... the list goes on. I want good employees and good people working for me. I have worked for good companies and bad companies and when I started this business I knew that I could only be one of the good ones.

Right now my guys are laid off and collecting unemployment. The doors are not closed. I am at the office every day dealing with any problems that come in. If the weather breaks we will do something but for the last 3 weeks it hasnt paid to do any more than a few repairs. Most of my work is residential shingle reroofing. Mostly tearoffs. I used to roof all winter. I had to because I didnt have anything put away to pay the bills that are always there. Many times I came very close to coming off a roof, a couple of times that I still replay in my head and know why I believe in angels! Some of those years I was working with no insurance. It was all side work. Any injury would have been a disaster for me and my family. There are always a lot of guys living this life. Always will be. All I can say is that there is a way to break this cycle. Im no genious, well, maybe :laugh: but I have found a way to get through winters with a lot less stress than I used to have. It all comes down to selling for the right price.

A lot of truth there GAK & O/S. It seems that the KASH guys with "all of the answers" are the ones that go thru life starving, or at least struggling. In other words, as much as we hate to do the paperwork and dis-like the taxes, it seems that those of us that suffer thru that, can at least have something to draw on thru hard times. Like unemployment, retirement (hopefully) and most important--- savings from profit that comes from pricing well.

Happy New Years to ya!

I don't shut down of a winter time but I do advise all my roof customers to wait until Spring, unless it is leaking or is new construction. If we get a warm spell and have a small job we will do it...but nothing serious.

I have worked in the winter...but I don't like roofing(shingles) in it. Seems like it creates nothing but headaches.

Our customers can call my office phone 24/7/365....since it is in our home, we never really close.

I usually try doing other work of a winter time, besides plowing snow...like flooring, drywall or insulation. This winter has been slow....I am growing bored now that Christmas is over and temp hasnt been above freezing in a week and only getting colder!

Come on Spring....

pgriz...I'm with you, I have a list that I put together all year of things that I need to accomplish during the winter when things slow down. Really that's how we got started in roofing doing repairs and maintenance on commercial jobs that the big dogs didn't want. Now everybody with a ladder is doing "repairs". Thoes were the days just my husband and me, making great money, very little overhead, living life and loving it!!!

For me, the only time I have some spare time to think about improving stuff, is during the "slow" time in winter. The rest of the time it is {Sell, install, collect.. (Repeat)}. Our season should have finished in mid-December. We're still working, at least to mid-January. The new season is supposed to start on April 1, weather-permitting. To keep all the crews busy, I've got to have at least 200-300K of sales before April. So the sales staff is working from February onwards. The install crews have to get their gear put together, and whatever changes to procedures, training, materials, have to get done in March (latest). Marketing for February sales already started. So there's no such thing as shutting down for winter. Just a different kind of frenzied activity. :angry: ;) :woohoo:

I wish,but its the darnest thing...my guts keep howlin for more food... :dry:

Somehow my last post got all underlined. :blink: :angry: Anyway, I am kind of passionate about this stuff. :lol: It's my freakin life. And you know what I'm talking about. Don't you? B)

Today I went out and dealt with 2 callbacks. One was an EPDM roof we did in March. The scupper drain was solid ice and there was about 3" of water dammed up behind it. I spent an hour with salt and a pry bar to open a path for the water to drain. Couldn't determine why it leaked but I will go back another day to figure it out and solve it. The other one was a 1/12 pitched section with worn out 1/2 lap rolled roofing that I had tarped as a temporary fix before winter. The house is old and will be a teardown soon and the 80+ year old woman that lives there just wants to buy some time. Hope I fixed it but I told her call me if she gets any more water. Tommorrow it will probably be ice dams. Saturday we got about a foot of snow and I expect the phone to start ringing at any time. There is good money to be made stopping leaks and more repairs to sell.

Old School Said: The trick is that you have to charge enough in the warm months so that you can work only when absolutely necessary in the winter. We just pick our days!

That's just what I would say. There is no way I could or would close up and disappear! Winter is notorious for roof problems. And I have hundreds of roofs with my name on them. If somebody has a problem I want to respond ASAP. Customer Service is the most important part of this business!! But as far as production work goes it just doesn't pay for me to do roofing in the winter months. Way too risky. And doing roofing in cold, snowy conditions adds too many hours to make it profitable. There is no way I can make money in the winter. Most jobs cost me money and at this time of year I sure as hell can't afford to lose money.

This, imho, is the most important reason to play by the rules and be a legal company. Sure, I could call my help subs, I could avoid all of the tax laws, I could avoid workers comp insurance, I could not pay for any health insurance, I could hire a crew of illegals, I could charge so much less that nobody could ever compete with me,..............it could all be so much easier. But I've seen all of those games. Been there, done that. I've been 1099'd, worked with no insurance, had no money when tax time came and lo and behold I OWE money, no chance to pull a loan to buy a house,... the list goes on. I want good employees and good people working for me. I have worked for good companies and bad companies and when I started this business I knew that I could only be one of the good ones.

Right now my guys are laid off and collecting unemployment. The doors are not closed. I am at the office every day dealing with any problems that come in. If the weather breaks we will do something but for the last 3 weeks it hasn't paid to do any more than a few repairs. Most of my work is residential shingle reroofing. Mostly tearoffs. I used to roof all winter. I had to because I didn't have anything put away to pay the bills that are always there. Many times I came very close to coming off a roof, a couple of times that I still replay in my head and know why I believe in angels! Some of those years I was working with no insurance. It was all side work. Any injury would have been a disaster for me and my family. There are always a lot of guys living this life. Always will be. All I can say is that there is a way to break this cycle. I'm no genious, well, maybe :laugh: but I have found a way to get through winters with a lot less stress than I used to have. It all comes down to selling for the right price.

I absolutely despise the cold weather. Cold weather for me = 45 degrees or less. lol The lower it goes under that the more i despise it. However, I just put on long socks, then sweat pants and tuck into the socks at the bottom, wear a long, long sleeved shirt and tuck into the sweat pants at the top, then put on a sweat shirt and oversized jeans over top of all that, AND wear a coat. I took off christmas day and the weekend having finished up every lead that i had at the time. Monday morning i woke up to a dozen leads taken by the answering service and todays high was 43 degrees. This morning started off at 28 degrees. Grrrrrrrrrrrr and Brrrrrrrrrrrrr! I would rather it be slower this time of year but not gonna happen this week as its supposed to rain again Wednesday. :S

The trick is that you have to charge enough in the warm months so that you can work only when absolutely necessary in the winter. We just pick our days!

I would love too. But those stinky kids wont stop eating for a couple of months :angry: I did close one year for the month of February which is our coldest month for working. It was fun. Now I have most days off due to lack of work. Just patch jobs is all I'm doing. But it's ok, little over head and easy days, just low cash flow. A few years back I got pretty much debt free except the mortgage so we can get by on a dime. Will be starting a 23 square slate roof in a week or two. 6 square of copper standing seam and 200 ft of copper gutter. That should help the cash flow a bit.

If we closed our doors then my boys would'nt get a paycheck. If our sub's closed their doors they would likely break up and go work elsewhere. Roofing in the CT winter was brutal bur we never closed up. There was always something to do even if it was only snow removal from big flat roofs for insurance purposes.