Roofing Road Trips with Heidi Welcome Owens Corning’s Brian King

By Karen L. Edwards, RCS Editor.

Owens Corning Vice President of Strategic Marketing shares updates about the company’s latest innovations that are helping contractors.

In this podcast, Heidi shares that she had the opportunity to get a booth tour from Brian at the 2020 International Roofing Expo in Dallas to learn how the company is innovating its products and in particular the company’s Duration series shingles.

Brian told Heidi that the Duration series has “been our source of innovation for probably the last decade.” From an Owens Corning perspective Brian explains that the company sees it as a “a shingle unto itself, it's something that provides performance in the industry that is actually unmatched.”

The best way that they can demonstrate the innovation of the product is by offering a chance to try it hands on at trade shows. “We think that actually touching and working with the product is the best way to experience the performance. For the last couple of years, have had something called the SureNail challenge, which is when you actually nail down a Duration shingle, and you nail down competitive shingles. Then, you go through a series of test with it, to just feel what it's like.”

Always curious, Heidi wanted to know why the company has so much focus on the SureNail nailing line. Brain explains, “It's really important to go through the common bond area, or the double layer of the actual shingle itself. What that does when you go through that is you get the better wind uplift, which we demonstrate with the SureNail challenge. It also gives you better nail blow through. Anytime you blow a nail through a shingle, it's an opportunity for water to actually get into the shingle.”

Brian explained that the contractor and homeowner have the option of the high-end performance of the Duration line with three layers of protection but also may choose similar technology in their Oakridge product which delivers two layers of reinforcement in the nail zone. “We warranty our products to 130 miles an hour, and that's by putting the actual nails through the part of the shingle, through the common bond area, that gives you much better performance against wind. With Duration, you've got three layers, and a reinforced layer as well, so it provides much, much better performance in wind.”

The conversation turned from shingle performance to the tools that Owens Corning offers to contractors to help them continue to sell virtually in the current environment – right from their own website using the widget and other tools.

This is an information-packed podcast that you do not want to miss. See how Owens Corning can help you find success when you listen to the podcast.