I'm Considering NOT Doing Any Repair Work

XanadooLTD

well said my brotha from anotha motha!!!

2ndGen

Believe me, I understand you 100%.
If I had another guy like me, I'd be a millionaire in less than a year.
But Roofing isn't a one man gig. And that's a problem.

Finding that one good guy is the key.

Which is nearly impossible anyway (in any field, not just roofing).

That's why I decided I'd make a much better single employ or sub than a straight out company owner. I just can't leave my work for other's to do. I was always too hands on.

But for me, I'd kill to do just repair work.
Make my own hours.
Not be tied down to any big projects.
Not have to worry about anybody else falling on one of my jobs.
Darn near invisible to any inspectors or regulations.

Just a free wheeling self-employed roofer.

With no real expenses (other than insurance & license fee(s) just for myself and possibly 1 part time employee), $100,000./year is more than satisfactory. With a few good years at that rate, retirement (meaning not "having" to work for a living) could be attained in just a few years.

But again, I understand...it's not worth it for you.

1 man's trash is another man's treasure.



Curious, where are you working out of (state)?

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"I've been up on the roof. I know what those guys go through.
My whole life has been about making that profession respectable."
Ken Hendricks
www.SolutionsRoofing.com

2ndGen

Exactly.

Round my way, there are only two types of professional roofers;
huge companies with over 50 employees or 1 truck "guys".

The rest of the work is picked up by General Contractors
(siding, windows, doors, roofing, gutters, caulking, sidewalks, driveways,
landscaping, painting, babysitting, car detailing, etc...).

I worked out of my house the first year; Then I grew.
Then, I stopped making money.
Then, I had to work "for" my company to maintain my yard,
office, advertising, two trucks and two crews full time.
Then I became miserable.
Then I went back to just working by myself.
Then I want back to making money again.
Then I was happy again.



There's nothing like clearing (after taxes) $400. an hour doing repair work.

That just rocks!

That, and finishing up a job by 12 and going fishing for a spell or just getting a weekend bag and taking a trip on a whim without having to worry about "business.

For me, it's better to live "like" a millionaire without actually being one
than being a millionaire and not being able to live like one.

And for me, a millionaire lifestyle is work very little & be happy with what you're doing and earn quadruple what you would working for someone else. Have nothing to tie you down. Have total freedom.

__________________
"I've been up on the roof. I know what those guys go through.
My whole life has been about making that profession respectable."
Ken Hendricks
www.SolutionsRoofing.com

Patrick

Same here, the best part is we did ZERO in CT all year. What do we get this week? 5 calls from CT sold two of them so far. What a tease. Probably going to get nothing the rest of the year

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Originally Posted by Celtic
Like I said...I'm sure you are very good at what you do ~ whatever that is and where ever it happens.

JonM

I guess it's not only the Mexican border that needs to be secured.

Patrick

At least I pay taxes

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Originally Posted by Celtic
Like I said...I'm sure you are very good at what you do ~ whatever that is and where ever it happens.

MEL

I decided to tell them that I charge $100 for an inspection and I will email a work order in advance.

No takers yet.

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MEL

fez-head

We work for those same types of nationwide maintenance companies. We told them upfront that the NTE Limits were not going to fly. I love making them squeal when they find out we charge $80 Per Man Hour plus drive time both ways and mileage.

Last month we revoked credit for all nationwide maintenance companies across the board - to them 45 days NET really meens "we'll pay you when we damn well feel like it and no we will not pay your late fees"

Let them try and find someone else that will jump through all those hoops AND carry the proper commercial/vehicle insurance for working on Shopping Mall Properties.

Mark my words the time will soon come when Retail Chains deal directly with the local contractors much like our Franchise Restaurant Clients do. They are looking for ways to cut the fat and this is a great place to start.

MrRoofer

This is where most goody two shoe roofers get killed. Not for lack of good ethics either, rather the lack of understanding from most homeowners.

