Latest / RoofersCoffeeShop / Stories from The Roof - Damschroder Roofing
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- Adam Cabrera: Welcome to Stories from the Roof, the podcast that brings you tales from the most unexpected vantage point, rooftops. I'm your host, Megan Ellsworth, and on this show we'll ascend to the top and explore the world through the eyes of those who live and work above. Join us on this unique journey as we uncover the stories, perspectives, and histories of roofing contractors. Let's begin our ascent onto the roof. Hello, and thank you for listening to this special episode of Stories from the Roof. This episode is brought to you by Duraast. Today I'm joined by Cameron Knoll from Dam Schroeder Roofing and Duralast Sales Representative Mike Gotran of Engineered Systems. Dam Schroeder Roofing Inc. is the recipient of the 2025 Duraast Project of the Year Award. For those of you that don't know, Duralast prides itself On being a true business partner with their contractors. One of the ways they do this is via their annual project award program, which recognizes outstanding projects in six different categories: custom fabrication, edge to edge, and deck to sky, sustainability, specialty membrane, metal roofing, and the coveted project of the year. Today we're going to learn a little bit about dam shorter roofing, engineering systems. And they're award winning project at the Minerva Middle School. So without further ado, let's get into it. I'm talking with Cameron Noel from Dam Schroeder Roofing. hi Cameron, how are you? Hi, Megan. I am great. Happy to be on here with you guys. Yay. So glad to have you. let's just start it out by having you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about Dam Schroeder Roofing. Sure. Yeah, so I'm Cameron Noll with Dam Schroeder Roofing. I'm the project manager on the Minerva Middle School project. Dam Schroeder is going on its fiftieth year of installing roofs. so it's definitely a good year for us to install this roof and get this award for Project of the Year with DuraS. But no, we we definitely try to help out the customer wherever we can, whenever we can. and to get them the most cost effective quality roof that we can with great design aspects, great functionality, pretty much w tailor the roof to what they are looking for, put their vision pretty much in place. Love it. So how long have you been with Dam Schroeder? Sure. Yeah, I have been with Dam Schroeder for almost four years now. been roofing for about five years. So moved over here from from a different roofing company. But no, this has kind of been my home for the past four years, the majority of my career. That's amazing. So what got you into roofing? It's always a fun story to tell when 'cause it's different every time. Yeah, absolutely. So was going to Bowling Green State University for construction management. wanted to get some experience in the construction realm. And to be completely honest, roofing pays a little bit better than any other trade. So that's that's kind of why I got sucked into the roofing industry. I got obviously all of the common skills, moved over into project management with Dam Schroeder. and I have been loving it ever since. The more you know, the better you do and I feel like I'm just trying to grow and do better every day. Amazing. Amazing. Okay, so we're here to talk about your Minerva Middle School project. That was a Duralast project of the year winner. And to start out, can you just tell us kind of the ins and outs of this project and maybe why it's why it was a winner? Sure. Yes. So It was a s a little over sixty-three thousand square foot. So what we would consider a a medium ranged project. Okay. it was designed with one of Durak's new color lines for DuraTuff copper, which I thought when I got the folder with that on there, I thought this was gonna be a knockout from the beginning. It's such a cool color. Never installed it before, but we knew right away that this was gonna be insanely cool to look at all the design, the color schemes, all that. there's a couple different aspects with this project with between the vinyl rib system on the exterior and all of the additional induction welding, fully adhered, mechanically fastened, just different aspects that go along with it. We installed some snow retention on all of the exteriors and I believe there was about 11 different roof sections on this project that we kind of had to design and play with, get a couple different systems in place for it. Wow. my gosh. Yeah, big undertaking there. So you all collaborated with engineered systems and they definitely contributed to achieving the award winning results. What was that collaboration like for you? Absolutely. So they worked with our salesman Coi Beckley and introduced us to Aaron Hawk, who is our main project contact. they obviously introduced us, told them that we're one of the platinum contractors for Dura Last. We met with them, gave them our run through of what our ideas are that we could do with this. And Brian and Mike, they definitely sold Aaron on us as a roofer and with us Apparently doing such a good job, we