February 4, 2025 • 19 mins
Before you say yes to your dream home in Maine, make sure you look up—because what’s over your head matters! In this episode of Let’s Move to Maine, we sit down with Dave Wallace of Wallace Roofing, a trusted, family-owned business serving Maine for 35 years.
From roofing do’s and don’ts to key red flags when inspecting a home, Dave shares insider knowledge on what every homebuyer should know before making a purchase. From shingles to metal this episode takes your home improvements to a whole new level. Plus, we dive into Maine’s home improvement contract laws, ensuring you’re protected when working with contractors.
Whether you’re a first-time homebuyer or looking to upgrade, this episode is packed with expert advice to help you make smarter, safer real estate decisions.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's move to Maine. I'm Mark Erickson. Today we are
talking to Dave Wallace of Wallace Roofing. The website is
Wallace Roofingaine.com. Dave, hello, and uh it is winter in Maine.
How much roofing is going on these days?
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Good afternoon, Mark. Nice to uh talk to you. We
are roofing in between the, we, we picked the good
days and don't work on the bad days. Like today
is a bad day.
Yesterday we were roofing. I mean, it definitely takes a
toll on the weather does make a difference, uh, but
some people have to get a roof down in the
wintertime and they don't have a
choice.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
So let's talk a little bit about the different types
of roofs, specifically the different kinds of materials that you use.
How many roof types are there?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Well, there's basically 3 types of roofs that are used
in Maine. One of them would be uh shingles, architectural shingles,
to be specific. The other one would be, uh, metal roofing.
You've seen a couple of different styles. We call it
a standing scene metal roof or a screw down metal roof.
They're becoming a lot more popular in the state of Maine.
And then the third one is rubber roofs based on
(01:05):
uh like a commercial building, a flat roof would have
a rubber roof on it. Those are basically the three
options that we have in Maine.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
The first step would be to determine what roof is
best for just a residential home and and what are
some of the guidelines that you use to help customers
sort that
out.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
The two major things on on deciding on a roof
is I ask people, say, first of all, how long
are you gonna be here? Shingles has about a 35 year.
Life expectancy on a warranty, and then a metal roof
will last a lot longer, but it's twice the money.
So you have to look at a couple of options there. What,
you know, cost effectiveness versus how long you're gonna stay
(01:44):
in the house. If you look at the average person,
you know, a lot of people move quite often, so
a roof is not necessarily the most important thing.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
When I was a kid, I grew up in a
in a house that I think the the builders and
architects call a salt box, but it had a flat
roof and in the winter time,
My mom sent me up there, up the ladder to
shovel off the roof, so I had the walkway, the driveway,
and then the entire roof of the house and there
(02:14):
was a garage also with a a flat roof. Are
flat roofs still a thing these days?
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Well, they still make salt boxes in Maine, believe it
or not, but they have product now called Ice and
Water shield that goes underneath the shingles that prevents the
ice backup from getting inside the home. Um, we recommend
as far as shoveling goes.
Uh, there are times that you have to shovel the
roof in Maine. We try to tell people don't shovel
(02:40):
it unless you have to. Uh, you know, you don't
have to go up and shovel the roof every time
it snows. Like this 4 or 5 inch storm that
we have, uh, you're better off to leave it alone
because you do more damage to the roof by shoveling
it than you do by just.
Letting it go.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Where were you when my mother was making me go
up the roof for every single storm?
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Every single storm, not today. And then we do recommend
when you do shovel, shovel as minimal as you need to.
So if you've got one or two little storms, you
do not need to shovel your roof.
Uh, most people shovel the roof because of the weight situation.
They're always worried about the weight up there. Uh, construction
now is a lot different than it was, you know,
(03:19):
50 years ago. The roofs are a lot stronger. So
when you do shovel the roof, you want to shovel
from the top down, not from the bottom up.
Because you're doing more damage to the roof by shoveling
in it than you are by leaving it alone.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Interesting. Alright, and while we're on the subject of of
rooftops during winter time, talk a little bit about uh
ice dams and and the best way to prevent those
from happening.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
OK, well, ice dams are normally caused by two issues.
The first one is being insulation loss up in the attic,
so it lets heat come up from the from the attic.
That it's hot and cold, and that's what melts the
snow and turns it into ice. It'll, uh, melt during
the day and then at nighttime it'll freeze, and that's
(04:06):
when you get the ice dance. Most, it's most of
the time it's got nothing to do with the roof,
it's more the insulation in the attic. And also the
other part of that, Mark, is if you don't have
proper ventilation in your attic.
