IRE: Easier Roofing Installation Means Less Cost

Jason Dark from Dura-Last talks about a variety of things the roofing industry is experiencing and how the company is addressing them — lack of skilled labor, mistakes during installation and recycling materials, are just a few.

[Begin transcript]

Janelle: This is Janelle Penny, senior writer for BUILDINGS magazine, and I’m here on the International Roofing Expo trade show floor with Jason Dark, who is the national sales manager for Duro-Last.

Jason, how’s the show going for you so far?

Jason: Janelle, it’s going great. There’s a lot of buzz here in Nashville. I’ve been to a lot of IREs, but right when I walk into this one, you can tell it’s a little bit different. Attendance seems to be high, so we’re having a great show. We have a big booth, and we got a great team of people here, so we’re excited about it.

Janelle: Great. So, Jason, what are you showcasing here this week?

Jason: So, there’s a lot of different things in our booth. We got a pretty big booth. The biggest thing that we’re trying to highlight is our labor-saving solutions for the roofing contractors. At Duro-Last, for 41 years, we’ve been trying to do everything we can to make the life of the roofing contractor a lot easier.

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And what that means for a building owner is when they’re up there on that roof, it’s more predictable, it’s quicker, it’s more reliable, less likelihood of errors. On a rooftop, most errors occur because of workmanship. That’s the main cause of roof problems. And Duro-Last, for 41 years, that’s what we’ve been trying to eliminate.

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That’s the main thing we’re highlighting.

Another thing we’re really proud of, we have an army of quality assurance tech reps across the country, over 70 tech reps in Duro-Last pickup trucks. We have a pickup truck right in the middle of our booth that we’re highlighting. They got a brand-new fleet.

But again, for a building owner, this is great because at Duro-Last, we’re very selective in the roofing contractors that we do business with. So, we’re looking for quality-driven contractors. But even with that said, we go right behind that contractor and we inspect every detail of that roof. It’s a thorough, hands-and-knees quality assurance audit. And we’re really proud to showcase that.

We also have our exceptional metals booth. That’s our full line of metal products that really complements the roof system. And again, at Duro-Last, we’re not like other manufacturers. We try to be a full-system supplier. Where every item is coming from Duro-Last, all the parts and pieces. It’s a system approach. And the edge metals is a huge deal in roofing.

Roofs fail at the edge, so we’re highlighting our metal edge accessories as well. So, there’s a lot going on in the booth, and we’re having a good time with it.

Janelle: Great. Are you introducing anything new this year?

Jason: Again, nothing too new. We do have some rooftop pavers that we’ve introduced. We actually have a recycling facility just a little north of our headquarters in Michigan where we take all of our manufacturing scrap and we turn it into commercial grade flooring, roof pavers, walk pad protection, so we’re showcasing some of that stuff.

But really, we’re just trying to highlight – we have a booth where the show attendees can come and they can see firsthand, they can weld our custom stack flashings, our custom curb flashings, they can see that labor-saving solutions firsthand and weld some of our product as well.

So, that’s about it for this year.

Janelle: Great. Hands-on.

Jason: Yeah. That’s right. They love it.

Janelle: That’s great. Are you noticing any trends emerging in the roofing industry?

Jason: In terms of trends, labor is the huge thing. It’s very difficult for roofing contractors to find skilled labor and to retain it. And that makes it difficult for building owners because the price for roofing starts to go up.

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And again, what we do at Duro-Last, we try to make it as easy as possible and take the labor-intensity out of the roofing project by custom making as much of it as possible. So, that’s kind of what we’re highlighting.

Janelle: Great. So, where can we learn more?

Jason: Check us out on line: www.duro-last.com. You can find us on LinkedIn, you can find us on Facebook, you can find us on a lot of social medias. You can also call our world headquarters at 800-248-0280. Again, my name’s Jason Dark. Feel free to call and reach out to us. We’d gladly answer any questions that you guys have.