were able to show them that we can be their rippers for life. Amazing. Amazing. Well, we love the Gotrons and Engineered Systems. So super cool that you got to work with them. What would you say is like was the most challenging aspect or design element of of this job? It would definitely have to be the vinyl rib system. It it's something that we've done a couple of different times prior to this project, but these were pretty long sections that had to be coordinated with how the skin's laid out and everything to make it look like it's supposed to a metal roof. It had to be pretty much perfect. so it was definitely a big undertaking. for doing about half of the the entire project and vinyl rib system. Yeah. Amazing. Well, congratulations. And this was project of the year, correct? Yes. 2025. that's so fun. Well, congrats. That's so exciting. Thank you. it's just it's so cool to be able to get that recognition on such a tough project. And so congrats. That's huge. Thank you so much. Yeah. So, okay, we're gonna talk a little bit more about you now. Here on Stories from the Roof, we like to share the experiences of people on the roof every day. So I'd like to know what is one of the most valuable lessons you've learned about roofing in your career? The most valuable lessons in this, I would definitely have to say, is just your mindset going into every project. You want to kind of take the project as your own. And pay as much attention to detail as you would as if it was your own house or your own facility or your own business. I definitely think that looking at projects like that produce better results and the customer seems to always be happy with it, communicating with them over communicating with them even, they love it. So I think that's probably the most valuable lesson that a roofer should be able to to give their customers. Yeah, that's so pivotal. That's so pivotal. So kind of going off of that, who would you say is a standout person that kind of taught you some of those lessons? That would be I could name off a whole list of people, but one of the the best bosses, and he was my boss on this project was Evan Shell, our COO at the time. He he definitely taught me to to kinda take things one step at a time, look at everything just in detail, not look at anything else and just focus on the task at hand. And it was probably one of the most important things he ever taught me. So I take that and use it every single day. I love it. That's amazing. cool that he was your boss on the Minerva school project too. Absolutely. Love it. Okay. If you were to go back four or five years ago to the start of your career, what would you do differently, if anything? What would I do differently? I would definitely take more risks, practice communication skills. those are things that you wouldn't think that you would use as much as you do every single day, probably every hour of every single day. It's it's something that it took me a couple years to to grasp and fully understand just trying to to do it every day. But if I could take a couple classes or or talk to people and and get advice from them, that would probably be what I would do differently because it is such an important thing to know and use in your day to day life. Yeah. Yeah. That's so true. I love it. And it's just so cool that you like went to school for this and now you're doing it and you're loving it. So congrats on that. What really quick kind of side note question. What kind of steered you towards studying construction management? a small little backstory. My my mom, she was never good at putting the furniture together when we ordered something in. and from the time I was seven, eight years old, I would always just look at Obviously the instructions that you would think are pretty foolproof, but for my mom they they were pretty challenging for her. So I would I would help her with that and she was so supportive and and everything and just that that recognition that she would give me from a young age just drove me to want to build and create and led me to the construction industry. I love that. That's so sweet. Thanks, Mom, for being bad at filming things. No kidding. That's awesome. Okay. What would you say is the best thing you've ever done for your career or for the business at Dam Schroeder? The best thing for my career and Dam Schroeder, I would definitely say is taking on more than I think that I could handle. Yeah. it always showed that I I definitely could handle it. It's it's a scary thing for sure, but taking on more and more and more, harder things, higher costs, it it definitely was more rewarding in the end, which I think made me more confident and going into those even more challenging things on the next step. I that's probably what I would say on that. Yeah. Amazing. And Kind of with that, it's nice to have people that are there to support you along the way and like catch you when you fall and provide really pivotal feedback and advice. And so I'd like to ask, you know, what was it like working with the Gotruns with Engineered Systems and maybe what's a standout moment from this project with with them? Yes, so this was