What Americans Should do to Keep Up With Europeans in the Roofing Game

By Cayden Wemple. 

Listen to Tom Stortz of John Stortz & Son give his insight on European roofing and why they are ahead of Americans in terms of building sustainable roofs. 

European architecture is an amazing feat of society. Millions of tourists from around the world flock to Europe every year to see some of the amazing structures that Europeans built over hundreds of years ago. What’s amazing is that even after hundreds of years, a surprising amount of those structures are still standing. It’s not just the beautiful churches either, it’s the residential homes that are built to be passed down from generation to generation. On a recent episode of MetalCast, Tom Stortz of John Stortz & Son, sat down with host, Heidi J. Ellsworth, to discuss why the European homes stand for so long, and what Americans should be doing to keep up with them. 

Americans use a lot of the roofing products that were cultivated by Europeans from centuries ago, and Tom took note of that while attending European roofing trade shows. “We're taking a lot of their products and bringing them back,” Tom explained. “There might be a few that we could offer to them, but for the most part, they are centuries ahead of us in terms of roofing. And their quality is for the most part higher, and they have a different culture in that, that they build their homes to last for generations. They're built to be passed down.” Modern American residential buildings are often built quickly and cheaply and it’s part of the reason why (according to Tom) Americans relocate homes on an average of five to seven years.  

Part of what contributes to European roofs being so durable is the roofer themself. In Europe, it’s typical for a roofer to be in an apprenticeship school for two years and in the United States, we don’t have a lot of opportunities to do something like that. Recently, John Sheridan has been putting together apprenticeship opportunities for Americans, and Tom says it’s something that we “desperately” need. He continued, “[John is] trying to put trainings together, and it's something that this industry desperately needs to continue to enhance the skills [of roofers].”  

Listen to the full conversation to hear more about Tom’s insight on European roofing.