Doug Schultz and Josh Johnson - Keep Roofs Healthy With Frequent Inspections - PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Doug Schultz and Josh Johnson of Tremco WTI. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast.

Intro: Welcome to roofing road trips the podcast you Journey across the roofing from fascinating interviews with roofing experts to on the Adventures will uncover the stories innovation so 

Karen Edwards: Hello and welcome to another episode of roofing road trips from roofer coffee shop my name is Karen Edwards and in today's episode we are welcoming the team from Tremco and WTI to talk about the importance of roof inspections and maintenance for maintaining that roof health so Doug Schultz Josh Johnson welcome to the program thank 

Josh Johnson: You Karen thank 

Doug Schultz: You very much 

Karen Edwards: All right so let's get started first by telling us a little bit about you so Doug maybe you could introduce yourself tell us what you do at trimco and talk about how you got into the roofing industry cuz i always find that kind of interesting too. 

Doug Schultz: Okay, so I'll be with Tremco WTI it'll be eleven years coming up september fifteen i actually was a correctional officer for fifteen years before this job and i had the luck of having one of my neighbors is Joe lee and he is the rbm for the Gulf coast region and uh we became friends and one day just saying. Hey we're hiring and i was kind of looking for a change and you know this job so i thought what the Heck let me give the shot and so i started out as a tech you know going all the roofs and doing passenger Repair and then about four years in i was able to get onto the inspection sign and then about five years in one year later the inspection Foreman became open the guy that was there went to work for a sales rep and the spot opened up and Joe asked me if i like you know put in fill fill that spot and i did and I've been here been about five years now five or six years been in inspection Foreman for the Gulf coast region which includes Alabama, Georgia, Florida and puerto rico. 

Karen Edwards: Oh, wow. Yeah so en miss Mississippi 

Doug Schultz: En Mississippi 

Karen Edwards: En Mississippi. Ok, so do you do you have a lot of time on the road I'm sure right Josh tell us a little bit about you sure 

Josh Johnson: So I'm currently one of the golf coast regional supervisors my territory is basically all of southwest and southeast Florida i work with a couple different sales reps I've got a couple Foreman under me and and basically i started the same way Doug did started you know as tech came in with the company and also i i came into this company because of Joe lee same guy. He we had mutual friends i had been in the in the trades all my life i did custom cabinetry for Twenty years and and in and out of some different construction type items and and whatnot so always always been in the trades in in some form fashion. He i wanted to you know possibly come on board with them doing some roofing and i was moving down to Florida at the time and it sound like a great opportunity for me you know like i said i love being in the trades and this was just a new opportunity something something new to learn and but a lot of my background could could cross over into this so i took the chance and and came on board and and it was just a great fit i i worked as a tech for about four years and then got promoted to a Foreman and i did that for about five or six years then most recently got promoted to a supervisor so its been a great company to work for a great opportunity and you know there's always room for Growth sos 

Karen Edwards: That's fantastic i know that we we've talked with wt i team a lot and everybody has said the same thing it's great place to work great culture so glad good to see you Guys as well and that you've been there so long so let's talk a little bit about what wt how their approach to roof inspections kind of set it apart from other providers in the industry you know what's your what's your secret sauce if you can tell us 

Doug Schultz: Sure so what we've done with WTI is we've actually developed individual teams across the Nation to drive commitment and consistency to complete the inspections for the entire Nation other roofing companies don't do that and actually quite frankly we didn't do that in the very beginning it was all kind of scattered around it almost used it like if they needed hours if they if text needed hours they would jump to the trim carere side and and go on those Jobs when the passenger repairs kind of slowed up well Joey kind of took a different approach and we just focused we got these teams together and we focused just on the inspections and it really helped to drive the consistency up and and you know get our backlog down so that's what we do that's different is we we have individual teams that specialize just in the inspections don't do any Repair. 

Karen Edwards: Ok, ok, so lets talk a little bit about the tricare program because i knows different levels of service involved and can you just explain like what it is what's included why a building owner should consider signing up 

Doug Schultz: Sure so our main objective is to have the life of the roof last as long as possible so we offer trim carere gold trim carere plat platinum service those services include we're gonna give you the core construction info of your roof if you didn't already know what that was we'll give you the perimeter details and conditions of the roof. Um, we're gonna let you know if any penetrations need attention we're gonna give you the overall roof conditions and any problems that we see we're gonna offer recommendations in order to keep your roof system lasting as long as possible and functioning properly we do we do also perform housekeeping with the trim care so we're gonna clean out your gutters clean out your drains and just clean the roof in general especially in like high forced areas and areas with trees all around them they really get clogged up and it can really be detrimental to the root system you want to keep all that debris off and all the water from ponding if you can from the root system so it doesn't have premature deterioration we're also gonna perform preventing the maintenance we have what we call it a three to five on every roof meaning we're gonna perform three to five different repairs for that roof for each roof section so we're actually not just looking at the roof and taking pictures and sending overviews and we're actually Performing housekeeping and preventing the maintenance on each roof section with either the trim tricare gold or tricare platinum we're also gonna provide the customer with work perform pictures so they'll be able to see what we what we did before and after pictures of the work performed we'll have overviews in the report as well to so you know what roof section we're on and give you an overview of that roof section they're also gonna have drawings and measurement so you'll have what we call a shaded drawing where you'll be able to look at your facility look at the number of roof and tell how big it is and what condition it's in to our shaded drawings and we're gonna note anything out of spec if we see something that's not up the roofing standards we're gonna let you know about that and we give you anything out of ordinary of the details penetrations or flashings and last but not least we also offer a Leak response so if you get the trim care platinum or gold during that timeframe we will come out to your facility if you call if there's leaks and you have a Leak call now the only difference is for platinum we do not Charge for leaks and on gold we do Charge for leaks so that's a little difference on that but other than that the tricare gold and platinum are essentially the same. 

