Young Contractors Finding the Right Manufacturer Part 2

By Heidi J. Ellsworth. 

Titan XT® shingles perform for Maine roofing contractor. 

Looking at the next generation of roofing companies, RoofersCoffeeShop® is continuing to follow the story of James & Whitney Co. in Maine, a general contracting and roofing company. After learning about how they started roofing in the first article, we continued our conversation with Steve Whitney, a cofounder of the company, about the importance of performance roofing products in cold climates. 

The roofing season is short in Maine, running from March through November if roofers are lucky. When asked about the importance of cold weather installations, Whitney shared that they try to roof year-round, but the busy season is where they really see production. 

“This year we will do millions per month during the busy season. The winter is when we catch up, still roofing and hovering right around a half a million dollars a month in sales and production. It's actually a time where production catches up a little bit with sales,” stated Whitney.  

In the winter of 2023, James & Whitney experienced an amazing wind event that changed how they think about the roofing materials that sell in the area. “During the winter months we do quite a few cold weather installations. In January, we had a huge storm and we had just installed a TAMKO Titan XT® shingle job two days before. The storm had 70 mile an hour winds hitting our newly installed roof and we were worried. After inspecting the job, we only had a few shingles blow off,” continued Whitney.  

The roofer assumed the blow off was the result of the shingles not fully sealing during the two days since install because the temperatures were so low. But, the roofers were in for a surprise when they went to inspect the roof closer after the storm.  

“We found that the shingles that did come off still had the nails in them. They were pulled out of the sheathing. We saw a shingle laying on the ground and it is upside down with the nails sticking up and we took a picture. All you see are the nails sticking up through the shingle which was really an impressive showing of the holding power of that nailing strip,” noted Whitney. Whitney’s crew uses six or seven nails per shingle on high wind installation, even though Titan XT only requires four nails installed in the expanded nailing zone when using TAMKO Starter.  

Whitney smiled and shared, “It's certainly a photo that I'm sure we will see on marketing material for a very long time up here. We pay a lot of attention to the outside eight, 10 feet at least, and try and get the shingles to glue down really, really well.  But at the end of the day, when it's wintertime up here and we're putting the roof on, blowoffs are sometimes inevitable. But it was crazy to see them come out of the sheathing. That shows how strong that wind was and how strong the Titan nailing strip is that it could not pull that nail through the asphalt shingle itself.” 

Building and roofing on the Maine coast means extreme weather. James & Whitney always have that top of mind, planning on how they can protect their customers. “Understanding the Maine weather and planning for it is our number one seller. Since that storm and the resulting nail picture, our customers are sold.  As you can imagine, our phone rings like crazy when a storm like that comes through,” Whitney stated. 

Everybody in the company started sharing the photo with the nails sticking up. “The sales guys are showing it to every customer.  And we sold so many TAMKO jobs after that storm came through because they saw the proof,” Whitney smiled.  Whitney and team share the story every day. “We tell our customers that this is what happens. The rest of your building products might give out, but these shingles are going to perform. This is why TAMKO stands behind their warranty. This is why we work with them. This is how good they are.” 

Follow the James & Whitney story in the third part of their journey as they talk about what crews, leadership and customers are saying about Titan XT® shingles.  If you have not read the first article of the journey, find out how James & Whitney started their business here.