No one likes looking for a roofing contractor. After all, it’s nerve-wracking giving a person you don’t know permission to pound nails above your head!
And not all local roofing companies are created equal. Some are flat-out untrustworthy. So, what’s someone who’s looking for a roofer to do?
We think the best way to judge whether a contractor is worth your trust is by getting to know them personally.
To help you do this, we recently sat down for an in-depth interview with one of those roofers!
Steve Staley is the CEO and President of Renowned Building Solutions. His company installs residential roofing, commercial roofing, siding, windows and gutters in Northern Illinois, Southern Wisconsin, Indiana and North Carolina.
We asked Steve some questions about his company, and here’s what he had to say:
What inspired you to start Renowned Building Solutions?
I had been working at a local roofing company for a while, and I enjoyed working there. But I felt like there was so much they weren’t doing that needed to be done in the roofing space.
The biggest thing was the company didn’t focus enough on giving customers the best service possible. I noticed gaps—ways the company was letting people down—which left our customers with a much worse experience than they deserved.
I’d been in the industry long enough to know that fixing these problems required big shifts in how the company operated. Leadership would need to implement new policies and procedures from the top down so that everyone would be on the same page about improving our customer service. They’d also have to be willing to invest money in the right ways to make these changes possible.
Unfortunately, the company wasn’t willing to make those changes. It was like a non-issue and not important enough to them.
I saw this as the major roadblock keeping our business from achieving success. And I had much greater ambitions than staying at a company that was stuck in its ways.
My vision was to create a local roofing company that would put customer service first for homeowners and businesses in Illinois, Wisconsin and beyond. So, I left my old job, started Renowned in 2014 and here we are eight years later. Time flies!
What do you enjoy most about working at a local roofing company?
The thing that makes me the happiest is hearing the success stories from the customers we help. To me, a “job well done” is so much more than just installing a quality roof and getting paid for it. What makes it truly excellent is when I hear our work has made a huge difference in our customers’ lives.
A good example of this happened just today. We had one of our residential roofing customers stop by our office with cannolis for everybody. She was grateful that we’d worked with her insurance company to settle her storm damage claim and just wanted to say thank you.
Getting to meet her and see the joy we brought to her life was the best! Now she’s one of our advocates and our biggest fan. And her cannolis were delicious, so we’re thankful for that too!
Why is integrity so important in the construction industry?
Integrity is huge for us. Our core mission is to bring the integrity that has been lacking back to the roofing and construction industry.
I think the main reason integrity’s been in short supply is it’s very easy to start a local roofing company. Basically, anyone can do it since the startup costs are so low. Because of this, there are a ton of subpar roofing contractors and scam artists out there. They’re only in it to take people’s money and slap a poor excuse for a roof together.
Sadly, for a lot of these companies, integrity isn’t even part of the equation. I think it’s because doing roofing the right way by putting the customer’s needs first is hard. It’s much easier to be dishonest and leave the customer with a poor experience.
We’ve chosen to do things the hard way by communicating openly and genuinely with our customers. This isn’t always the most beneficial for our company. Sometimes doing things the right way costs us more money and time than cutting corners would. But integrity is important to us because we know the difference it can make in people’s lives.
It’s so rare that a service wows you to the point where you want to bring in cannolis out of appreciation. And we want to have that effect on people. Our mission is to wow you, and our track record shows that’s how we operate.
What are some ways your team of local roofers builds trust with customers?
From the beginning to the end of a project, our team is “all hands on deck” when serving our customers. We always clearly communicate everything to them so that they’re never left wondering what’s going on with their project.
The main way we ensure this is by keeping ourselves easily accessible. If someone has a question about their project, they can call us no matter the time of day, and we’ll answer it.
And we don’t make any empty promises either. We do what we say we’re going to do throughout the project. We like to overpromise and overdeliver so that our customers can sit back, relax and enjoy the transformation.
How do you make your customers’ lives easier during a project?
We do a lot of the heavy lifting that most companies won’t do. For example, if they need help during a mortgage process or an insurance process, we’re there for them every step of the way. If there’s a discrepancy, we’ll handle all communications between them and the insurance company. If it’s a commercial project, we’ll even transfer the rights of the insurance claim over to a public adjuster and work with the public adjuster to handle the claim.
When it comes to an insurance claim the hardest thing a customer should have to do is pick colors. We firmly believe this, which is why we put so much effort into handling this part of the project. We take care of the complicated insurance side of things so that you don’t have to.
A lot of companies abandon ship when it comes to harder aspects of a project like dealing with insurance claims. But we make our appointments, follow up and arrive at our scheduled times to take care of business. You don’t have to chase us down. Our customers appreciate being able to count on us to follow through.
