The State of the Industry Reveals Just How Resilient Roofers Are

By Cass Jacoby. 

A new season of Coffee Conversations celebrates just how well contractors are navigating the obstacles the pandemic has thrown at the industry. 

Season 4 of Coffee Conversations starts with a bang! In this episode sponsored by the National Roofing Contractors Association (NRCA), Heidi J. Ellsworth is joined by Chairman of the Board Kyle Thomas and NRCA CEO McKay Daniels for a conversation on the state of the industry.  

In the kickoff of this season, the three dive into the positives to come out of Roofing Day 2022 and look at emerging concerns in the industry from economic outlooks and sustainability. As we end 2022 and begin 2023, the industry is in growth mode as well as waiting to see the new normal after a few challenging years for roofers. Grab a cup of coffee and learn about what these industry leaders are seeing within the industry. 

Navigating the past few years has sure had its obstacles, but it has also meant that contractors are discovering new systems, new approaches to the work and different ways to deliver quality to building owners. “Contractors are navigating it out there. They're working harder to achieve the same result than ever before, which is frustrating and tiring and can grind somebody down,” says McKay. "But the resourcefulness and resiliency of the contractors continues to shine through, because they figure out how to get the work done.”  

When it comes to material shortages, McKay is optimistic about lead times getting shorter and the pressures of navigating these issues loosening a little. “The long lead time items are reducing and it's getting quicker, but it's still a challenge that you may not have certain fasteners that you need, a certain cover board that you need,” says Kyle. “We're navigating it. We're so used to it that it's just, we're not complaining about it as much as we used to, we're just navigating it...hopefully within the next six months, we'll start to see that new norm really start to settle in.” 

It isn’t a stretch to say that contractors have gotten creative these past few years when it comes to meeting code requirements with fewer materials than before. If anything, material and labor shortages have proven that the industry has the will to find a way. As McKay reminds us, “Contractors are resilient and they'll go and figure out a way to get the work done.”  

Listen to the podcast for more insights on the state of the industry and to learn more about what these experts believe is in store for roofers.  

Learn more about NRCA in their RoofersCoffeeShop® Directory or visit www.nrca.net. 

About Cass  

Cass works as a reporter/writer for RoofersCoffeeShop, AskARoofer and MetalCoffeeShop. When she isn’t writing about roofs, she is putting her Master degree to work writing about movies and dancing with her plants.