February 2016

The roofing industry currently is experiencing a shortage of roofing workers as a result of the effects of the Great Recession and an aging workforce. One company, Advanced Roofing Inc., Fort Lauderdale, Fla., shares how it successfully created an apprenticeship program designed to encourage participants to pursue long-term careers in the industry.

Many roofing professionals examine online metrics as a measure of their companies' success and some turn to lead-generation companies to boost their results. But roofing professionals must be aware all leads are not created equal. Lead-generation services sometimes use unscrupulous methods to deliver website clicks, online visitors, telephone calls and social media followers that actually don’t result in sales.

Following similar testing in 2002 and 2009, NRCA recently conducted a third round of physical property tests on several samples of new faced, rigid board polyisocyanurate insulation. The results of the testing revealed some variability in the products, including multiple samples that had physical property values that do not fall within AASTM C1289's allowable limits.

Capable of pumping nearly 1 billion gallons of water daily to 5.5 million Chicagoland residents, the James W. Jardine Water Purification Plant is the largest-capacity water filtration plant in the world. When the facility's roof system began leaking in 2012, the clean water supply was at risk of contamination. Trinity Roofing Service Inc., Blue Island, Ill., was selected to perform the massive 448,000-square-foot reroofing project on Lake Michigan’s windy shore.

NRCA is implementing a new online Career Center to address growing workforce needs within the roofing industry. Scheduled to launch during the 2016 International Roofing Expo,® the Career Center features a dual-strategy job bank, provides career path and workforce development resources, and serves as a connecting hub for job seekers, employers, workforce developers, and education and training providers.