What are the keys to an excellent residential roof or siding project?
A lot goes into a roofing or siding project. The key to success is paying super close attention to the details. To cover all our bases, we’re careful to do everything on this list and more:
- Follow all state and city building-related codes
- Pull permits and perform all required inspections
- Use only trusted building materials
- Install all materials per the manufacturer’s specifications
- Perform quality control checkup after the job’s complete
We do all of this during the project to ensure our work is the best it can possibly be. However, we don’t consider the job done until we’ve looked at it with the customer and they’ve given their final approval. We don’t collect payment from a customer until they’re completely satisfied.
So, I guess you could say we design our process so that every project must be excellent before we can move on. We’re just perfectionists that way!
As a local commercial roofer, how do you work with businesses to ensure a successful project?
We follow a process similar to the one we follow for our residential projects to ensure our commercial projects are great.
The thing that makes these jobs especially challenging is we’re often renovating businesses that have a lot of foot traffic coming in and out every day. So, we do a lot of planning with the business owner before we begin the project to ensure we won’t disrupt their day-to-day operations.
This planning includes going over a diagram of the building to identify heavily-trafficked areas. This way, we can plan to avoid blocking those areas and can strategically position our equipment and supplies elsewhere.
We also make it a point to remain OSHA compliant with everything on the roof. This includes practicing all proper safety procedures when bringing materials on and off the roof and positioning cranes. We use caution tape to rope off dangerous areas and put up signs to alert people a project is going on and to watch for falling debris.
What have you learned from settling thousands of storm damage insurance claims?
The biggest thing we’ve learned is every insurance company is different, and each company can change its rules, procedures and qualifications at any time. This can cause a real headache for homeowners trying to handle storm damage claims on their own. But we’re used to it.
Our team has mastered the art of adjusting on the fly when dealing with insurance adjusters over the years. We’re fully aware that things can change from day to day and expect it will happen when we make our initial inspection.
The internal procedures of an insurance company often don’t make sense from the outside. But our team has gotten very good at making sense and clarity out of an industry that doesn’t have a lot of it. I think our customers appreciate this because no one wants to deal with insurance claims on one’s own.
What advice would you give people looking to replace their roofs?
Do your homework on whatever roofing contractor you’re thinking of choosing. You can never be too thorough when looking for a trustworthy roofer. After all, spending more time on research upfront is much better than spending more money fixing their sloppy work afterward!
Here are a few things you want to especially look for when researching a roofer:
- Check that the company is licensed.
- Look for any affiliations with manufacturers or the National Roofing Contractors Association (NRCA).
- Read customer reviews for the company on sites like the Better Business Bureau and Google. (Pay special attention to reviews about mistakes the company made or warranty claims and how the company handled them.)
A trustworthy local roofing contractor will get passing marks in all three of these areas. That’s the type of contractor you want up on your roof.
What excites you most about the future of your company?
I’m most excited to get back to roofing without distractions and without having to shut down our business. The pandemic was hard on everybody. So, I’m just glad we could get through that part and get back to work.
We have some great new team members. We’re really excited about growing and developing our company culture again by being together. I think that matters a whole lot.
We also opened a great new location in downtown McHenry, IL, and we’re thrilled to be a part of this awesome community and serve the surrounding region.
Our company currently does work in four states: Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana and North Carolina. But we’re always looking to expand and help more people, so that number might increase at some point in the future too!
Steve’s company moved to a new location in McHenry, IL, in April 2022.
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What’s the most important thing people should know about Renowned Building Solutions?
The most important thing is we all genuinely care about your project. From team members who just started to people who have been here from the beginning—everyone here values the customer’s needs first and foremost.
In fact, we care so much that we get into arguments about how to best serve our customers. That’s how passionate we are about holding each other accountable to be the best we can be.
The thing that matters most to us about the project is how to do a great job for our customers. Getting paid comes secondary to how we serve. Of course, we want to make money. Of course, we want to run a business. But what really gets us excited is each project we do, from small roofs to big roofs and everything in between.
And that doesn’t change. I’ve been doing it for years, and I still love seeing a house go from a turd to a diamond. And you can quote me on that!
We Hope You Enjoyed Getting to Know Steve Staley!
As you can see, Steve is an experienced roofing contractor who’s passionate about making people’s lives better. His team at Renowned Building Solutions is just as enthusiastic about customer service and works hard to execute top-notch residential and commercial renovation projects every day!
Interested in hiring Renowned Building Solutions for your next roofing or siding project? You can call 844-736-6961 or fill out this form to get a free quote.