Uh, via a ridge vent, gable end vents, or soft
vents that causes the attic to be hot, and that's
what melts it. So you have to have your, your
(04:28):
attic insulated properly in order to get away from the
ice dams.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
In addition to winter time and snow and cold weather,
which are all things that that are just very commonplace
in the state of Maine, what other factors kind of
make roofing houses or buildings in the state of Maine
different from doing it in other parts of the country?
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Well, we get, we do get a lot of high
wind area around here, like last week, we had some
high winds, uh, that are causing roof damages, and also
we get hail periodically. One thing we don't get is
the hurricanes.
So we don't have that issue, but nowadays we do
more nailing than we did 20 years ago or 25
years ago. We used to put 4 nails per shingle.
(05:10):
Now we're putting 6 nails per shingle, which they call
it hurricane nailing or high wind nailing. So we have
done some different things, and then again I talked about
ice and water shield. We do a lot more of
ice and water shield than we used
to do.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
How about homes and buildings that are in coastal areas,
does the salt air take a toll on the roof?
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Yeah, the salt and the hail does a lot of damage. Wind, obviously, uh,
there's only so much you can do, you can nail
it as much as you can, and I tell people,
make sure you have good insurance.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
So, in the state of Maine, what material roof do
you sell the most of, Dave?
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Well, it's architectural shingles, which is basically asphalt shingles. There's
3 or 4 different brands that are available in Maine
on a regular basis, and then uh we're starting to
swing to a lot more metal roofs. The shingles are
done because of a price point.
And they do get about a 30, 35 year life
span out of them now, which is a lot more
than they did 20 years ago. The architectural shingles are
(06:08):
like a double thick shingle compared to what what you
had on your house when you were a kid.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
So let's talk about those. You you said those are
asphalt shingles and they're thicker asphalt shingles these days. Asphalt
and asphalt products somehow connects to the price of oil.
So does does the price of the materials for an
asphalt roof, uh, go up and down a little bit?
Speaker 2 (06:28):
0, 100%. There's no going down, I can tell you that. Uh, we,
we actually just got a notice last week we're gonna
have an 8 to 10% increase in April, you know,
it does, it's, it's oil is one factor, but also
labor rates and, uh, you know, different things like that
cause the price of materials to go up. Trucking is
getting out of hand.
Shipping some stuff comes from overseas. Shipping is becoming an issue.
(06:50):
So it's, it's tied to oil, but it's it's tied to, uh,
you know, multitude of things.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
If someone is thinking about uh moving to Maine and
they're looking at homes in the state of Maine, what's
your best advice to a homeowner for what they should
be looking for and maybe even be wary of of
on a rooftop on a house?
Speaker 2 (07:09):
When you have a house inspection, most of the time
the homeowner inspectors are not going up on the roof.
So I highly recommend that you get a roofer to
do a roof inspection. Normally, you know, we charge 100
to $200 to get up on the roof and actually
give you a good inspection over and above your inspection
from your inspector for your home before you buy it.
(07:31):
Try to find out how old the roof is. If
the customer that you're buying the house from does not
know how old it is, you're probably going to be
due for a roof.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Alright, and I know that uh that a lot depends
on the size of of the structure that you're inspecting,
but in in round terms, how long does it take
for you to do a roof inspection?
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Yeah, probably like 1520 minutes, take a few pictures and
look at the possible problem and uh normally on the
main part of the roof, you know, you can see
it it's pretty obvious.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Let's talk a little bit about metal roofing. You said
you're starting to to sell more metal roofing these days.
How long will that metal roof last in the state
of Maine?
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Well, they have their own warranties as well. They're about
a 50 year warranty, and there's always exclusion for something.
I don't get too hyped up on warranty when I'm
selling roofing because the manufacturer is going to try to
figure out any way to get out of it that
they can. So, you know, they do pay, but you
got to fight for it.
(08:30):
The good thing about a metal roof is the snow
does slide off. You don't have to shovel it, even
your old salt box, you wouldn't have to shovel it,
the snow would slide off from up there. So, those
are one of the benefits from a metal roof and
a longer warranty.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Dave, about 100 years ago I worked down the street
from where you are. I worked in Auburn, Maine at
a radio station, WLAM.
OK. And that building at that time, when they put
a second story on that building, they, they had, uh,
heaters in the roof to melt the ice uh so
(09:08):
that uh the the roof wouldn't uh get caked up
with ice and and have, you know, ice falling on
people going in and out of the uh the doors
of the radio station. Are are heaters on rooftops still
a thing?
