In this episode, John Maher talks with Brett Rogenski, General Manager of Master Roofers, about the unique challenges of providing commercial roofing services for churches. Rogenski explains how his team handles historic materials like slate, copper, and clay tile with expert craftsmanship while balancing aesthetics, cost, and durability. He discusses the sourcing of salvaged materials for authentic restorations, navigating steep pitches and spires with modern equipment, and the importance of preventive maintenance. The episode also highlights how open communication helps churches find tailored, budget-conscious solutions for preserving and protecting their places of worship.
John Maher: Hi, I am John Maher and I'm here today with Brett
Rogenski, General Manager of Master Roofers, the most trusted roofing company
in New Hampshire, for over 80 years. Today, our topic is commercial roofing
services for churches. Welcome, Brett.
Brett Rogenski: Thanks, John. I appreciate you having me today.
Unique Challenges when
Roofing a Church
Maher: Sure. Brett, what are some of the unique challenges that you
face when you're repairing or replacing a roof on a potentially historic church
building?
Rogenski: Sure. I think you touched on one of the key facts there
is that very frequently, not always, those buildings are historic, so they've
been built a little different. And they also, we need to keep the integrity of
that. Usually, the folks who own that house of worship want to keep that same
historical structure.
So, when we talk about doing repairs and replacements or
even additions to houses of worship, a lot of times we're working in mediums
that aren't your typical shingle roof, although certainly there are plenty of
those on houses of worship as well.
A lot of times, if we're talking about historic ones,
we're talking about slate, copper, also work that needs to be done in lead.
Also, there's a lot of clay tile, which is, all those items are available to us
today, and we can work with them and match them, but it requires a really high
level of craftsmanship and also the ability to be able to make those things
work together and blend seamlessly so that it's not obvious that there was a
repair done in a certain area, as well as make them effective.
Obviously, if we're repairing something that had developed
a leak over the decades, not only do we want it to look good, it has to keep
out the water, which is kind of the whole purpose, right?
Maher: Absolutely.
Rogenski: Yeah.
Materials Used when Roofing a
Church
Maher: So, you mentioned some of the different types of materials that
you use on churches. Typically, how do you balance the aesthetics? How it looks
on the building versus the durability and the cost, which I know is often a
concern with churches.
Rogenski: Sure. So, if we're dealing with an existing structure
that is wanting a, maybe needs a significant repair, if we're talking about
things like, well, copper is copper, quite frankly. So, if we're doing work in
copper, a lot of times what we have to do, especially regarding those
aesthetics, is first of all, there's a budget.
We have to go; we have to do a careful estimation on what
it is going to take to repair this and what the options are for the church. So,
if we repair it to make it look like and in the same materials, exact same
materials as are there now, the cost will be X. There may be an option where we
can either change materials or repair it in a slightly different way than it
was constructed, the cost will be Y, typically a little less if they're looking
to save some money.
And for that matter, there are times where certain folks
have to look at, and maybe it's not the actual sanctuary itself, but one of the
accessory buildings, maybe it was built 100 years ago and has a slate roof and
it served them very well, but to repair that slate roof may cost them more to
repair it than would to simply replace it with a brand new asphalt shingle roof
with a 50-year warranty on it.
So, we like to present them with their options. Every
situation is different. Just like a private company, every place has its own
needs. Are they trying to do historic preservation or are they really working?
Everyone has a budget. Are they really confined by a budget? And we just want
to give them the best options to meet their needs.
So, we try and give multiple options wherever possible.
The great news is sometimes they don't even want options. So, for instance,
maybe a landmark church in an area, and if they need slate and copper or tile
work, then we work with them to make sure that everything that we do matches
seamlessly. We actually take that copper and if they want, we can even patina
the copper in advance. It won't look exactly like copper that's been on that
church for 100 years, but we can make it blend much better and accelerate that
patina process so it blends in.
Slate, we can either do in new slate or we actually have a
lot of sources for what's called old slate, which is, we can probably find a
match to the exact slate or very close match to the exact slate that was put on
that building a century ago. And the same thing with tile. We have sources for
brand new tile, clay tile, kind of terracotta style that you can match.
And we also have access to salvage tile that may actually
be a perfect match to the original. So, depending on the customer's need, we
have all those options available to us to meet their need and their goal and
their budget.
Where Does Old Slate Come
From?
Maher: Where do you source old slate from? Is it from buildings that
actually had those slate tiles on it that maybe were demolished but you were
able to save the roof?
Rogenski: Sure. So, yeah, we actually have our own small style
stockpile here of, if you will, more common old slates. There's thousands of
different types of old slate out there, and they change not only by color but
by thickness and by dimensions. And so, we keep a ready supply of the more
typical common colors and sizes right here at our yard, so we have easy access
to them.
And then there are some specialty companies that we work
with who do exactly that. They're usually associated with the demolition
business, and they basically will, and they may actually even hire us to do it,
they will gather that slate before the building is demolished, and then they
essentially have a yard where they sort it and classify it.
So, when we give them a call and we know what particular
size and color gradient we're looking for, they can point us in the right
direction and say, "Oh yeah, I've probably got 5,000 of those. Why don't
you come down, take a look at them?" And then, we physically go match them
up with something from the site.
Challenges with Roofing a
Church
Maher: What are some of the challenges when dealing with the structural
issues in a church? You have potentially steep roof pitches, spires that can go
up very high on a church building, other types of intricate roof designs on a
church. How do you deal with those challenges?