one of the weirder projects for us. We had a couple of different metals that went on this project as well. Reaching out with the Gotrons, they helped me completely understand what was needed. They pretty much told me, hey, this is what you need. These are all the components for it. Here's the specs to follow for the installers. They they pretty much held my hand through that entire portion of it. So I couldn't be more grateful to them. Yeah. It's so cool to work with manufacturers that have such amazing reps and provide just so much support. Like Durlast provides so much support and also celebrates their contractors through the project of the year. and it's just so cool. I love that they do that. It's it's really cool. They really do. They they never cease to amaze me on what they're willing to do to help us out. Aw, that's awesome. Okay. Who's the best boss you've ever had and what did they teach you? I would definitely say our my current boss right now, I share an office with him currently and he he has taught me more life lessons than more roofing and and construction and everything and the best thing that he ever taught me was there's no such thing as good news and there's no such thing as bad news. There's just news. Yeah. So if you take it that way, then nothing will ever weigh you down and and things like that. You'll be able to handle pretty much anything that happens in any project or in life itself, which in the roofing industry, anything and everything will happen on every single job. So you gotta kinda take it as it is and and come up with a result. I love that. I'd love to ask, kind of going off of that, what's the craziest thing that's happened to you on a job and like how did you pivot to save it? there is Pretty much when you open up a roof specifically on a tear off, you never know what you're getting into. And we have had on specific jobs, full deck replacement, we've had to invest in thousands and thousands of dollars and specific safety equipment that we've only had to use on that specific project. Very intimidating, very time consuming, but when a project calls for it and it's what's needed to get the project done, we we definitely don't spare an expense when it comes to safety and things like that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well done. Okay. So I'd love to know any tips you have for people considering maybe there's a high schooler listening to this considering going into construction management or Just straight into the roofing trade. What are some tips for people starting out in roofing? definitely ask questions. The more questions you ask, the better. I mean, I would even say asking questions nonstop for a month probably isn't even enough. I just never stop asking questions because the more you know, the better you'll do. So that's that's kind of what I've always learned and always done going into things. it it puts you in a better position as you progress through your career. So definitely ask people knowledgeable and questions and follow their instruction. Yeah. I love that. I'd also love to ask, you know, where do you see yourself in five years? Maybe what's like a a goal, dream goal project that you want to work on? I I want to work on the biggest projects that anyone could could think of. I wanna work on the Amazons, the the the massive facilities, the Fords in Detroit, just something that is a staple to a community, staple to the nation, and say that hey, I was able to help build that or help maintain that. Yeah. Yeah, that's really cool. Okay. So I To kind of wrap this up, this has gone so fast, actually. I'm shocked, but let's talk about the project again, the Minerva Middle School Project. And just one last time, kind of your thoughts on the project, your thoughts on winning project of the year. Like what was that like for you? Well, the project alone was definitely probably my my favorite project I've ever worked on. It was Cool. so cool to work with Aaron Hawk or contact. He was probably the most chill person you will ever meet in your life. Very supportive. He he took our advice and he's like, hey, if you if you think that's what needs to happen, I trust you. Let's do it. it it was so cool. So many new things that I've only worked with a handful of times or not at all. So that that one was by far my favorite project. And once they announced that we got Project of the Year, we kinda had our our speculation, but it was so rewarding. It was kind of a a goal of ours to to get a dam Schroeder's first project of the year. So I was very proud of of our our company that we were able to accomplish that goal. Wow, first project of the year, that's huge. Yeah, no, it was it was a big staple for us. Yay. Yay. Well, lastly, I just want to thank you so much for sharing your story and giving us a little insight on the Minerva Middle School project. And to really wrap things up, I'd love to ask, where do you where do you see yourself working with DuraLast in the future? Like what are some pro products you want to work on or work with? And Yeah. What are you what are you h seeing for twenty twenty six hoping to get out of this year? Well, we