Speaker 2 (09:20):
No, I haven't, I don't see that very often, but
what they do now is they make what we call
snow stops. So it's a, uh, kind of a bar
that goes across the bottom edge of the roof that
keeps the snow up on the roof, but still allows
it to melt. Uh, so those are things you have
to be aware of. You definitely have to be aware
of where the snow is going to slide off. It
does make it nice and it slides off, but you
(09:42):
also got to watch out for possible somebody getting hit
in the head.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Yeah, over doorways and things of that nature.
And when you're when you're doing an estimate for a
private or a home roof, you'll include the necessary accessories
like those snow stops?
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Correct. You decide where the problem areas are gonna be,
like in front of the garage doors, over the front door,
over the back porch, you know, places that you walk
all the time, you have to make sure that nobody's
gonna get hurt because it will slide off. It slides
off like an avalanche.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
So you're located in Grey, Maine. What is the radius
of your service area? How far will you go to
build a roof for somebody?
Speaker 2 (10:21):
We usually go within an hour of gray. Um, I
actually live down in Lyman, which is uh near Bitterford, Sanford, uh,
so we go an hour from my house and an
hour from my brother's house. So we're pretty much from
Kittery to Wiscassett and everywhere in between.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Kittery to Wiscasset and everywhere in between, I like it.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Yeah, and then also we go, you know, if somebody
has a camp up in Greenville or Jackman, or we,
we go there, we try to bunch them up, get
a couple of jobs up there and send the guys
up for the day, day overnight. We're we're liable to
go
Speaker 1 (10:52):
anywhere. For an average of say 3 bedroom home, how
long does the roof project
Speaker 2 (10:58):
take? We have 35 employees, so there isn't a roof
in Maine that we can't pretty much do in one day.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
And how about the time differentiation between the different types
of roof? Uh, does an asphalt roof go faster than
a metal roof or vice versa?
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Yes, so on an asphalt roof, most roofs we can
do in a day, metal roofs, uh, on an average
home you're talking about probably take 4 or 5 days.
So that's where the price difference comes in to start
with because it's a lot more labor intense to do
a metal roof.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
What about somebody that wants to put solar panels on
their rooftops?
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Uh, so we work with quite a few solar companies
right now because it's the, it's the thing of the
of the times. You have to have the solar company
will not put solar panels on unless the roof is
10 years or newer. so anything over 10 years, the
solar company will highly recommend and they will not put
your solar panels on until you have a new roof.
(11:55):
It doesn't matter if it's metal or shingles. They, they
actually prefer to put solar panels on a metal roof.
It's easier for them installation wise.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
And let's talk about things that that are not roof
because technically your your business name is Wallace Home Improvement
and you do a few more things that are not
roofs but are uh somehow connected to rooftops,
Speaker 2 (12:13):
right?
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Yeah,
Speaker 2 (12:14):
we basically do exterior of your home, which would be roofing, siding, windows, gutters, decks.
We're we're exterior guys, is what we're called.
Uh, we're not going to put you in a new
kitchen in, but we'll do anything on the outside of
the
house.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
And I would imagine that uh oftentimes gutters are uh
uh an integral part of uh the rooftop, correct?
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Yeah, well, we started out back in 1989 as mainly
gutters that we found a niche back in the late 80s.
A lot of guys were not doing gutters, so we
bought a new gutter machine and started doing gutters, and
then we got asked to do a roof and
1991, we changed the name, the Wallace Home Improvement, and
we've been roofing and siding ever since. And we still
(12:59):
do gutters today. We actually have a state of the
art machine that custom makes all the gutters right on
your right at your site.
As well as we have a new standing seam machine
where we make all the panels for your metal roofs
right at your own home as well.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
So you are customizing the steel metal roofing materials on site? Correct.
That sounds very complicated, wow. Yeah, well,
Speaker 2 (13:22):
it's
a lot easier than trying to order from a manufacturer
and not have the right lengths or the right colors
or the right sizes. It's just a lot easier to
make them on site. And that's, and again, that's why
it takes a little bit longer to do metal roof.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Talk a little bit more about Wallace Home Improvement. Tell
us about the
Speaker 2 (13:38):
company. We've been in business, like I said, about 35
years in the roofing and siding business now. We're one
of the largest roofing companies in Maine.
We cover a big territory. Um, one of the things
about some of the, some of the bigger manufacturers or
bigger roofing companies are not taking any money down. So
I want people to be aware in the state of Maine,
you're only allowed to get 1/3 down up front, and
(14:00):
then as materials are delivered, you can get more down.
So I need people to be aware. Don't be giving
guys big deposit because it's against the law in the
state of Maine more than 1/3.
We don't take any money down until the job is complete.
