George Bock & Mark Newman - Stories From the Roof - PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with George Bock from Midwestern Commercial Roofers and Mark Newman from Duro-Last. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast. 

Megan Ellsworth: Welcome to Stories from The Roof, from rooferscoffeeshop.com, where we tell the stories of roofing professionals from around the globe.
Hello, everyone. My name is Megan Ellsworth here at rooferscoffeeshop.com, and we are back with a Stories from the Roof podcast, and I'm so excited to be here with George Bock and Mark Newman. Hi, gentlemen. How are you doing?

George Bock: Hello. Good morning. Good afternoon.

Mark Newman: Doing good.

Megan Ellsworth: Glad to hear it. Let's dive right in and have each of you just go ahead and introduce yourself and your name, company, and what you do there. Mark, why don't we start with you?

Mark Newman: Okay. My name is Mark Newman. I'm the Duro-Last sales rep for the state of Mississippi. Been in this position for three years. Prior to that, I was a sub rep under Phil Davis, which was the Duro-Last rep for about 29 and a half years here in Mississippi. That's kind of where I am.

Megan Ellsworth: Great. Awesome. George, how about you?

George Bock: My name's George Bock. I'm president of Midwestern Commercial Roofers out of Mobile, Alabama. I'm an old timer, been around 51 years in the roofing industry and I put down a lot of Duro-Last.

Megan Ellsworth: That's awesome. Glad to hear it. Well, we love Duro-Last here at Roofers Coffee Shop. Let's do a little background question really quick. How did you get into roofing, George?

George Bock: 51 years ago, a good friend of mine told me it was a good opportunity and I took it and I did all the work myself. Over the years, I built a pretty large company now.

Megan Ellsworth: That's great.

George Bock: We do business in 18 to 20 states.

Megan Ellsworth: Wow, amazing. Mark, how did you fall into roofing?

Mark Newman: Well, let's see. I started working with my future father-in-law back in 93. So I haven't been in the business as long as George has by any stretch of means, but...

George Bock: I'm old, Mark.

Mark Newman: That's right, that's right. I started when I was in high school. I did try college for a few weeks. That is for a few weeks, found out it wasn't for me, actually just kept roofing with my father-in-law and kind of worked my way up from estimator all the way up to the president of the company when I left in 2017, so...

Megan Ellsworth: That's great. Awesome. Well, let's talk about the church project that you guys worked on together. Can you give us an overview of the First Baptist Church project, scope of job, material you chose? What did it look like?

George Bock: Mark, you want me to cover that?

Mark Newman: Yeah, George, go right ahead.

George Bock: Okay. Mark brought us a project to bid on, that was First Baptist Church. He sold the project and he'll have to explain to you how they landed on the way they were going to do it, the specifications and so forth. But the church had sustained substantial damage from a hurricane on a shingle roof, and they had over a thousand leaks and they have over a thousand members. It's a very large church. So they went to Duro-Last, worked with Mark and Mark worked out the details to put a vinyl roof system down, a Duro-Last rib. What we did, we went in and we tore off the existing shingle roof and we went down to the nail base insulation. We mechanically attached a one and a half inch polyiso roof insulation board into the metal deck. Then we installed a half inch deck cell, hardboard, and then we adhered with C20 splatter, a Duro-Last 60 mil fleece back, and the vinyl ribs were then installed on the 16-inch center. It was a very tough project. Let's just put it that way, but it's beautiful now.

Megan Ellsworth: That's great. Yeah, that sounds like a tough project and you describe it as one of the largest vinyl rib systems in the country, at 90,000 linear ribs. How did you get it to look like a metal roof with no seams?

George Bock: A lot of time. I have a very good team of installers and a good management, and the manager on the project stayed on the project a lot, from Mobile, and we put a team of welders on it and we tried using the equipment set for it. It wasn't quite right because what we did, the church wanted to look at this like it was a metal roof system. So we ran the sheets from top to bottom without any butt joints. Then we used the metal rib system to cover the joints. So all you see is a gray roof with gray vinyl ribs, and that's hard to do. It took a lot of painstaking time with a welding machine to go down on every one of these ribs. Think about it, 90,000 plus feet ribs, and 90,000 plus feet welding.