definitely want to look more into their new line of TPO. that's definitely a big thing that DuraLas has recently came out with. a lot of companies they're they're kind of tried and true with TPO, so the fact that DuraLas offers that now is is a big thing. Exceptional metals who's with DuraLas They're coming out with a whole lot of new stuff too. So definitely excited to work with them. to learn what the new specs are and kinda work hand in hand with them to to install their new products. Amazing. Well, Cameron, congratulations. Thank you again for chatting with me. And I can't wait to see what else you guys do at Dam Schroeder and I hope you win many more Project of the Year awards. Thank you so much, Megan. Yeah. Customer service with an emphasis on custom. Duralast specializes in building roofs and relationships. For more than 45 years, DuraLast has been 100% committed to forming personal relationships with contractors. They are here, there, or anywhere to help with the tools you need to succeed. DuraLast's dedicated quality assurance department and technical support staff are always available to provide support and answer questions because you deserve. one-on-one service for one of a kind roofs. Call eight hundred two four eight zero two eight zero or visit durolast dot com to learn more today. Gotrin from Engineered Systems, and we're talking about the Minerva Middle School project. we interviewed Cameron Noel from Dam Schroeder Roofing Inc., and now we're talking with Mike Gotrin of Engineered Systems. And Mike, welcome to the show. I'm so excited to have you here. It's great to be here. Yay! So, this project that we're gonna be talking about today. was a award winning project. and we're gonna be talking about how everything that went into it, what made it so award winning. But before we get into that, can you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about engineered systems and Duralest and how you two work together? Okay. Yeah, my name's Mike Gotran. I live in Columbus, Ohio. I've been the rep for Duralas since nineteen eighty five, so a little bit of time. I actually got to work at Duralast in the corporate office as their first sales manager in nineteen eighty-four and then became a sales rep for them in nineteen eighty-five. And so my job is to work with contractors and building owners and architects in Ohio to help with any like sales or technical information for for a building owner to help them with their their roofing needs. Amazing. It's so cool that you started at Duralast. And you're still with them, but in a little bit of a different capacity. That's that's a really cool journey. Yeah. So, okay, let's dive into the Minerva Middle School project. What were some of the unique challenges or design elements that made this project such a standout? Well, a lot of schools are built with shingles, asphalt shingles. And I think one of the challenges with these big it's like an eighty thousand square foot building, but I think one of the challenges of shingles with big expansive, especially roofs that have a metal deck is that it moves a lot and the shingles couldn't move as much with the building movement and they start having issues with leaks and the shingles just not holding up as they had hoped. So the one thing they liked about Duralast is we have like sixteen different standard colors and they chose a kind of a terracotta colored membrane. But the other cool thing was they wanted it to look like standing seam. They they had gotten quotes for putting standing seam metal on and the prices came back quite high. And so we were able to say, hey, what would you think of using a colored membrane? And Duralast has a system that simulates standing seam. It's got a a vinyl rib that you can hot air weld to the membrane. And so it gives it the look of standing seam, even though it's actually a PVC membrane. So really cool. Yeah. Yeah. That is so cool. And the fact that this project then won the specialty membrane award from Durlast is really cool that and kind of what an innovative product. So what was the issue that the school was experiencing with its existing roof and why was a full replacement necessary? Well again going back to the the the shingles you know in a lot of houses have shingles and shingles last a long time but I think the biggest issue is the the building movement. But at the same time They wanted to keep a certain aesthetics to the pitch of the roof and have it tie into their brick exterior. And you know, Dam Schroeder Roofing is the contractor that we worked with that had experience. They've done a couple other projects similar to this for other schools. And and then having the ability to choose a color that the owner, you know, liked was was nice. But the other thing that we did that I thought was kind of innovative from dam shorter standpoint is you can see these ribs or, you know, the the look of the standing seam on the exterior of the building, but there's some interior roofs that it really wasn't necessary for them to install those ribs and it saved the school money, but you're not going to see it. So it's kinda like it was a way that they