It doesn't matter how big or how small. So it
does a trust, you know, we do a trust thing.
We trust you, you trust us. We're going to do
what we're supposed to do. And what I promise because
(14:21):
I do 99% of the sales, my wife and I do.
So when I say something, we make sure that we
get it done and done correctly in the way I promised.
You're in the driver's seat when you have our money.
So it makes it even more incentive that we got
to do a good job and uh make sure you're
completely happy because you won't pay if you're not happy. So, uh,
(14:43):
you know, try to hold back as much money as
you can on the contractor that you're working with.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
And if you're using somebody other than Wallace roofing, uh,
remember in the state of Maine, 1/3 is the max
that you can put down for a deposit on the job, right? Yes,
Speaker 2 (14:58):
unless there's special order windows or special order siding or
something like that.
Then you can get all the money up
front.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
You mentioned that your wife helps out with uh some
of the uh the sales work, and earlier in the interview,
you mentioned your brother. Tell us a little bit about
how this is a family affair.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Yeah, so we have uh my brother and I, my
brother is actually the owner of the company, I'm the
sales manager.
Um, my wife and my daughter are the office managers,
but my wife, uh, goes out on most of the
estimates with me. We do the estimate right there. No,
I can get you an estimate immediately when we're at
your house. I don't have to call and get pricing.
I mean, we do this every single day, so, you know,
(15:38):
and it's been a family business since 1991.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
And everyone in the family is still speaking to each other, right?
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Oh yeah, well, everybody has their job, so it's not,
it's not an issue. My brother deals with the crew
and uh keeps everybody going and we do, my wife
and I do all the ordering and all the deliveries
and all the estimates.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
And if everyone's still speaking to each other, you must
be doing something right.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
35 years, everybody does their job. It's simple.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
What's the, what's the toughest roofing job you've done in
the past 35 years? Does something stand out?
Speaker 2 (16:09):
No, not really. I mean, they're all, they're all.
Not that difficult, it's just roofing, we say, you know.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
It ain't brain surgery, right?
Speaker 2 (16:19):
That's correct. It's basically stripping the roof and assessing the
the roof decking and make sure nothing's rotten and uh
fix it and go from there. You know, our contracts
are pretty specific, you know, so everybody is aware of
what could or may happen. So we have no trouble
at the end of the job because we, we touched
base with the customer the whole time. And again, most
(16:40):
jobs are one day, so we're in and we're out.
Yeah on the next one.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
When you're stripping a roof off a building and you're
gonna be replacing that roof, is there the possibility to
to find surprises underneath things once you've got all the
shingles off the roof?
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Oh yeah, 100% mark. It's probably, uh, you know, on
a normal residential house, if you've had leaks in the past,
that area could be potentially some rotted wood, or if
you had improper ventilation all those years.
I'll give you an example. The other day we did
a roof last Friday that people are selling the home.
It's completely full of mold up in the upstairs attic.
(17:17):
They had poor ventilation. Every single sheet of plywood had
to be replaced on the roof, and we knew it
up front going in. We had the mold guy there
at the same time. We changed all the plywood, which
we knew, like I said, in advance, and we were
still in and out of there in a day.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
That's pretty impressive actually.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Yeah, sometimes you, uh, you're not prepared, but most of
the time where we work there's a lumberyard within, you know,
20 minutes. You get material pretty fast. And again, I
have a crew of 35, so we send as many
bodies as we need to get the job done. You know,
people move into main and just be aware, find out
how old your roof is, and if you don't know,
(17:56):
you know, definitely get an inspection done by a roofer,
so you have that extra piece of mind.
Doesn't cost
much.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
And estimates from wallless roofing are free and you do
those right on the spot, correct?
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Correct. We have samples right with us. We uh talk
about different options, talk about time frames, we talk about
how long it'll take, you know, we're in communication, you know,
the whole process, and again, no money down till the
job's done. That's a big trust thing for all of us.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
If somebody is building a new home, what would be
the ideal roof? If if money were not an object,
what would be the ideal roof on a brand new
home in the state of Maine?
Speaker 2 (18:35):
I look at their plan of the house and would
make recommendations because you could go with shingles or you
could go with a metal roof. I guess it depends
on the house.
How many valleys, how many, you know, flat parts of
the roof do we have? Where's going to be the
potential issues? That's my deciding factor. It's not about the
money on our end. I would preferably go to 5
(18:58):
single roofs versus 1 metal with the same crew, but
you know, we're going to decide based on longevity of
how long you think you're going to be in the home.