Usually the minimum we charge is $1000.00.

For the most part these repairs are not warrantied anyway, so my conscience rests' well.

If they aren't interested at this point, then it's no skin or more importantly, wasted time off my ass. Then they can go and get neighbor joe to come fix it on the cheap, then call me when they realize those repairs have cost them a new roof .


Repairs are far more costly than replacements, this a fundamental thing most people do not understand. So for me the customer has to either a) Understand or b) have money in hand, for us to undertake any sort of repairs. I do not and will not have the time of day to explain the inner workings of the biz.

Them's called trade secrets yo, and they don't come easy, so they aren't going easy either. Anyone who does give it up easy is a fool.

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'I'm living on the edge!'

dougger222

If you know how to sell you can make good money doing repairs. Some home owners are smart enough to hire a professional roofing contractor to fix a problem a unlicensed roofer caused and pay accordingly.

Used to have a sub siding crew for a builder who had a bad habit of putting caulk under the tabs. Each Spring I'd spend a full day going from roof to roof fixing the bubbles. I charged $38.50 per roof and after doing 17 in two days the sider complained to me about charging so much. I sort of laughed it off and said I can't being fixing other peoples mistakes for free. He got me back good by stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in insurance dollars on roofs I'd roofed for the builder. He called the secretary and got all the names and addresses of home owners they built houses for in the hail areas. A couple home owners said "what about Doug doing the roof again?" He would tell them not to worry about him I can take care of all this.

The only money I got off my phone book add was doing repairs.

$1,000 minumal repair charge? I like it!!! As far as insurance paying for minumal roof repairs there stuck at $450. I did get one insurance company to pay $1,000 for a roof repair this year. A friend of mine a realtor/builder called at 7pm this Spring to tell me the church lost shingles in three spots and he could see decking. Got in my truck and wrote down the address on my way. Called my Dad and friend to meet there since we only had an hour of sunlight and the wind was still blowing a steady 50 mph. We got the repair done just before the rain started. I told the adjuster I will be charging more than they would like to pay but since the repair could have saved them many thousands of dollars in wood ceiling damage it was justified. The only thing he said was the three repaired spots on the roof were the best quality install on the whole 200 sq roof.

IF work ever gets slow I'll do roof repairs.

Grumpy

We do alot of repairs and at the end of the day my 1 man repair truck should net about 75% what my 5 man installation truck nets.

I prefer to do the repair T&M site unseen, sell it over the phone. However if the customer really wants an estiamte they are going to pay well for my time. $80 per man hour plus materials including travel and delivery, material costs double for profit, and on top of that another $150 for what we call mobilization which is the necessary paper work. Put that in other words, replacing 1 bundle of shingles would cost about $410. caulking a chimney may cost $225. It's going to take a tube of caulk and a half hour of time on the job, if I can get another repair in the same area I am profiting from the travel.

If they don't want to pay, oh well. On to the next. I'm not a charity.

People pay it if you ask it. I wouldn't consider writing off all repair leads unless you are swamped with new roof leads. Simply give them a price that it takes for you to make money.

Roofman20033

For years i worked for the largest roofing company in the state and they never did one repair. Now they were too busy doing full roofs though. They would average 15 new roofs per day! One month our sales team of 15 guys sold 287 roofs. Think they were making money? LOL
They had it down to a science for sure! They had 15 crews, plus yard guys, mechanics, 15 salesman and about 6 office staff. Out of all those people only the office staff were employees. Everyone else was independant contractors. The "company" had no equipment to maintain as it was all owned by the installers!

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Whitmore Lake roofers,Ann Arbor roofers,Michigan roofers www.callroofpros.com

Grumpy

If i were doing 15 roofs a day I would still have a repair division.

fez-head

That sums it up right there.

Mike Finley

And I think this does too

Grumpy

Try this next time...

OK sounds like something we can take care of. We charge very much the same as a plumber or electrician, by the hour plus the cost of materials. We have a minimum service charge of $150. The clock starts ticking when we ring the door bell.