Rogenski: Sure. A lot of that comes, it's kind of a mix of old
world and new world, if you will. So, a lot of that is by having skilled master
roofers. We're fortunate to call ourselves Master Roofers, but we have master
roofers who are skilled and knowledgeable about how to work safely on those
surfaces and on those pitches.
So, you would be amazed some of the pitches that, with
proper safety equipment, some of our most senior guys can work on comfortably
without doing further damage to the roof, because if you don't know what you're
doing up there on a steep roof like that, would say clay tile or slate, you can
actually do considerable damage to the roof as well. So, we have folks that can
either access it directly, that's kind of the old world way, but you're right,
you get onto a spire that's practically vertical. Then we go to the new school,
and that's proper use of sizable boom lifts.
So, to be able to get up there and work on that safely, I
do realize 100 years ago there was probably a steeple jack who did that,
swinging on a swing up there. OSHA would not be proud of that today. What was
acceptable then is not acceptable today, and for good reason, for everyone's
safety.
So, all of our team members are certified in various types
of sizes of boom lifts. Not long ago, we were doing a job where we're working
on 160 foot boom lift, doing work very much like that, which gives them a safe
platform to work from and be able to reach all of those areas. And we work with
the vendors and make sure that every time that we're doing that, that number
one, it's safe product, and number two, that our team members are properly
certified on how to use it. So we don't, obviously we want no team members to
get hurt. We also don't want to do damage to the property.
Preventative Maintenance for
Church Roofs
Maher: Right. Is there any preventive maintenance that you recommend
for churches in order to help extend the life of a roof and potentially avoid
costly repairs in the future?
Rogenski: Sure, absolutely. And I'll almost address, it's kind of
the same answer, but different needs by type. So, many churches, well, shingle
roofs should be inspected on a regular basis to begin with. So, a regular
asphalt shingle roof. So, if there's a house of worship that has an asphalt
shingle roof, it should get inspected every few years.
Make sure there's no soft spots, make sure there's no
lifting shingles, etc., and we're happy to do roof inspections for those folks.
If a, a lot of times churches and sanctuaries have multiple things going on,
they may have some shingle roof, some flat roof, as well as maybe some steep
pitch roof, maybe in another medium like slate, the flat roofs should be
inspected as well.
They need to be maintained. If they start having leakage,
we can fix them with small patches called target patches, as well as other
things. And maintaining those things so little things don't turn into big
things.
It's kind of like your car, kind of like keeping your oil
changed so you don't have to buy a new motor. Slate... Copper, unless it's
damaged, largely it's leave it alone. If it's happy, you just leave it. If it
was installed well with good craftsmanship and properly, it's going to be just
fine until the day it's not fine, and there's not much you can do to prevent
it.
But the good news is it has such a long half-life. We see
a lot of copper dormers and stuff that literally span decades and decades or
even centuries without needing help, unless someone has done something to them
or somehow they became damaged, a tree limb fell on them, something like that.
Slate is something that we really, and the same with clay tile or Terracotta
tile, we really recommend that people stay up on the maintenance of that.
They see displaced tiles or missing tiles? Call us,
because it's not going to fix itself. So, we can get in there and make small
repairs and replacements to those sort of things before they start causing a
cascading effect. Because you lose one tile, now you start getting a soft spot
around it or one slate, and you start getting a soft spot around it.
Next thing you know, you have an entire area where you're
losing tiles or slates and they're needing to be addressed. So, something that
we encourage and we work with several churches on is they have us come do
regular inspections. So, we come out once or twice a year and we do a survey of
the appropriate roofs, whatever they want us looking at. We identify if
anything needs correction, what we suggest, and then give them the information
and propose to them what the solution is.
So, it makes us perfectly happy when we go there and do a
survey and, hey, everything looks great. You're not having any problems inside.
The outside looks awesome. But especially, when working with slate and tile, a
lot of times there's a few slates or tiles that need addressing. Let us do it
at a small investment now so you don't have a big problem later.
Maher: Absolutely.
Rogenski: Yeah.
Process for Roofers and
Churches to Collaborate
Maher: And then, what's this process, just for collaborating with a
church and with the staff of the church to find budget friendly, but high
quality roofing solutions?
Rogenski: Sure. It all starts with communication. So, we always
encourage our customers, if they're working within a budget, to share that with
us. And everyone's like, well, sure, you want them to tell them your budget.
No, we want, you're going to spend what you're going to spend. We want give you
the best solution for what you can spend. So, it's all about communication.
It's also the communication leads to churches and houses of worship and things
associated with them. Also have a lot of restrictions on what you can do,
where, what's important to each one is slightly different, whether it be an
aesthetic appeal, a budget, etc.
So, we really just ask, hey, tell us what you're trying to
achieve. Let's not talk about the problem. Let's not talk about I want this and
that. Tell us what you're trying to achieve. And our goal is to design a
solution for you that meets whatever that need is, that gives you a high
quality roofing solution that meets your budget.
And more often than not, we're giving them more than one
solution because, here's your premium option, here's the one that's probably
more in alignment with your budget, and here's a budget option, and let them
make those decisions, because it's their roof, it's their money. We want to
serve them how they want to be served.
Maher: All right. Well, that's really great information, Brett. Thanks
again for speaking with me today.
Rogenski: Thanks, John. I appreciate you having me.
Maher: And for more information about Master Roofers, you can visit the
website at masterroofers.com or call (603) 623-4973.