Meet Jon Cunningham – Answer Me This! Winner

By Cass Jacoby. 

Each week someone wins a prize for answering a question, next week’s winner could be you!  

The Answer Me This! giveaway is sponsored by Gibraltar Building Accessories as part of their ‘Construction Solutions’ campaign designed to help them build products based on contractor feedback. Participating is easy! Simply answer one simple question and you’ll be entered into a drawing for a prize. If selected as the winner, you’ll get your choice of prize from an RCS box of love, donuts or a pizza! 

Our newest winner is Jon Cunningham, owner of the metal shop drawing company Innerwall. We recently spoke with him about his experience in the roofing industry and his answer to our Answer Me This! question: Do you prefer 12-inch or 16-inch soffit? Which one do you prefer and why? 

“We've been in the business for about 22 years,” says Jon. “We used to do trim carpentry, my wife and I. We had five crews, and in 2000, when we had our first kid, we thought we just wanted to get out of actual physical construction...So, I applied to work at a metal manufacturer, Garland Industries, and got employed by them. That was 23 years ago, actually coming up.” 

Jon tells us that his first employer became his first customer when he became a small business. He loves doing shop drawings, which has really informed his answer to our Answer Me This! Question. Jon says he prefers a 12-inch soffit based on all the shop drawings his company does.  

“We see literally hundreds and hundreds of projects over the years, and not only is a 12 inch stronger than a 16 inch, but every time we do, let's say, flush wall panel, it's almost always 12 inch, it's never a 16 inch,” says Jon. “If you're going to line up the wall with a soffit, it just makes sense to keep the sizing the same, and you can use literally the same panel, but perforate the soffit if need be. So, it just works out really well aesthetically and for strength.” 

Nowadays, Jon does a little bit of everything as a small business owner, from designing the website and growing it into a membership site to helping contractors easily quote their products. However, back when he had just gotten into the business, RoofersCoffeeShop was the first publication he saw for the industry.  

“It was mainly classifieds when I first started by going through,” says Jon. “Today, I love the articles, I love seeing the podcast that you guys are doing today. You do a lot of history. I keep up with you on Twitter as well...you just seem to have a really good team, so I've kept up with you for, jeez, my entire career I think.” 

(We are happy to hear that Jon! Our team IS really good and pretty and smart and funny and, most of all, humble.) 

By participating in the Answer Me This! survey, you are elevating the industry by helping the Construction Solutions campaign hosted by Gibraltar Building Accessories to provide the best products, programs and experiences to contractors. 

Want to try to be next week’s Answer Me This! winner? Submit your answer to the latest question here.