In an effort to provide a more complete picture of the roofing industry in North America as 2025 kicks into gear, Roofing Contractor caught up with industry leaders for their perspectives on the prior year and what’s ahead for an evolving industry.

We share the following responses to complement the findings of the roofing contractors RC surveyed last fall, highlighted in the 2025 State of the Industry Report.

RC: How would you characterize the state of the roofing industry looking at 2025?

Rich Thompson (RT): Heading into 2025, we have a positive outlook on the industry while acknowledging the opportunities and challenges presented for distributors and contractors. On the opportunities front, we anticipate steady demand for roof replacements driven by aging homes and severe weather events that have affected pockets of the country. We also continue to see a big focus on sustainability — especially with renewable energy building products — which will create opportunities for both distributors and contractors. And we’d be remiss not to mention how new technologies continue to help the industry work smarter and more efficiently.

On the challenges front, supply chain shortages may continue to impact availability and pricing while labor shortages may impact project timelines and disruptions. These factors reinforce the importance of distributors and contractors collaborating closely to navigate any challenges and position themselves for success in the evolving roofing landscape.

Eric Miller (EM): Consumers are doing a lot more research on their own and gaining a deeper understanding of factors like wind resistance and energy efficiency, the importance of durable, longer-lasting roofing materials, and the key role qualified contractors play in their home’s longevity. This provides contractors with an opportunity to truly sell their companies and the products they install — they can market and fully leverage the value they bring to the table.

At the same time, everyone in the industry is closely watching several continuing or potential challenges beyond our control: rising insurance rates, ongoing labor shortages, an uncertain housing economy, and the impact of proposed tariffs.

Dan Williams (DW): The low-slope roofing industry is stable. We’ve navigated through the supply chain issues of 2021-2023 and supply and demand are back in balance. This “new normal” gives everyone in our industry a more solid foundation from which to work.

As at the start of any new year, there are unknowns as we enter 2025. Every year brings events, changes, challenges and opportunities that can’t be predicted and that we can’t control. We are confident, though. We expect another strong year for MuleHide and are optimistic about the industry overall.

Piers Dormeyer (PD): The industry has been using aerial imagery for years to run their business, whether prequalifying their customers by looking at free online satellite imagery, or utilizing roof reports derived from imagery captured by planes, drones or cell phones. In 2025, the market will be able to purchase and utilize roof conditions, roof age, instant sizing for qualifying. Additionally, the data collected by drones will standardize the claims process and minimize the conflict between carriers and contractors moving forward. The contractors that find their way to incorporate this data effectively will be the survivors of tomorrow.  

RC: Any recent trends that you’re monitoring?

EM: Long-term durability and insurance are two of the most critical items we’re watching closely and focusing on. A home’s resilience is increasingly top-of-mind for consumers and the construction industry as a whole, as wildfires, hurricanes, hail and other weather extremes increase in occurrence, wreaking havoc on exteriors. The problem is growing across all types of weather and all types of roofing.

DW: A big story in 2024 was, of course, consolidation among roofing contractors and investment in roofing by private equity firms. That will likely continue to ramp up this year.

Coatings retain their place as the fastest-growing area of low-slope roofing. As a result, more roofing contractors continue to enter the coatings world, whether it’s low-slope contractors expanding the range of solutions they offer or steep-slope contractors looking to enter the low-slope side of the business.

PD: 2025 will dramatically impact the way roofers conduct business with AI now being able to create content, analyze data, improve efficiencies in the office, impact the way that customers find and interact with roofing companies, and perhaps most [importantly], depict the way jobs are scoped, increasing the accuracy and speed of estimates.

RT: The big trends we saw in 2024 were around an increased focus on sustainability, technology integration, material availability and pricing, as well as labor shortages. Our team at ABC Supply continues to monitor all these trends to help us — and our contractor customers — stay ahead and make the right decisions that will benefit their businesses.

RC: Why is there a lot of optimism over sales and do you share that view?

PD: Niche markets continue to become more important. We have seen specialty roofing products become a larger and larger part of the industry. Manufacturers are driven to make these specialty products easier and easier to install. And homeowners are more often finding value in the aesthetics of their roof. The combination will continue to make a meaningful difference.

DW: Many of our contractors are sharing that they have a strong pipeline of business on the books going into 2025. The reroofing market remains robust and investment in new construction is still strong. With inflation declining, all indications point to a busy year for contractors in 2025.

EM: Despite the ongoing uncertainties in the housing market, including low inventory and high interest rates, our customers have continued to stay busy. In some cases, this is due to more homeowners recognizing the long-term value and return on investment that they can gain by upgrading to a higher-performing roof such as steel or concrete, one that better withstands hail, wind or wildfires. In addition, with interest rates and housing prices still high, many homeowners also are choosing to remodel their existing homes as opposed to moving. This, combined with growing demand for high-performance roofing that better withstands severe weather, creates opportunities in the reroof and new construction markets.

RT: Similar to roofing contractors, we also have a lot of optimism for the market. We see strong demand ahead, fueled by roof replacements, a healthy housing market and low unemployment. Additionally, government incentives promoting energy efficiency and renewable energy are driving demand for renewable roofing materials such as solar shingles and panels. As we’ve said above, there are challenges that lie ahead too, but we’re confident this resilient industry will continue to adapt and evolve.

RC: How is your company adapting to meet changing market demands?

DW: Communication is key. Regular conversations with our contractors and distributors help us understand what they are seeing, expecting and preparing for. We can then plan and adapt to ensure we meet those needs.

Consistency is also essential. Our core responsibility is to provide the products and services our contractors need when and where they need them. We are always evaluating and improving our processes to make sure that happens seamlessly and that working with us is as easy as possible.

PD: Machine learning-based feature extraction is accelerating customer demand for aerial imagery. And, higher resolution imagery is desired to unlock new insights and increase data accuracy in more and more industries. These new categories of customer desire and easy integration options [combine] with high performance and availability to build new solutions and workflows.

EM: We’ve been working to help contractors educate homeowners and homeowners associations on the benefits of wind-, hail- and fire-resistant roofing materials — such as stone-coated steel, concrete, composite and clay — designed to withstand these intensifying conditions. Secondly, we’re working closely with research and testing agencies, such as the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety, to advocate for additional standards that look beyond asphalt to high-performance materials like steel and concrete, and with insurance companies to recognize the higher performance and longer life cycles these options provide. This could pave the way for getting or retaining insurance coverage for more roofs in high-risk areas.

RC: How are you responding to the ongoing consolidation and private equity involvement in roofing?

DW: We’re doing what we’ve always done — fostering direct relationships with contractors. Roofing is a relationship business, and that doesn’t change when a contractor gets bigger or changes ownership. They still look to us to help them create the right solution for each job. They still rely on us to be responsive and provide industry-leading support, service and training. Those are the things we’ve always been known for, and they’re exactly what we will continue to do.

PD: Consolidation of roofing companies by private equity will accelerate across all segments of the roofing and remodeling industries. As a result, firms will need to unlock operational efficiencies to remain competitive. Technology adoption will be a key enabler.

RT: ABC Supply is proud to support all of our customers, both large and small. We understand that consolidations and private equity customers require dependable service, and that’s exactly what we pride ourselves on delivering. With the largest network of locations and inventory in the industry, we feel we are the trusted distribution partner that every contractor can rely on.