Just because you're building a new home don't mean you're
going to be there forever.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Alright, Dave Wallace, Wallace Roofing. The website is Wallace Roofingaine.com,
as in the state of Maine, so make sure you
throw an E on the end of it, Wallace Roofingaine.com.
Dave Wallace, thank you so much for the education and
spending time with us. All right, Mark, I appreciate it.
For let's move to Maine, I'm Mark Erickson.
Let's move to Maine. I'm Mark Erickson. Today we are
talking to Dave Wallace of Wallace Roofing. The website is
Wallace Roofingaine.com. Dave, hello, and uh it is winter in Maine.
How much roofing is going on these days?
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Good afternoon, Mark. Nice to uh talk to you. We
are roofing in between the, we, we picked the good
days and don't work on the bad days. Like today
is a bad day.
Yesterday we were roofing. I mean, it definitely takes a
toll on the weather does make a difference, uh, but
some people have to get a roof down in the
wintertime and they don't have a
choice.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
So let's talk a little bit about the different types
of roofs, specifically the different kinds of materials that you use.
How many roof types are there?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Well, there's basically 3 types of roofs that are used
in Maine. One of them would be uh shingles, architectural shingles,
to be specific. The other one would be, uh, metal roofing.
You've seen a couple of different styles. We call it
a standing scene metal roof or a screw down metal roof.
They're becoming a lot more popular in the state of Maine.
And then the third one is rubber roofs based on
(01:05):
uh like a commercial building, a flat roof would have
a rubber roof on it. Those are basically the three
options that we have in Maine.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
The first step would be to determine what roof is
best for just a residential home and and what are
some of the guidelines that you use to help customers
sort that
out.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
The two major things on on deciding on a roof
is I ask people, say, first of all, how long
are you gonna be here? Shingles has about a 35 year.
Life expectancy on a warranty, and then a metal roof
will last a lot longer, but it's twice the money.
So you have to look at a couple of options there. What,
you know, cost effectiveness versus how long you're gonna stay
(01:44):
in the house. If you look at the average person,
you know, a lot of people move quite often, so
a roof is not necessarily the most important thing.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
When I was a kid, I grew up in a
in a house that I think the the builders and
architects call a salt box, but it had a flat
roof and in the winter time,
My mom sent me up there, up the ladder to
shovel off the roof, so I had the walkway, the driveway,
and then the entire roof of the house and there
(02:14):
was a garage also with a a flat roof. Are
flat roofs still a thing these days?
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Well, they still make salt boxes in Maine, believe it
or not, but they have product now called Ice and
Water shield that goes underneath the shingles that prevents the
ice backup from getting inside the home. Um, we recommend
as far as shoveling goes.
Uh, there are times that you have to shovel the
roof in Maine. We try to tell people don't shovel
(02:40):
it unless you have to. Uh, you know, you don't
have to go up and shovel the roof every time
it snows. Like this 4 or 5 inch storm that
we have, uh, you're better off to leave it alone
because you do more damage to the roof by shoveling
it than you do by just.
Letting it go.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Where were you when my mother was making me go
up the roof for every single storm?
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Every single storm, not today. And then we do recommend
when you do shovel, shovel as minimal as you need to.
So if you've got one or two little storms, you
do not need to shovel your roof.
Uh, most people shovel the roof because of the weight situation.
They're always worried about the weight up there. Uh, construction
now is a lot different than it was, you know,
(03:19):
50 years ago. The roofs are a lot stronger. So
when you do shovel the roof, you want to shovel
from the top down, not from the bottom up.
Because you're doing more damage to the roof by shoveling
in it than you are by leaving it alone.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Interesting. Alright, and while we're on the subject of of
rooftops during winter time, talk a little bit about uh
ice dams and and the best way to prevent those
from happening.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
OK, well, ice dams are normally caused by two issues.
The first one is being insulation loss up in the attic,
so it lets heat come up from the from the attic.
That it's hot and cold, and that's what melts the
snow and turns it into ice. It'll, uh, melt during
the day and then at nighttime it'll freeze, and that's
(04:06):
when you get the ice dance. Most, it's most of
the time it's got nothing to do with the roof,
it's more the insulation in the attic. And also the
other part of that, Mark, is if you don't have
proper ventilation in your attic.
Uh, via a ridge vent, gable end vents, or soft
vents that causes the attic to be hot, and that's
what melts it. So you have to have your, your
(04:28):
attic insulated properly in order to get away from the
ice dams.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
In addition to winter time and snow and cold weather,
which are all things that that are just very commonplace
in the state of Maine, what other factors kind of
make roofing houses or buildings in the state of Maine
different from doing it in other parts of the country?