Karen Edwards: Okay, I'm curious just to know what types of roof do you have this for any type of roof any material any system out there 

Doug Schultz: Yes yep we deal with single play modify min gravel y pdm metal roofs yes maam any roof you can think of we can put a trim care on nice 

Karen Edwards: Nice. Okay, so im curious to know cuz, I'm sure you have stories you go on a lot of roofs right so have you had any success stories where you were able to really help a building owner address an issue that was on the Verge of becoming something really bad 

Doug Schultz: We talked about that and one of the one of the examples that he wanted me to bring up was. Um, we had a big customer down in Miami that had all new roofs and then they hired us to perform the trim cares on them and after fifteen years of being on the roof they just need to be restored at this point instead of being replaced so if we wouldn't have been on the roof taking care of Preventive maintenance and the housekeeping and any issues that came up kind of nipp them in the bud most likely all those roofs would've had been replaced so we were able to save the customer a lot of money by doing our prevent the maintenance with the trim care and they just have to be restored now so it kind of gave them some peace of mind as far as spending a little bit every year and then at the very end you're not you know you don't have to spend a ton of money we can just do a Restoration which is relatively cheaper than replacement yeah 

Karen Edwards: Are you seeing more building owners opting to to do the restorations after ten or fifteen years you know of having that maintenance just seems like es such a Growing area. 

Doug Schultz: Es es we specialize in is the restorations so yes a la building owners 11 they reach the point something needs to be done most of them for Restoration because it is a little financially cheaper and we do give great warranties on that as well so as long as you know 11 we do our test we can determine whether it's capable of being a Restoration you know make sure there's not too much a wet insulation or the roof's not too far gone yes most building owners would choose to do Restoration over replacement okay 

Josh Johnson: And not to mention that it's less intrusive a lot of buildings that we work on are they're sensitive to some degree hospitals schools stuff like that to where you know they got Guys climbing around up there and tearing their roof off banging around it's hard to have a classroom underneath that right but we can be up there restoring the roof applying a Liquid applied monolith coding on the roof and they hardly even know where there you know other than they'll see the Materials and they'll know you know the roof is flagged off but ver its very quiet it's you know es less intrusive than to go in there and start tearing their roof apart you know and that's why hospitals like it a lot too because for the same reason you know they've got sensitive areas maybe for smells for just you know ventilation purposes its much harder to control that when you're doing a tear off than it is for us to come in and just do a Restoration so there you know Beyond the monetary value of it just there's a lot of other factors that Weigh too that make it much more appealing to a business owner en a facility director 

Karen Edwards: Sure not to mention you're keeping the old roof out of a land right correct 

Josh Johnson: That well thats a huge 

Karen Edwards: So i wanna Circle back to Doug you you shared a lot of information with what you do and what you give to the building owner how do you put that together to make it easy for them to understand and access it what es that look like a report 

Doug Schultz: Yes ma'am so what we do is we have a tablet that we take on the roof it has the edge program that we've developed and it. Has all the important questions and spot to fill in as far as you know the year the roof penetration you know any issues any problems 11 we input all our information into the tablet we upload it and then it goes to a QC process with our company and then we generate a very nice professional report that Gives you budgets on there it'll give you every roof section that we did it'll give you all the information that we input it into the tablet and it puts it in a nice form in a nice report easy to read and that way the customer has that and they can use that moving forward with their budget to decide what roofs need to be either replaced or restored. Um going forward yeah 

Karen Edwards: I was curious about that because you know you can only do repairs and maintenance for so long before a roof gets to the point where it's gonna either have to be replaced or go through that Restoration so how does you know having that routine i would imagine that's really valuable for the building owner or the facility manager because they could almost do year to year comparisons right of condition correct 

Doug Schultz: Yes they sure can we go out sometimes we go out twice a year most Jobs most customers we go out 11 a year and then yes 11 they get the report they can definitely. Compare the reports from last year from the previous years and see whether you know the roofs are deteriorating at a faster rate than normal or or slower rate another thing to take into mind with deterioration of a roof is how much foot traffic they have if you got a lot of air conditioners and events and whatnot on top of a roof chances are you gonna have a lot more professional like h. VC Guys up there elevator Guys up there there's more foot traffic and the more foot traffic you have those Guys are for dropping things on the roof and then next person comes by and steps on it now of a sudden you get a hole on the roof so the more foot traffic you have definitely add to that as well are you 

Karen Edwards: Able to make recommendations for you know you're doing maintenance and repairs but if they do have a lot of foot traffic do you have like we could put walkway pads we could do you know are you looking for those kind of small wins for the building. 

