Day in the Life of WTI’s Garry Edwards

By Karen L. Edwards, RCS Editor.

Garry shares how he started in roofing and what it’s like working at Weatherproofing Technologies, Inc.

If you’ve been following along over the past year or so, you know that RCS has been writing about a day in the life of employees who work at Weatherproofing Technologies, Inc., a Tremco company.  This month I spoke with Garry Edwards, WTI project manager and supervisor of superintendents.

I always like to learn more about the person that I am meeting before we get into what their day is like. Garry shared with me that he has been in roofing for 39 years! He started as a youngster when he lived in England, working for this father’s roofing company. After learning he wasn’t eligible to join the military in England, he and his father headed to California and continued to work in roofing.

“I started from the bottom,” Garry shared. “I was a roof runner, a kettle man and then I started running hot tar commercial crews. Roofing is hard on your body, so I took the opportunity about 13 years ago to take on the challenge of being a project superintendent for WTI.”

In Garry’s role he functions as the project manager and supervisor for all the project superintendents. He says that in this role, his team’s job is to be there for the customer and to make sure that the job is running smoothly.  He said his team is great, professional and “well-versed in roofing.”

There really isn’t a typical day for Garry. He starts around 5 a.m. and spends the day fielding phone calls, catching up on computer work, reviewing specifications and providing support and training to his team. He appreciates working from his home office but says he still travels a lot for work.

Summertime is the busy season. “We do a lot of schoolwork, so we have to do it when school is out,” explained Garry. “We are always on the move in the summer.” No matter how busy it gets, Garry says that safety is always first. “Every Monday morning, we all are on the phone on a toolbox talk. Our team knows to put safety first on every jobsite.”

Garry really enjoys his team and working for WTI saying, “It’s a good company to work for, it’s like a family.” This is certainly a theme that we have seen throughout the Day in the Life series.  

I asked Garry if he had any advice for someone considering a career in roofing and he said, “It’s a liberating profession, you’re working outdoors, and you have a certain amount of freedom. If you like challenges roofing is a good profession for you but you can’t be afraid to work and learn. We are all going to make mistakes – it’s part of learning, but if you keep making the same mistakes, you’re not learning.”

Does this sound like a company you’d like to work for? Check out their open positions.