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Well, we get, we do get a lot of high
wind area around here, like last week, we had some
high winds, uh, that are causing roof damages, and also
we get hail periodically. One thing we don't get is
the hurricanes.
So we don't have that issue, but nowadays we do
more nailing than we did 20 years ago or 25
years ago. We used to put 4 nails per shingle.
(05:10):
Now we're putting 6 nails per shingle, which they call
it hurricane nailing or high wind nailing. So we have
done some different things, and then again I talked about
ice and water shield. We do a lot more of
ice and water shield than we used
to do.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
How about homes and buildings that are in coastal areas,
does the salt air take a toll on the roof?
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Yeah, the salt and the hail does a lot of damage. Wind, obviously, uh,
there's only so much you can do, you can nail
it as much as you can, and I tell people,
make sure you have good insurance.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
So, in the state of Maine, what material roof do
you sell the most of, Dave?
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Well, it's architectural shingles, which is basically asphalt shingles. There's
3 or 4 different brands that are available in Maine
on a regular basis, and then uh we're starting to
swing to a lot more metal roofs. The shingles are
done because of a price point.
And they do get about a 30, 35 year life
span out of them now, which is a lot more
than they did 20 years ago. The architectural shingles are
(06:08):
like a double thick shingle compared to what what you
had on your house when you were a kid.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
So let's talk about those. You you said those are
asphalt shingles and they're thicker asphalt shingles these days. Asphalt
and asphalt products somehow connects to the price of oil.
So does does the price of the materials for an
asphalt roof, uh, go up and down a little bit?
Speaker 2 (06:28):
0, 100%. There's no going down, I can tell you that. Uh, we,
we actually just got a notice last week we're gonna
have an 8 to 10% increase in April, you know,
it does, it's, it's oil is one factor, but also
labor rates and, uh, you know, different things like that
cause the price of materials to go up. Trucking is
getting out of hand.
Shipping some stuff comes from overseas. Shipping is becoming an issue.
(06:50):
So it's, it's tied to oil, but it's it's tied to, uh,
you know, multitude of things.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
If someone is thinking about uh moving to Maine and
they're looking at homes in the state of Maine, what's
your best advice to a homeowner for what they should
be looking for and maybe even be wary of of
on a rooftop on a house?
Speaker 2 (07:09):
When you have a house inspection, most of the time
the homeowner inspectors are not going up on the roof.
So I highly recommend that you get a roofer to
do a roof inspection. Normally, you know, we charge 100
to $200 to get up on the roof and actually
give you a good inspection over and above your inspection
from your inspector for your home before you buy it.
(07:31):
Try to find out how old the roof is. If
the customer that you're buying the house from does not
know how old it is, you're probably going to be
due for a roof.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Alright, and I know that uh that a lot depends
on the size of of the structure that you're inspecting,
but in in round terms, how long does it take
for you to do a roof inspection?
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Yeah, probably like 1520 minutes, take a few pictures and
look at the possible problem and uh normally on the
main part of the roof, you know, you can see
it it's pretty obvious.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Let's talk a little bit about metal roofing. You said
you're starting to to sell more metal roofing these days.
How long will that metal roof last in the state
of Maine?
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Well, they have their own warranties as well. They're about
a 50 year warranty, and there's always exclusion for something.
I don't get too hyped up on warranty when I'm
selling roofing because the manufacturer is going to try to
figure out any way to get out of it that
they can. So, you know, they do pay, but you
got to fight for it.
(08:30):
The good thing about a metal roof is the snow
does slide off. You don't have to shovel it, even
your old salt box, you wouldn't have to shovel it,
the snow would slide off from up there. So, those
are one of the benefits from a metal roof and
a longer warranty.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Dave, about 100 years ago I worked down the street
from where you are. I worked in Auburn, Maine at
a radio station, WLAM.
OK. And that building at that time, when they put
a second story on that building, they, they had, uh,
heaters in the roof to melt the ice uh so
(09:08):
that uh the the roof wouldn't uh get caked up
with ice and and have, you know, ice falling on
people going in and out of the uh the doors
of the radio station. Are are heaters on rooftops still
a thing?
Speaker 2 (09:20):
No, I haven't, I don't see that very often, but
what they do now is they make what we call
snow stops. So it's a, uh, kind of a bar
that goes across the bottom edge of the roof that
keeps the snow up on the roof, but still allows
it to melt. Uh, so those are things you have
to be aware of. You definitely have to be aware
of where the snow is going to slide off. It
does make it nice and it slides off, but you
(09:42):
also got to watch out for possible somebody getting hit
in the head.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Yeah, over doorways and things of that nature.