To keep it straight, was over a large complex, it was very hard, but they took the time. We didn't get in a hurry. Once we got the roof pretty much established and we started the metal ribs and... It took us a couple of months, wouldn't you say, Mark?

Mark Newman: Yes, exactly.

George Bock: Now the church, for the first time, they don't have a thousand leaks. I have a thousand satisfied customers, plus there's hundreds of thousands of people pass this church every day on Interstate 10, and it's very nice to look at. On top of that, the church was talking to us a while back, now they're saving money on their energy bill also.

Megan Ellsworth: Oh, well that's always an added bonus.

George Bock: That was an added bonus.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah. Mark, why do you think they chose vinyl rib over metal?

Mark Newman: Yeah, there were a couple of reasons why. We met with an architect out at the beginning of this project and this project, it goes back a couple of years in the making, so it wasn't something that happened overnight. They did have damage, as George said, from a hurricane, and they kind of dealt with that damage for a while. They had temporary roofs on this thing for a while. But we met with an architect out there on the site. They looked at a couple of different options. They looked at standing seam metal. Of course, they didn't want to go back with shingles because they kept having issues every time a hurricane came through or they had high wind, they would lose shingles. But we did look at the standing seam option. Then we started talking about doing the PVC membrane with the vinyl ribs.

Of course it took several meetings. It took meetings with committees and church staff and that kind of stuff, to come up with a game plan. There was a couple of deciding factors in the end. One was sound. They were afraid that a standing seam metal roof on a project that large, especially on the sanctuary, they would hear a lot of rain and stuff when it would come through during service. The other thing was, as George pointed out, is on the PVC, we were able to run the membrane from the eave all the way up to the top with no butt joints. Well, with standing seam, you're limited on the length of the panel and they were going to have some end laps. That was the other factor that they just did not want to contend with, was having end lapse on their standing seam metal. So again, a couple of different things that they looked at. In the end, the vinyl rib system won over the project.

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Megan Ellsworth: So why are you both so proud of this project?

George Bock: It's a project to be proud of. Number one, we satisfied a large group of people. When you walk into church and see over a thousand ceiling tiles falling out, it's not really something the public wants to do. Now you can walk in a church and everything's perfect. So not only do we have a great customer now, that is satisfied, we have over a thousand customers. Then every time someone drives by it on the interstate, they look at it, I'm probably smiling in the background, but like I said, it's just a beautiful job. Our guys took their time.

Megan Ellsworth: Mark, why are you so proud of it?

Mark Newman: Well, I think a couple of things. One is it met the owner's need. They were in need of a roof. Then on top of that, it showcases an awesome product choice with the vinyl rib. Not only does it look good, but it performs great. Then last thing is it showcases Midwestern's excellent workmanship. It is a showpiece, George has used that word more than once. It is a showpiece. Definitely if you drive by and look at it... From I-10, somebody looks at it, they think, well, that's a great looking standing seam metal. They do not know that it's a PVC membrane and it looks that good and the workmanship is that great.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah.

George Bock: I think we're all proud of it. Like I said, excuse me, I had a great manager that took his extra time from the office, Brian Schaferdus, to go over there and even keep up with the men and help them maintain the quality. We had quality control all through this job and my guys became very proud of it. My men became very proud. So we have a good team. We put together a great team of managers and they've all done a good job. Like I said, I wish I could claim all the benefit, but Daniel Smith kept on top of it with Brian.

Megan Ellsworth: Well, that's really cool, that the quality control was there through every step of the process. That's so important. No wonder you're so proud of it. Well, congratulations both on a great project and a happy customer. That's always the best end result.
We're going to pivot a little bit now. What makes you smile when you think about your job?

