Contractor Trying to Survive in City that Shutdown Construction

By Karen L. Edwards, RCS Editor.

MSN recently shared a story that chronicled how San Francisco-based Lawson Roofing Co. is struggling amidst to COVID-19 pandemic.

Lawson Roofing Co. is a 113-year old company that was started by former NRCA chair Frank Lawson, Jr.’s grandfather in 1907, the year after the infamous 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The article reports that the company has survived many things, including the earthquake that struck Candlestick Park just before the start of the 1989 World Series Game 3 between the Oakland Athletics and the San Francisco Giants. Lawson Roofing was in the middle of a reroofing job at the Park. 

Frank, who runs the company today with his brother Richard, tells MSN they have never experienced anything like this current pandemic saying, “I can’t think of anything in my lifetime like it. “It’s changed our life.”

The company still has about 80 percent of their 100-man crew on hand and are currently working about 70-75 percent of their projects, but they’ve seen a 50 percent drop in bid requests. Frank is happy though that he is not in residential roofing as all of those projects have come to a standstill.

He shared with Grant Marek of SFGate that the company was working on a large, new construction pharma building that in mid-March was deemed essential because it would be producing medicine. Yet in just two weeks it was suddenly considered non-essential and then the San Francisco mayor extended the ban until May 3. Projects considered essential are healthcare directly related to COVID-19, affordable housing projects, those who provide service to vulnerable populations and construction necessary to keep essential businesses habitable and safe, reports MSN.

Frank says it’s frustrating because of the lack of consistency. He told Marek, “It changes every day. It’s hard to keep up. We work for a lot of general contractors, each one has their own specific pandemic policy, and those are different than trade organizations, and those are different than health organizations. And each municipality is different. No one is producing a universal doc we can go by.”

He also worries what projects underway might run into financing issues and says the company may have to go into different markets outside their norm in order to stay afloat once this pandemic ends and restrictions are lifted.

Things are changing every day, even every hour. That’s why RoofersCoffeeShop created a special coronavirus page where you can check daily for the latest information, articles, webinars and podcasts related to COVID-19.