And when you're when you're doing an estimate for a
private or a home roof, you'll include the necessary accessories
like those snow stops?
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Correct. You decide where the problem areas are gonna be,
like in front of the garage doors, over the front door,
over the back porch, you know, places that you walk
all the time, you have to make sure that nobody's
gonna get hurt because it will slide off. It slides
off like an avalanche.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
So you're located in Grey, Maine. What is the radius
of your service area? How far will you go to
build a roof for somebody?
Speaker 2 (10:21):
We usually go within an hour of gray. Um, I
actually live down in Lyman, which is uh near Bitterford, Sanford, uh,
so we go an hour from my house and an
hour from my brother's house. So we're pretty much from
Kittery to Wiscassett and everywhere in between.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
Kittery to Wiscasset and everywhere in between, I like it.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Yeah, and then also we go, you know, if somebody
has a camp up in Greenville or Jackman, or we,
we go there, we try to bunch them up, get
a couple of jobs up there and send the guys
up for the day, day overnight. We're we're liable to
go
Speaker 1 (10:52):
anywhere. For an average of say 3 bedroom home, how
long does the roof project
Speaker 2 (10:58):
take? We have 35 employees, so there isn't a roof
in Maine that we can't pretty much do in one day.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
And how about the time differentiation between the different types
of roof? Uh, does an asphalt roof go faster than
a metal roof or vice versa?
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Yes, so on an asphalt roof, most roofs we can
do in a day, metal roofs, uh, on an average
home you're talking about probably take 4 or 5 days.
So that's where the price difference comes in to start
with because it's a lot more labor intense to do
a metal roof.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
What about somebody that wants to put solar panels on
their rooftops?
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Uh, so we work with quite a few solar companies
right now because it's the, it's the thing of the
of the times. You have to have the solar company
will not put solar panels on unless the roof is
10 years or newer. so anything over 10 years, the
solar company will highly recommend and they will not put
your solar panels on until you have a new roof.
(11:55):
It doesn't matter if it's metal or shingles. They, they
actually prefer to put solar panels on a metal roof.
It's easier for them installation wise.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
And let's talk about things that that are not roof
because technically your your business name is Wallace Home Improvement
and you do a few more things that are not
roofs but are uh somehow connected to rooftops,
Speaker 2 (12:13):
right?
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Yeah,
Speaker 2 (12:14):
we basically do exterior of your home, which would be roofing, siding, windows, gutters, decks.
We're we're exterior guys, is what we're called.
Uh, we're not going to put you in a new
kitchen in, but we'll do anything on the outside of
the
house.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
And I would imagine that uh oftentimes gutters are uh
uh an integral part of uh the rooftop, correct?
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Yeah, well, we started out back in 1989 as mainly
gutters that we found a niche back in the late 80s.
A lot of guys were not doing gutters, so we
bought a new gutter machine and started doing gutters, and
then we got asked to do a roof and
1991, we changed the name, the Wallace Home Improvement, and
we've been roofing and siding ever since. And we still
(12:59):
do gutters today. We actually have a state of the
art machine that custom makes all the gutters right on
your right at your site.
As well as we have a new standing seam machine
where we make all the panels for your metal roofs
right at your own home as well.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
So you are customizing the steel metal roofing materials on site? Correct.
That sounds very complicated, wow. Yeah, well,
Speaker 2 (13:22):
it's
a lot easier than trying to order from a manufacturer
and not have the right lengths or the right colors
or the right sizes. It's just a lot easier to
make them on site. And that's, and again, that's why
it takes a little bit longer to do metal roof.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Talk a little bit more about Wallace Home Improvement. Tell
us about the
Speaker 2 (13:38):
company. We've been in business, like I said, about 35
years in the roofing and siding business now. We're one
of the largest roofing companies in Maine.
We cover a big territory. Um, one of the things
about some of the, some of the bigger manufacturers or
bigger roofing companies are not taking any money down. So
I want people to be aware in the state of Maine,
you're only allowed to get 1/3 down up front, and
(14:00):
then as materials are delivered, you can get more down.
So I need people to be aware. Don't be giving
guys big deposit because it's against the law in the
state of Maine more than 1/3.
We don't take any money down until the job is complete.
It doesn't matter how big or how small. So it
does a trust, you know, we do a trust thing.
We trust you, you trust us. We're going to do
what we're supposed to do. And what I promise because
(14:21):
I do 99% of the sales, my wife and I do.
So when I say something, we make sure that we
get it done and done correctly in the way I promised.
You're in the driver's seat when you have our money.
