Location
Baltimore, Md.
CONTRACTOR PROFILE
The Roof Depot
Georgia-based Roofing Contractor Stays Ahead of the Curve in Strange Times
By Chris Gray
The Roof Depot
Crew members with The Roof Depot at the Flamingo Crossings Village, a student housing project by Disney. Photos courtesy of The Roof Depot.
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The Roof Depot is currently in the midst of completing the largest student housing project in the country for Disney, a project that has involved every aspect of the company for the past two years.
It’s a long way from the maintenance repairs Roof Depot handled for condo associations in Atlanta when it formed in 1998, and a testament to President and CEO Terry Dickerson’s philosophy of staying ahead of the curve and devoting resources toward employees and customers.
“We believe that we need to train our associates to be the most knowledgeable in the means and methods of the roofing industry, then to find out our customer’s needs and help them to find the right solution for their needs,” Dickerson said. “And then, while we are continually building those relationships, we will do some roofs for those individuals.”
“Some roofs” is putting it lightly. The Roof Depot’s success is evidenced by its continued appearance on RC’s Top 100 list, with this year being no exception despite the pandemic. The company earned $66.2 million in 2020, snagging it the 24th spot on this year’s list. That is more than double the revenue ($30 million) it earned back in 2015.
Thanks to a diverse range of products and services, combined with its use of digital technology and five locations throughout the country, The Roof Depot continues to show its comprehensive plans for sustainable growth can endure everything from recessions to pandemics.
Roof Depot's diverse offerings allow it to tackle nearly any roofing project in both residential and commercial sectors.
Depot Dependability
Roof Depot began when Dickerson worked part-time as a roofer while attending computer school. He found the work to be fulfilling and rewarding and eventually set up his own roofing business. Since then, the company has expanded to include five locations — one of which is a National Support Center for executives — and has performed work in 15 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Naturally, working in cities across the country comes with challenges. Keeping straight the various compliances from one jobsite to another can be tricky. Thankfully, Roof Depot has its hub-like National Support Center in Georgia to fall back on, which allows executive leadership to focus on supporting all branch operations.
The roofing contractor’s capacity for work has only increased year over year. While the majority of its business (around 70 to 80%) is commercial roofing, it handles single-family residences as well as multi-building, multi-type projects that range from flat and low slope to steep slope, tile, and slate systems.
Skilled laborers are required to handle this wide array of projects, and Roof Depot keeps its 135 employees well informed. Working closely with manufacturers, training for all teams is held on a quarterly basis. This includes updating estimators and field personnel with application method updates and hands-on application training for field workers.
“Customer service is a large part of our culture training program,” Dickerson said. “We believe in treating everyone as an equal and the customer service aspect is part of the results.”
Safety is equally important, with continual training provided to every associate beginning with OSHA 10 hour classes and advancing to OSHA 30 hour classes when possible. Workers are also trained in quality control practices, including photo documentation. All of this hard work is rewarded with health, dental and vision benefits along with 401(k), bonuses and paid time off.
“Stop worrying about what others see you as, stop focusing on yourselves, and put all your energy towards your employees and customers. The rest will happen,” Dickerson said.
The housing project Roof Depot is completing for Disney is known as Flaming Crossings Village, a residential community housing 14,000 beds and a 12,000-square-foot fitness center in Orlando, Fla. The community provides college students the chance to work for Disney while getting their education.
Developed by American Campus Communities, Roof Depot was chosen for the $630-million project thanks to its diverse range of services.
“Over two years on the project with Roof Depot installing shingles, metal, TPO, siding, gutters and downspouts, copings,” Dickerson said. “(It’s the) largest single Roof Depot project to date, and we demonstrated our expert skills as a group to the GC, owners, and others.”
Roof Depot's business is mainly new construction, but it has plans on expanding its reroofing services.
Specialty
Flat roofing and restoration
Number of Employees
55
Pandemic Leads to Possibilities
Like other roofing contractors across the country, Roof Depot experienced difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Being a company focused on its people, the pandemic was a gut punch to its culture.
“I think the biggest challenge is our culture plans slipped, and once we let it get away from us, it was a challenge to pull people together again due to distance,” Dickerson said.
Dickerson said although it’s been difficult to ignite interest again, this opens the opportunity for Roof Depot to restart its culture plans from scratch and find talented mentors within its group to lead internal training.
“COVID has created some challenges with our plans, and we as a company feel like we are more distant than before and are currently planning on sparking the interest of all our associates again this fall,” he said. “We have an internal culture plan that helps all our associates work off the same playbook. This way we train and learn together with a focus on our associates, and we believe the outcome has many benefits for our associates and customers, manufacturing partners, suppliers ... basically, anyone we interact with.”
Despite feeling distant, Roof Depot has remained connected throughout the pandemic. Thanks to embracing technology long before Zoom became the norm — perhaps a hangover from Dickerson’s time in computer school prior to becoming a full-time roofer — Roof Depot has been insulated from slowdowns.
“We had been corporately using Microsoft Teams and communicating internally via webcams for years before it hit,” Dickerson said. “We fared well and were already geared up for the digital world that became the big need.”
The shift to digital affected marketing as well. The previously-mentioned culture plan sees Roof Depot’s associates posting photos of the company’s work through internal channels and social media. More traditional advertising, like TV and radio, have taken a back seat as Roof Depot shifts its focus to marketing its reroofing business in commercial and residential sectors.
Its strategic shifts like these that have allowed Roof Depot to endure tumultuous periods, much like how it focused on military housing in advance of the Great Recession, which led to a $2.5 million contract to reroof base housing at the U.S. Marine Corps Logistics Base at Camp Lejeune, in Jacksonville, N.C.
But Dickerson knows no roofing contractor goes it alone. He said companies like GAF, CertainTeed and Beacon Building Products have been essential to helping it grow for the past two decades.
“We have a number of relationships that have been working closely with us over the years,” he said. “Our company, our people seem to be alike in many ways: good people!”
Chris Gray is managing editor of Roofing Contractor. Reach him at 248-244-6498 or grayc@bnpmedia.com.