Josh Johnson: Oh, absolutely en thats the inspection process for us too is not only to you know help to maintain their facility but also to you know look for any any sort of patch Repair items that that may exist up there you know and and will give them those recommendations and then it's up to the customer whether or not they wanna spend any additional money to do dos at that time some of 'em aren necessarily detri to the you know life of the roof but they may be something that's important at the time to just you know keep in the drive just to prolonga life for that roof we do always try to make recommendations for any sort of patching Repair items as well 

Karen Edwards: Ya and talk a little bit about safety too are you you know en terms of if they do have HVAC units and other traffic on the roof are you Guys you know pointing out ways that if you have people coming up here we want one to not damage the roof but we wanna make sure anybody on the roof stays safe are you making safety recommendations at all. Oh, yeah 

Josh Johnson: All the time in fact there's a lot of different codes on commercial buildings that require certain safety railings and tie off points to be on the roof for you know mechanical workers or as the roofers up there you know as far as even access points you know if we're accessing that roof through a hatch that we have to climb ladder go a hatch onto the roof you know no en most cases pretty much any commercial building they require a safety railing around that hatch so that if the hatch is open or whatever and you're up there well that's a fall hazard it's an open it's an opening in the roof that someone can fall through so you know the requirement is to have safety railing with a safety gate that goes into the area where the ha is so if they don't have that that's you know always number one recommendation anywhere that mechanicals are within don't quote me on this thinks six to ten feet you know they required have safety railing along the edge of the building so you know of course we would look into all those things and make sure that all these recommendations are accurate and true but there are definitely safety things that we're constantly looking for um that will make our Jobs easier as well make any contractor o mechanical contractor their job safe as well 

Karen Edwards: Really partnering that building owner o facility manager to not only make sure the roof system is Performing but to make sure that the building overall es safe and that reducing liability right correct 

Josh Johnson: Any accessories that on that roof like a buildings have skylights know skylights are huge hazard especially on metal roofs they have fiberglas skylight panels a times weather aged and they start to kind of blend in with the roof panels the metal panels and it gets hard hard to see where those fiberglass panels are 11 they're aged and weather they're very britto personal go right through one y step on it you just go through it so you know we offer all kinds of different safety items for those kind of of skylights as well as dom skylights and skylights that sit on curbs and anything else a a roof system that would keep someone from falling through that you know different different types of safety screens en fall prevention items that has safeguard dos items as well 

Karen Edwards: Yas really important you know people don't ever think about the roof until there's a problem o there's an issue so i always say its like changing the oil on your car or going to the dentist you know it just makes sense to have someone come up there check for issues make any repairs ya this is this is a great program how does somebody that's listening to this you know what i think i need to do something like this for my roof how do they how do they get started well 

Doug Schultz: What we'd have to do is line 'em up with local area rep deciding depending on what area the country they were in we got reps across the whole country what they would do is they'd have a meeting with the rep we get the customer and a rep and maybe a supervisor forman with them they'd walk the roof they'd look at the needs of the roofs to include you know the age of the roof foot traffic of the roof is it have leaks right now when's the last time it was replaced a restored and 11 they get a general consensus of all that the sales guy will make a recommendation you know hey i think we should put a trim care gold on this for twice a year because you got a lot of trees around your building right. Mm-hmm. So we don't we wanna make sure everything stays unclogged and and working properly so basically we start with a meeting with local sales rep and then 11 they get everything in order we get a po then i would send my team out there to perform the trim care the inspection and we'd gather all the information that we went over a little earlier as far as like the core what's in the core of the roof what's it made of any issues anything we see sticking out that needs to be addressed right away and then we make recommendations on that 

Karen Edwards: So whats your website 

Josh Johnson: Tremco roofing do com 

Karen Edwards: Easy tremco roofing dot com you can find information there tremco WTI have full directories on roofer coffee shopp dot com as well so contact information is there links to the website this has been really informational i wanna thank you both for being here and for sharing what you're doing out there every day in the field thank you 

Josh Johnson: Yeah thank you thank you very much for your time and getting us involved in this it's wonderful yeah 

Karen Edwards: Thanks to for sharing 

Doug Schultz: Yeah yes thanks Karen i appreciate it it's really great to be able to get on here and let everybody know that's listening what we're what we're about what we're involved with and yeah if you have any questions or any you know you wanna talk to a local sales rep please get ahold of us and we'll be more than happy to set something up and get the ball rolling 

Karen Edwards: Nice all right thank you everybody out there for listening to this episode be sure to subscribe and follow us on your favorite podcast platform because we wanna see you on a future episode byebye if 

Outro: You've enjoyed the ride en roofing adventure make sure to visit shopp dot com to learn more thanks for tuning in and we'll catch you on the next roofing.