One man’s roofing journey

By Emma Peterson. 

Hear from Lloyd Anderson about how he went from an 18-year-old installing gutters to a business owner.  

In a new episode of Stories from the Roof, Megan Ellsworth sat down with Lloyd Anderson, the owner and founder of Armadas Exteriors, to hear about his career in the roofing industry, which started when he was around 18 years old. Lloyd shared, “I was wrapping Christmas presents at JC Penney's. It was a seasonal job, and it wasn't paying very well, I think $4.25 an hour. And I just realized I needed a real job that pays better.”  

Low and behold, Lloyd ended up seeing a sign looking for experienced gutter installers. So, he called up a friend working in drywall and asked him if he’d worked with gutters. Based on the info his friend gave him, he was able to make it through the interview process and got hired. While that job was his first introduction to working on the roof, it wasn’t the only career Lloyd had. He shared, “I pursued several different career paths, but at one point I ended up getting an opportunity to do an apprenticeship program that fast tracked me through an optical program. And that's what I did for about 10 years in private practice.” 

But, as we all know, once you become a part of the roofing industry, you always come back to it. And that’s what happened to Lloyd. He explained, “When I met my wife, we were both single parents. We had some financial difficulties and I said, ‘I'm going to buy a gutter machine and do that to make money.’ So, I got the machine, hired her son (who was 17) and her brother and we had a gutter crew.” From there, he continued to grow his operations, adding roofing to their offerings about two years later.  

Today, Lloyd has settled into his roofing career as the owner of Armadas Exteriors in Portland, Oregon. Looking back, he is thankful that roofing was the career he settled into. He explained, “I always come back to the collaboration and the education that is provided for you in the industry...three or four years ago I attended Western States on a whim, from seeing an ad like I had seen for that gutter position all those years ago. And I was just enamored by the fact that the roofing industry has organizations like this that really elevate the contractor help to bring them to the next level...It's just terrific.” 

Listen to the whole episode to learn more about Lloyd and his journey.