LIVE From IRE With DaVinci!

How composite roofing is an excellent solution to deliver a beautiful final product.

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of an interview with General Manager at DaVinci Roofscapes Mark Pagel. You can read the interview below or watch the recorded livestream. 

Karen Edwards: Hello, everyone. And welcome back to the Roofers Coffee Shop soundstage at the International Roofing Expo 2022 in New Orleans. That is a mouthful. And right now, I'm Karen Edwards, and I'm being joined by Mark from DaVinci Roofscapes. Welcome, Mark. 

Mark Pagel: Thank you very much. 

Karen Edwards: Tell me what you do there. 

Mark Pagel: I'm the general manager for DaVinci Roofscapes. Been with DaVinci now, just over two years. Been with our parent company for about 11 years now. So very excited to see the growth that we've had at DaVinci and fun being here at the show right now. 

Karen Edwards: It is a great show. It's fun being here and seeing everybody in person, but there are people who couldn't make it. And that's one of the reasons why we're doing these interviews, because we want to bring a little bit of the show to you. Now, DaVinci had a big announcement come out just a few days ago. And that was the acquisition, the combining to the Westlake Royal building products brand. 

Mark Pagel: That's correct. Yeah. 

Karen Edwards: Tell me what that means for the company's. 

Mark Pagel: Well, it's very exciting for the Westlake Company.DaVinci Roofscapes has been a part of Westlake now, for almost three years at this point. But part of the bigger acquisition just in the last several months has been North American, which has really made Westlake's building products group a substantial player in the industry. And so now we're going through the integration of how do we brand these things together? 

So the big announcement is the branding, everything under Westlake Royal building products, and then there's the Westlake Roofing Solutions Group as well. So Westlake Royal Roofing Solutions Group.  

Karen Edwards: It's exciting. 

Mark Pagel: It is exciting. Yeah. Very exciting. 

Karen Edwards: It's going to meet a lot of good things for the industry too. 

Mark Pagel: Absolutely. 

Karen Edwards: I love it. I love it. So one of the things that we hear a lot at the show is people want to know about materials, they want to know about supplies. What can I get, when can I get it? And a lot of contractors are looking for options and ways to diversify their businesses. Maybe you can't get those asphalt shingles that you need. Maybe your customer is interested in, in a product that's going to last longer than 20, 25 years. 

So we had a recent ... RLW, Read, Listen, Watch webinar with some contractors on, and some folks from DaVinci talking about how to incorporate that solution, composite roofing, into a business. Are you seeing more contractors doing this? 

Mark Pagel: Oh, absolutely. We've seen tremendous growth over the last three, four years at DaVinci. And a large part of that is because of the unique niche within the roofing market segment that we fit. We've been able to produce product consistently at a very high quality, to go with some of the more recent shipping issues that some of our competitors have had, as well as the restrictions on shipping cedar, natural Cedar products, natural slate products into the United States. So we fit a really nice niche within the industry. 

Again, our parent company has been tremendous on allowing us to grow, putting investment into the company. So our capacity has grown pretty substantially over the last couple years as well. And that's really allowed us to take on the extra business that really the industry is looking for and have found what we do to be the right fit for many projects over the last couple years. 

Karen Edwards: If you don't know, DaVinci makes what looks like slate and what looks like cedar. 

Mark Pagel: That's correct. 

Karen Edwards: Very, very convincing. 

Mark Pagel: That's right. Yeah. 

Karen Edwards: That's lighter weight, that's more resilient, and that lasts a very long time. 

Mark Pagel: Yeah, that's correct. Yeah. We specialize in the synthetic natural products we do. We do make a very nice, very architecturally accurate slate product, as well as couple different cedar shake- looking product. 

Again, we've been able to take over a part of the market that's really been in great need because of just the lack of the future natural products. And architecturally, we've been able to find a very nice niche there that fits for our contractors, designers, architects throughout. 

Karen Edwards: There are a lot of older homes in the US, especially in the Eastern part, Northeast, that were built many years ago, with beautiful slate roofs, that are on historic registers. And the DaVinci product often is accepted to meet those standards of maintaining the original look. 

Mark Pagel: That's absolutely correct. We have a very robust sales process, where we do a lot of work with restoration of historic facilities. We've got a number of projects throughout the United States, really, of like you said, historic buildings that have been able to work with our slate products and the shake products for that matter. And it's because of the work that we've done with the architectural community, as well as the historic design communities. And a lot of it's done at the grassroots level, in a specific market, because there's different requirements. But the products that we manufacture meet all the requirements and have been a very much an accepted product to replace the natural products over time. 

Karen Edwards: And I just wanted to mention with the cedar shake roofs, there is very, with natural cedar, very little fire resistance, very little ... While it looks really nice. So by having this synthetic, that looks just like the Cedar, but you're getting that those fire resistant properties. 

Mark Pagel: Correct, yeah. It's a class A fire rated product that we're able to produce and meets the flame spread requirements that many communities are demanding. And a lot of [inaudible 00:06:30] codes are asking for that. Again, the natural products don't meet that requirement. And so, we maintain the look that they're looking for and meet the safety requirements for the product. 

Karen Edwards: So if I'm a contractor looking to add DaVinci to my product offerings, how do I get started? 

Mark Pagel: Well, you can look us up at davinciroofscapes.com We have strong partnerships with all the major distribution companies throughout the country. They all are very familiar with DaVinci and what we do. You can call into our ... In our office, we have a kind of a unique thing that we do. We have a project coordinator that will work with new customers, kind of walk them through the process, making selections for homes, work with the homeowners, work with the contractors, work with the designers throughout the process. And that's really something that's that sets us apart from our competition. 

Karen Edwards: Oh, yeah. That's support is critical to satisfied contractor, satisfied homeowners and a good experience for everyone. Wow. 

Mark Pagel: Very important. 

Karen Edwards: If you're coming to the International Roofing Expo and you want to see, feel, touch DaVinci, don't just take our word for it, stop by booth 17, 37. 

Mark Pagel: That's correct. 17, 37. And we'll all be there with smiles on. So we're looking forward to seeing you. 

Karen Edwards: Well, thank you. 

Learn more about DaVinci Roofscapes.