could, you know, meet their budget, but at the same time give them the look that they wanted in the areas where people could see it. Yeah. That I I so enjoyed talking to Cameron from Dam Schroeder about this project 'cause the passion that he has is so obvious and it it's so cool to see it from you now as well. and to be able to kind of brainstorm these really unique solutions to a customer's really annoying problem, you know, a roof replacement isn't always the funnest thing. it's pretty cool that you guys got to work hard on this project together and kind of go through all the unexpected conditions together. Were there any kind of unexpected things that were found after, you know, the tear off or halfway through the project, anything that kind of hit you sideways? Yeah, nothing that, you know, comes to mind. you know, we we've had several other schools and people come out just to check it out because it is kind of unique, in terms of being able to have colored membrane, have ribs, have it look like metal. I mean, a lot of people don't know that it's not metal, which is kinda kinda fun. But I the project for the most part went very well. And you know, one other nice thing about DuraLast is they've got like five in s field inspectors that live in Ohio and so they they would come out periodically just to check on the job and you know see if there was any unique things or any challenges that you know kinda damn Schroeder ran into while they were doing the project. But for the most part, you know, they got it done during the school summer break period and it didn't have any disruptions for, you know, keeping from opening the school and Yeah, we did a couple projects for Minerva, so I think they were very happy and the other ones weren't as interesting. You know, they were more flat roofs, but yeah. it's nice when the owner, you know, has a pa positive experience and then, you know, wants to, you know, do another project with you. Yeah. I mean that goes that says more than really anything, right? Yeah. And I misspoke earlier. This actually was the project of the year recipient, not the specialty membrane. so even Even bigger deal, actually. Yeah. No, that that's great. And you know, it's fun as a rep to be involved with the contractor doing something like this. And we've been fortunate to have, you know, some other projects that we've been involved with that, you know, Dural S is recognized. But yeah, I was very happy for Dam Schroeder to get you know, get that recognition. Yeah, yeah, that's really exciting. And I'm sure, you know, it so well deserved on on the engineered system side, on Dam Schroeder's side, and just everyone's excitement about the job, like you said, from Minerva, from the school them itself, and everyone going to look at it. I mean, who goes and looks at a roof? That's pretty impressive that people want to go and and admire it. So I think that that says more than a thousand words could say. So congratulations. Thank you. Well, thank you so much for chatting with me today, Mike, and sharing your story on this really special project. I'd love to ask, do you have any tips for any Rufers out there that, you know, want to start working with Duralast and become project of the year in the future of years coming? the biggest thing, you know, labor is such a big challenge these days. Especially, I don't know, just so many ways. I mean, it's probably the number one thing I run into with contractors as far as finding people that want to be out on a roof that really care and you know to get to get the work done. So what I love about Durolast is the prefabrication of flashings and walls and the ways that they reduce the amount of labor needed so you can get more done with less people. And so I would say, you know, if you're a contractor and You're looking for a good partner, manufacturing partner, they're there to work with you to help you build your business, help you with the labor issues, and really you know, just try to help you make a living for your family. That's awesome. Yeah. We love working with DuraLast, so everyone please go to their directory on rooferscoffeeshop dot com to learn more. You can also go to the Engineered Systems Directory and learn more about everything. That Mike and all the team does over there. Thank you again, Mike, for chatting with me today. I appreciate it, Megan. Have a good afternoon. Thank you, everyone, for listening to today's Stories from the Roof episode brought to you by Duralast. I had so much fun chatting with Cameron from Dam Schroeder Roofing and Mike from Engineered Systems about this amazing project at the Minerva Middle School. Such a cool thing that they did there. And very well deserving of the Durak project of the year. So stay tuned for more stories from the Roofs. So stay tuned for more stories from the Roof episodes always coming at you. And go to rooferscoffeeshop dot com to win. If you've enjoyed these unique rooftop stories, be sure to hit that subscribe button so you don't miss a single episode. Go to rooferscoffeeshop.com to learn more. Thanks for soaring with us on Stories from the Roof. We'll catch you on the next one.