Roofing Road Trips Podcast: Charlie Smith

By Lauren White, RCS Reporter.

From a geologist in Ecuador to the national recover manager for McElroy Metal: What a Journey.

After working in Ecuador for three years as a geologist, Charlie Smith was ready for a change of scenery.  Not knowing what he wanted to do, he got on a plane and headed home to brainstorm his options with his dad.  A well-timed phone call at his dad’s office in 1988 started Charlie with his career in the roofing industry.  Now the national recover manager at McElroy Metal, Charlie speaks with Heidi J. Ellsworth, RoofersCoffeeShop® partner, about his first days in the roofing industry as well as the inventive and unconventional solutions he has developed for the roofing industry.

The call Charlie answered was from a family friend he had known for years who was selling his metal roofing business.  The company had been successful up until the last couple years, which was the reason for selling.  Charlie explains, “He said all the right things and I thought this is a great opportunity.  I had no idea what I was getting into...”  

He had no preconceived ideas about running a metal roofing business, about manufacturing, or about roofing, but with his limited space and some portable equipment, he was in the metal roofing business.  “I heard someone say that an expert is someone who made every possible mistake in a very narrow field.  And I feel like I’ve done that,” Charlie explains.  “What I learned early on was that a contractor cannot place an order for standing seam metal roof panels until he pulls field measurements.  By the time the roof was measured, everyone was screaming for it to be installed. If I wanted to be successful in the business I had to be faster and a lot more nimble than the people I was competing against,” according to Charlie. 

He did this by maintaining inventory levels that allowed the company to produce, “one hundred flat sheets in any color for a contractor today, and run a 40,000-square-foot job in any color this week.  If we could do those two things, then we could be faster than anybody else out there,” Charlie explains.  He also had the idea that he wanted to site-form panels better than anybody else.  “I built a couple of big trucks with scissor lifts on them that we could drive out to the job site and manufacture the panels right onto the roof for a contractor,” Charlie reveals.

Proud of his “Willy Wonka production facility,” he showed it off to a retired General Motors’ plant manager who supervised 7,000 employees for 30 years.  Charlie was anticipating a rave review, but instead was told, “You know, I would be really impressed if I was a caveman.”  Devastated at first, Charlie realized this man helped him understand the manufacturing business better.  Eight years later, Charlie sold his business to McElroy Metal, which “...Was a great thing for both of us.  They’ve given me the freedom to do the things I like to do, which is figure out how to solve problems.”

His specialty is looking at unconventional ways to use metal, mainly in retrofit applications, which he’s very successful at.  Charlie has five patents for different methods to complete roof recovers.  His roof recover solutions have diverted millions of cubic yards from being put in the landfills.  “If you can encapsulate an existing roof, leave it in place and put something on top of it that should last 50 or 60 years...then I think it’s a great thing,” explains Charlie.

The tall clip system has also proven to be extremely successful with recovering R panels on metal buildings because it is economical and quick to install. The system uses symmetrical panels that are easy to repair or alter at a later date if necessary.  Another successful idea Charlie developed is a shingle recover system.  This system uses clips that sit on top of two shingles at one time, putting  them in plane with the deck, supporting the panels and leaving a fully ventilated air space between the bottom of the roof panels and the top of the shingles.  This ventilation reduces the heat transfer through the shingles into the attic space by 30 to 40%.  Charlie conducted his own testing and discovered that when it was 100 degrees outside, the attic was only 104 degrees with the ventilated system, whereas it was 140 without the system.  This ventilated system reduces the heat transfer without having to tear the shingles off and reroof.

Charlie has come a long way from being a geologist in Ecuador.  He has learned a lot about roofing throughout the years and continues to make meaningful contributions to the industry.  Charlie’s innovative solutions and unconventional use of metal has kept materials out of landfills and provided building owners with cost-effective, energy-efficient solutions.

Listen to the podcast to hear more about roofing recover from Charlie.  Check out the RoofersCoffeeShop® podcast page for even more.