George Bock: My job? Well, and believe it or not, roofing is a creative job. We've taken projects that you wouldn't believe how bad they look. When we finish, they look beautiful and they don't have leaks. Like Mark said, they're maintaining waterproof buildings now and the people are happy. Anytime a customer is happy and... We try to maintain to where all of our customers are glad to see us and they're still glad when we leave, they're not glad to see us leave. But the thing of it is, they no longer have leaks and they deal with the management team and good people. It just makes me smile when you see something that looks this good. Even knowing the amount of time it took us to do it, we would've taken twice that amount of time if it was necessary. It wasn't about money, profit, anything else. of course all of business is about money, but it was about the fact that you look at it and you smile and you're proud of it, and you've made a lot of people happy.

Megan Ellsworth: Well said. Mark, what makes you smile when you think about your job, supporting great contractors like George here?

Mark Newman: Yeah, just the ability to be able to help. I was always taught the customer's always right. It doesn't matter if I'm dealing with contractors like George, which George doesn't need a lot of help from me as a sales rep. But then you go to the architect that might need help or the building owner that needs help. Then when you're done, you've satisfied all three. That's what makes you happy at the end, so...

George Bock: But don't forget, if Mark hadn't done what he did working with all the committees and the church and the architect, this job never would've happened, because he showed them the best product to put on this roof. I just got the pleasure of putting it down.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah. Duro-Last, what a great, great product it is truly. What do you think is the most important trait a roofer should have?

George Bock: Honesty and integrity and be able to look at someone and know you've given them the best possible job you can give them. Plus, I believe that you treat people the way you want to be treated. Just honest integrity. If you can sleep at night, and some people can sleep and they shouldn't, don't get me wrong, but if you can lay your head down on the pillow at night and smile knowing that you've done the best you can, it might not be perfect, but it's honesty and integrity. You've done the best you can.

Megan Ellsworth: Mark, what do you think the most important trait is in a roofer?

Mark Newman: Yeah, I would agree with George wholeheartedly. I've also been on the contracting side of it, so I've seen that side of it and the sales side of it. Just have a great work ethic and we're missing that a lot today in the roofing industry is just... I don't know if it's a younger generation that does not have the same work ethic that we had growing up. Just go out and be dependable, be trustworthy, hey, tell the truth, and just some simple things make a great employee.

Megan Ellsworth: Agreed. George, last question here, or second to last question. Why do you go with Duro-Lasts?

George Bock: It's a great material. I've been in business... Like I told you earlier, I formed my company 51 years ago. I incorporated it 50 years ago. I've been doing this my whole life and I've seen products come and go and then come and stay around. I've seen products' formulas change. I've done every type of roofing just about out there. We work in a wide area. Like I said, 18 to 20 states. I have a roof I put down in Wyoming, I'm out of Mobile. But we've done Michigan, we've done all the states in the Midwest, Southeast. Well, with that being said, I want to put down a roof I can trust. I can't afford to go back. The roof in Wyoming, I can't afford to go back there for a leak call or for a problem with the roof. So when I leave the Duro-Last roof and they have great inspectors, they come out and do a tough inspection, make sure it's perfect, and we can leave there and not worry to have to go back. It's a good product and good people.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah.

George Bock: Good people to deal with like Mark.

Megan Ellsworth: All right. Well lastly, how long have you both been a part of Roofers Coffee Shop?

George Bock: Well, on and off, always.

Megan Ellsworth: That's awesome.

George Bock: Whenever you get a chance, can listen and learn something. Also listen to some of our friends.

Megan Ellsworth: Yeah. What would you say, Mark, is your favorite thing about Roofers Coffee Shop?

Mark Newman: Just the ability to be able to listen to others. You can always learn more, whether it be different contractor experiences, different rep experiences, whatever. There's always more to be learned in the roofing industry, so it's great.

Megan Ellsworth: Well, thank you both so much for chatting with me today. This has been great. I hope you have a great day. For all of those listening out there, we'll be back with another Stories from the Roof episode every month.

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