LIVE From IRE With ICP!

CJ Sharp talks about the excitement of bringing four different products under the ICP umbrella: Polyset, Pli-Dek, APOC and Roof Slope.  

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of an interview with ICP Group Territory Manager CJ Sharp. You can read the interview below or watch the recorded livestream. 

Karen Edwards: Hello, everyone. Welcome back. I'm Karen Edwards and coming to you live from the RoofersCoffeeShop sound stage at the 2022 International Roofing Expo in New Orleans. And I am being joined by someone who forgot to silence their cell phone. That's okay. Take your time. CJ Sharp is here with me from ICP building solutions group. And we've got a lot to talk about today. CJ. 

CJ Sharp: Now I'm red, so okay. 

Karen Edwards: Oh, it's okay. It's live TV, right? Anything can happen. So ICP just, I believe it was about a week or so ago announced their new brand and new logo. That's really exciting. 

CJ Sharp: Yes, and this is our first show to bring four different products under the ICP umbrella polyset, Pli-Dek, APOC and roof slope. 

Karen Edwards: Thank you. I would never have remembered all of those because yeah. You guys offer a lot of solutions to the roofing industry and I love the new logo. It's clean. It's modern. The colors are spot on, he's modeling it right now on his shirt. Yes. Looks fabulous. I also want to talk a little bit though, while this is the first day of the roofing expo on the show floor, there's been activities happening all week and one of those activities was yesterday. It was the community service day and we hadn't been able to do it in person. And now we're back and ICP is a sponsor I understand. 

CJ Sharp: Yes, we sponsor breakfast. This is, I believe our fourth year. It's my seventh year actually volunteering. And a few years ago I had had breakfast and I saw somebody sitting across from me and didn't know who they were and got out to the bus and realized they were here for the IRE. We didn't know each other. There was no breakfast. And I asked Brandy, I said, well, there's no breakfast. She said, well, we need somebody to sponsor it. So we did. And that was about five years ago. I was actually with a different company, sponsored it for a year and then ICP picked it up. I said, I believe it's our fourth year. 

Karen Edwards: Wow. I mean, that's important. That is your fuel for the work that goes on throughout the day. So that's a key part of the day, and I imagine you participated? 

CJ Sharp: I did, I did. 

Karen Edwards: How was it? 

CJ Sharp: And it was awesome. And you know, there are several reasons that I always look forward to this. One is we have a lot that we can give back, number one. And I want to quote a Lebanese American poet who lived about a hundred years ago and this quote really kind of describes how you feel. And this quote is "I slept and I dreamed that life is all joy. I woke and I saw that life is all service. I served and I saw that service is joy." And I thought it just really hit. I'm like, that's really how you feel when you're out there helping. There's people, there's storms have hit this area. And we've done this cities across the country too. But the homeowners are always very appreciative, and not only do we get the blessing from helping them, but we get to rub elbows with a cross section of the industry. And every year I come away with a new friend, a new acquaintance in the industry that I meet. 

Karen Edwards: When you give, you get. In so many ways. It's so true. And I've heard that over and over. And this morning in one of the class, there was a panel and one of the people was sharing the same message about how they participated in the community service day and it's just so rewarding, and that you do make friends, yeah. So anyway, let's talk about your booth. 

CJ Sharp: Yeah. It's 1627. 

Karen Edwards: And if I were to come by your booth, what am I going to see and experience there? 

CJ Sharp: We've got some live product demos going on with those products that I mentioned. ICP purchased Gardner-Gibson about a year ago that comes with the APOC brand. So we've got a variety of coating products, roof restoration products that we're showing. We also have polyurethane two-part adhesives. We're doing some demos of installing insulation boards, and also the spatter application for fleece back single ply membranes. We've got our product, it's called roof slope that we're demoing. So if you come by, I believe it starts around noon and every, maybe one-hour increments, we've got various products that you can see. So yeah, come by and see us. And, it's very informal. We like to interact with the contractors in attendance and anybody who wants to come see what we're all about.  

Karen Edwards: You know, we had a conversation earlier during our coffee conversations live and we were talking about, there's challenges with materials and that some contractors are seeing more building owners turn to options, like coatings to restore rather than replace. Which is, there's a sustainable factor to that. They're keeping material out of landfills. So if a contractor is interested in diversifying to add that as an option, how do you help them get into that? 

CJ Sharp: Well, one of the things we like to do is anytime we can help a contractor, if we can walk a roof with them, not every roof is a candidate for a coating. But yes, that's a great point about prolonging the life until you can get other products. But the other thing that I think that coatings have come a long ways and they're not just to restore, they can actually be a sustainable system that can last for many years and not just to be looked at as a quick fix. 

Karen Edwards: That's a good point. Yeah, and most come with warranties. 

CJ Sharp: They do, they do various warranties depending on the product. And we have specifications that they can follow. If they want a certain warranty for a certain length of time, et cetera. 

Karen Edwards: Do you offer certifications for contractors or training? What, tell me about that. 

CJ Sharp: We do most of our warranties, you can get a material only warranty, but to get a labor material warranty, we have to have certified contractors like most of the system manufacturers do. And then there are some requirements in the specification and some field work that needs, some of our representatives will go out, look at the roof first, depending on the size of the job, do some interim inspections and then do a final. And then of course, there's the paperwork, the documentation that comes along with that. And again, the main thing is following a specification so that the roof is installed correctly. 

Karen Edwards: Okay. Got it. So you mentioned the roof slope? 

CJ Sharp: Yes. 

Karen Edwards: Tell me about that. 

CJ Sharp: Roof slope is a product that's used to level areas. If you have a roof that has low areas, you can, it's a cementitious product that you can smooth out and then put granules over to eliminate ponding water areas. 

Karen Edwards: Excellent. Yeah. I thought that's what it was, but I wanted to hear it from the horses mouth just to be sure. And Pli-Dek? 

CJ Sharp: Pli-Dek is like a decking system. It's multi-layered, it's got a lot of possibilities with the finishes and I have to admit that's one product that I'm not quite as experienced in as the other products. 

Karen Edwards: Oh yeah, that's okay. Yeah. 

CJ Sharp: But, again, come by our booth 1627 and we've got the expert over there named Jimmy, Jimmy Holmes. And Jimmy can tell you all about Pli-Dek. 

Karen Edwards: And demos going on throughout the day. So yeah. Be sure to get by the booth you can see, witness, maybe try it out. Any show specials or anything going on, what are you giving away at your booth? 

CJ Sharp: No, we have some beer in our ColorWise cups. We have ColorWise nozzles for our adhesives. If the glue gets below 60 degrees, the nozzle will turn blue. And our motto is if the nozzle turns blue, stop your crew. But we kind of took that to make it a little fun. And we have cups, we pour the beer in and the cup turns dark blue. So kind of like the Coors can thing, when the Coors is cold enough the can turns blue, similar to that. Yeah. Come by and see us, have a beer and come talk to us. 

Karen Edwards: Nice. And if for some reason you were not able to be at the IRE this year, you can learn more about ICP, all their products, their new branding in their directory, on rooferscoffeeshop.com. It will give you links, product information, brochures, you name it, videos. Everything is out there that you need. But if you are here, do come by and see them. And then we will be coming back to you live again from the sound stage very shortly. So stay tuned, subscribe to our YouTube channel, ring that bell so you get notified and you will not miss a thing from the International Roofing Expo. CJ. Thank you. 

CJ Sharp: Thank you for having me. 

Karen Edwards: It was wonderful to have you, have a great show. 

CJ Sharp: You too. Thanks. 

Learn more about ICP Group in their RoofersCoffeeShop® Directory or visit icpgroup.com.