So it makes it even more incentive that we got
to do a good job and uh make sure you're
completely happy because you won't pay if you're not happy. So, uh,
(14:43):
you know, try to hold back as much money as
you can on the contractor that you're working with.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
And if you're using somebody other than Wallace roofing, uh,
remember in the state of Maine, 1/3 is the max
that you can put down for a deposit on the job, right? Yes,
Speaker 2 (14:58):
unless there's special order windows or special order siding or
something like that.
Then you can get all the money up
front.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
You mentioned that your wife helps out with uh some
of the uh the sales work, and earlier in the interview,
you mentioned your brother. Tell us a little bit about
how this is a family affair.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Yeah, so we have uh my brother and I, my
brother is actually the owner of the company, I'm the
sales manager.
Um, my wife and my daughter are the office managers,
but my wife, uh, goes out on most of the
estimates with me. We do the estimate right there. No,
I can get you an estimate immediately when we're at
your house. I don't have to call and get pricing.
I mean, we do this every single day, so, you know,
(15:38):
and it's been a family business since 1991.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
And everyone in the family is still speaking to each other, right?
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Oh yeah, well, everybody has their job, so it's not,
it's not an issue. My brother deals with the crew
and uh keeps everybody going and we do, my wife
and I do all the ordering and all the deliveries
and all the estimates.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
And if everyone's still speaking to each other, you must
be doing something right.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
35 years, everybody does their job. It's simple.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
What's the, what's the toughest roofing job you've done in
the past 35 years? Does something stand out?
Speaker 2 (16:09):
No, not really. I mean, they're all, they're all.
Not that difficult, it's just roofing, we say, you know.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
It ain't brain surgery, right?
Speaker 2 (16:19):
That's correct. It's basically stripping the roof and assessing the
the roof decking and make sure nothing's rotten and uh
fix it and go from there. You know, our contracts
are pretty specific, you know, so everybody is aware of
what could or may happen. So we have no trouble
at the end of the job because we, we touched
base with the customer the whole time. And again, most
(16:40):
jobs are one day, so we're in and we're out.
Yeah on the next one.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
When you're stripping a roof off a building and you're
gonna be replacing that roof, is there the possibility to
to find surprises underneath things once you've got all the
shingles off the roof?
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Oh yeah, 100% mark. It's probably, uh, you know, on
a normal residential house, if you've had leaks in the past,
that area could be potentially some rotted wood, or if
you had improper ventilation all those years.
I'll give you an example. The other day we did
a roof last Friday that people are selling the home.
It's completely full of mold up in the upstairs attic.
(17:17):
They had poor ventilation. Every single sheet of plywood had
to be replaced on the roof, and we knew it
up front going in. We had the mold guy there
at the same time. We changed all the plywood, which
we knew, like I said, in advance, and we were
still in and out of there in a day.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
That's pretty impressive actually.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Yeah, sometimes you, uh, you're not prepared, but most of
the time where we work there's a lumberyard within, you know,
20 minutes. You get material pretty fast. And again, I
have a crew of 35, so we send as many
bodies as we need to get the job done. You know,
people move into main and just be aware, find out
how old your roof is, and if you don't know,
(17:56):
you know, definitely get an inspection done by a roofer,
so you have that extra piece of mind.
Doesn't cost
much.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
And estimates from wallless roofing are free and you do
those right on the spot, correct?
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Correct. We have samples right with us. We uh talk
about different options, talk about time frames, we talk about
how long it'll take, you know, we're in communication, you know,
the whole process, and again, no money down till the
job's done. That's a big trust thing for all of us.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
If somebody is building a new home, what would be
the ideal roof? If if money were not an object,
what would be the ideal roof on a brand new
home in the state of Maine?
Speaker 2 (18:35):
I look at their plan of the house and would
make recommendations because you could go with shingles or you
could go with a metal roof. I guess it depends
on the house.
How many valleys, how many, you know, flat parts of
the roof do we have? Where's going to be the
potential issues? That's my deciding factor. It's not about the
money on our end. I would preferably go to 5
(18:58):
single roofs versus 1 metal with the same crew, but
you know, we're going to decide based on longevity of
how long you think you're going to be in the home.
Just because you're building a new home don't mean you're
going to be there forever.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Alright, Dave Wallace, Wallace Roofing. The website is Wallace Roofingaine.com,
as in the state of Maine, so make sure you
throw an E on the end of it, Wallace Roofingaine.com.
Dave Wallace, thank you so much for the education and
spending time with us. All right, Mark, I appreciate it.
For let's move to Maine, I'm Mark Erickson.
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