The Duro-Last® 2024 Project of the Year

By Emma Peterson. 

Explore this award-winning project with the team that put it all together behind the scenes. 

In a new episode of Stories from the Roof, Megan Ellsworth spoke to the incredible team from Duerson Corporation and the Duro-Last manufacturer's representative behind the 135,000-square-foot reroof of Grinnell Mutual Reinsurance – The same project that won the 2024 Duro-Last® Project of the Year award!   

Jake Viggers, the sales manager at Duerson, started the conversation by giving a behind-the-scenes look at how this award-winning project got started. He explained, “This project all started off of a storm. I was contacted on a Sunday night by Grinnell Mutual's head of maintenance. He told me that their building had been hit by some large hail, they were taking on a lot of water and needed help.” After hearing that call, Jake immediately went to the Grinnell Mutual building to see what his team could do. 

Come Monday morning, 30 guys from Duerson were on site putting tarps up on the building. Once that temporary solution was in place, it was time to plan what to do in the long term. That’s when Ryan Kinneberg, a Duro-Last manufacturer's rep through Absolute Consulting Group, came into the picture. He shared, “The ownership and those involved with the process from Grinnell Mutual, they didn't just want what was on there originally. They wanted an upgrade that would reduce the amount of damage if they had another large storm again, so it wouldn’t be so catastrophic.”  

The solution they needed wasn’t a simple one. Jake shared, “When you're talking about baseball to softball-size hail, it doesn't just do damage to the roofs. It does damage to pretty much everything in sight.” Thankfully, Duerson’s relationship with Duro-Last made even this complex solution easy. As Jake explained, “Since we were working with Ryan and Duro-Last, we were able to order everything from insulation and cover boards to metal wall panels and skylights easily. Being able to reach out to one company like that and purchase everything we needed made the project go so much smoother.” 

Looking back now that it is completed and won the Duro-Last award, the Duerson team credits teamwork to the success of the project. Riley Duer, Duerson’s office manager, shared, “It’s key to have someone willing and able to help right away. We worked as a team to get everything figured out.” 

Lori Duer, the owner of Duerson, echoed that sentiment, sharing, “We started this as a family company, and we're family with all the employees. When something happens, everybody in the office and everybody in the field comes together to help. And Ryan as our rep and Duro-Last as a supplier really fit into that, they come to help us whenever we need them.” 

Listen to the entire episode to learn more about the Duerson Corporation and their award-winning Duro-Last roof.