Inevitably, the customer says they want an estimate. Ok here is my estimate: It sounds like maybe 4 or 5 hours worth of work what youa re describing to me, it could be more or less. Materials aren't that much maybe about $100 for this repair. When would you like us to be out?


If they really really want a free written estimate first, I then make a judgement call. Where are they located? Do they sound cheap? DO I have the time? If so I schedule the appointment. However that'll usually delay things 3-4 days. If they say they need it quicker, we are back to the time and material conversation.

Grumpy

My philosophy is very much the same. If I or one of my estiamtors have to drive out to a job, it takes the same ammount of time or more time to estimate a repair as it does an entire new roof. The estimators are paid commission, so if theya ren't making $50-100 or more for their time spent servicing the customer, it's just not at all worth their time. I try to explain this to customers over the phone, time is money and it'll end up costing more if we have to first estimate and write up that estimate. That's two visits to get the job done that could be done in one visit.

Where as if I send out a service tech to do the repairs, he gets a reduced commission, plus there is one one visit and one tank of gas being spent on the job. It really is a win win situation. I just have to get more customers trained to the idea of T&M in our market. MEP service contractors have it made, people expect to pay them hourly. Where did us roofers go wrong?

apehangeralfy

I love T&M jobs, takes a lot risk out some jobs that are way out of the norm.

I just did one on the beach, 4 story. 3 different flat deck balconies, 2 were tiled over and the top one was 1x6 decking over 2x4 sleepers. No access, all I could see is that it looked like Mod-Bit and there was no flashing. Cement hand rails directly on top of the wood deck. It all had to come apart just to get to the roof/deck. No way was I going to throw out a bid with that lack of info... T&M made it work out for both me and the HO cause it gave him a feeling of control also. We were there for a full week...

Grumpy

Taking apart decks is always T&M. Putting them back together is by others Plus we never warrant any removed material against breakage. Ever touch something and as soon as you do it totally falls apart on you? Especially roof decks, looks good from the top but the bottom framing is totally rotten and as soon as you take off a few roof deck boards it starts falling to pieces. Oops! but not our fault.

It's crazy when you see the carpenters using treated lumber, which I guess is ok, but putting the roof deck joists the wrong way so they block water so the joists are basically submerged all the time, then they put a fancy hardwood deck board like maybe brazillian Epee (sp?) which'll pretty much never rott. Looks good from the top, but it's a disaster beneath.

Roofer Dan

i love repair work. as a matter, the only whole roof installs i've done in the last 6 years were hail work. that's a whole other story.

i charge a "spec fee" to go out, inspect and diagnose the leak, meet the customer, and come up with a plan of action. normally up to $100, depending on location (drive time). i've got a little ranger just for this running around. then i schedule a return trip, in the van, to perform the repair. usually about 2 weeks, weather permiting.

do i clear as much as i did doing whole roof jobs? nope. but i do have lots less frustrations too. prolly about as close to retirement as i'm gonna get.

funny story:

some years back (before spec fees), i got a call from customer that had a leak in their master bath. nice custom house (read: he had money). gave him a price to tear out a valley, re-flash a chimney, and replace a soil collar. he balked at the price, told me someone told him $250.

told him that for that amount, all the guy was gonna do is go up there with a bucket of roof cement, smear it all over the place, and that it's not gonna stop the leak. then he would call me back, and the cost is gonna go up 50%, 'cause i'm gonna get that ***** all over me.

sure enough, a month later his wife calls me. ask if i can stop the water. told her about the earlier conversation with the Mr. she said she didn't care what it cost. the ceiling had just fallen in.

went back out. roof cement was still wet. Mr. wouldn't look me in the eye, as he handed over the check!

all that said, repair work ain't for everybody. seems that, at least around here, when most guys were learning this trade, they just learned HOW to do that which we do, not WHY we do what we do. those guys tend to really struggle finding the source of the leaking.

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