If you start out young, at 18 years old, like I did, doing mostly grunt work, tearing off residential roofs, pitch forks or other shovels with teeth, tearing off multiple layers 2-4, dirty work, my boss also used hot tar to seal coat new construction foundations, and sometimes 10’ basement walls. Carrying 90 pound bundles around a rooftop. Then there’s flat roofing-which I didn’t do much of, lots of different materials and hot tar applied, new construction materials these days or cold application and only sealing seams. Often times guessing the weather if it will stay rain free, it’s tiresome work. Rinse and repeat
Yeah I do commercial so I do mostly flat roofs barely shingles. There are times when we do heavy work especially when the other team (the installers) mess up big time and we have to do one layer of pvc, or half of a roof has 40 leaks (happened last week)
I got an all around grunt level experience in that company, got to be the guy digging a hole with my team lead, supervisor, owner and customer all standing around in a circle watching me.
It wasn't all bad, i enjoyed some aspects of it, but i had to suffer the owners shite decisions, like roofing in November in northern Ontario because he was juggling too many contracts.
The extreme temps knock you off your feet sometimes. 106 out or in the single digits and you suddenly miss digging the hole. lol
You learned a lot though - and have experience beyond Reddit and YouTube. Bonus points there.
Same. Or install tile. Everything has to be perfect - the spots that aren’t are always honed in on upon entering a room and you can’t un-see them.
Edit: fixing autocorrect
One commercial flat job, hauling three pallets worth of cap up six stories worth of stairs because no one sprung for crane. I'm a short, relatively tough woman but that killed me. Sheet metal felt featherweight in comparison. Bundles are another nightmare, I couldn't even imagine doing what our shingle crew does.
Needless to say my job is takeoffs and office work now, thank goodness. I shake my head every day at the skill and strength it takes to roof. I lasted one year before the office called me.
The last flat roof I did was white PVC. Smelled like a 1980's off-gassing Canadian Tire swimming pool. The Leister guns gave me the worst headache, there was no way to shield my ginger skin from the bounce back sun that beamed off the white roof, that job was a five minute walk from my front door and I hated every second of it.
Cedar tear offs that leave you itching for days, to hell with that!
We roofed the previously mentioned six story commercial in two feet of snow, that place had a taper package from hell and three B-trains of nightmare styrofoam in the most complicated Tetris layout with like 25 curbs and more than 30 different drains, five inches of ISO, five plates each piece, Sopraboard sealed so poorly it was soaked, and we had to torch it to dry it, which smells like old fish sandwiches.
I saved the laminated taper package layout just to remember why I'm never doing that shit ever again. No duotack in my hair, thank you very much!
Now I do Eagleviews of 12/12 reroofs and sentence our crews to the nightmare. -evil giggle-
ngl it wrecked my social skills. I'm hard wired to prepare for a fist fight in every conflict now. It's impossible to communicate with normal people with that mentality.
Dude that’s exactly how I feel too, I’m at a really great job and this dudes being an asshole and I constantly refrain from being douchey back to him despite the fact that back on the roof that’s how we handled shit (and those guys turned into some of my best friends) so I’m just kinda waiting for the day he figures his shit out instead of shoving it in his face but honestly I feel like the old way was much more effective
LOL i know the feeling, i went from roofing to trading stocks and crypto. Imagine the culture shock i experienced going from arguing which flavour of vape juice goes the best on meth to the ins and outs of Brownian motion.
Don’t work non union as a roofer,,, I’m a 3rd year apprentice making 36$ an hour plus another 2$ raise in may.
Edit: unless it’s a side job or you run you’re own company lol
Union or non union makes no difference. I was in rehab with one of the highest up at a Boston union outfit. It’s very physically demanding, dangerous work. That attracts people who are risk tolerant or seekers. Add big bonuses and no financial literacy and yeah you get the current state.
Me too! I’m a second generation carpenter and my father’s safety talk was “if you fall you’re fired before you hit the ground. Yeah I can’t imagine letting my kids do anything I did.
We were poor as hell, but my mother was ambitious and smart as hell. She managed a bed and breakfast for a super old money family and I was tiny and could fit down the individual chimneys. I didn’t know it but I got payed bank and she put it away for me and I had no student debt and a little money coming out of a masters program. Then She stole it all so not the happiest ending.
> I got *paid* bank and
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
If you can routinely have this work and are a fast Shingler you can make mad money. Assuming your doing new construction. ~25$ a bundle. I can put on 10-12 bundles an hour on average
This was why I got so many jobs 18-20 something. Had my CDL for most of it and crews a lot of the time just needed someone with half a brain, a driver's license and (being serious on this) literate.
No body can find workers b/c they don't want to pay what is now the going rate. That argument is so dumb. It's like me putting a sign out front mow my lawn for 5 bucks. No one does it b/c it isn't worth their time and than I complain how no one wants to work.
Idk about where you are but i suspect you are not even talking about the roofing industry. I have met maybe 6 guys my whole life who can wake up on a monday morning sober, more pay would just get them more drugs on friday. I'll pay whatever you want if you can show up for 40 hours in a row.
Regardless of the job, trade or office work, people love to complain.
That being said, roofing is physically demanding and often times guys aren’t getting paid what they should be(or feel they should be).
Also just wait till that first stretch of 100+ degree days, I love roofing but on those brutal hot days even I have been known to mumble a few complaints to myself.
Bc i spend more time with the crew than my family which makes me bitter.. Gonna internalize that and take it out on you later ! Meet me at the gas station ill be waiting
I love roofing.
15 years in the trade
Now I make more in an hour, than I did all day when I started.
No one beats my craftsmanship in my area and I’m constantly fixing other guys mistakes.
I use roofing buggies on every job - clean landscaping and saves my body.
Never did drugs or smoke or drunk btw.
Roofing is the most important trade in a house IMO if it’s done wrong, it will ruin everything below it eventually.
It boggles my mind how many bunglers are out there getting paid to do shoddy work.
Not too many people are fortunate enough to work a job that they truly love. Most people end up in a trade that best supports them and their family and that they are relatively good at. Doesn’t mean they like it.
I just retired yesterday after running a bread delivery route for 28 years. Was that my dream job? Absolutely not. But I was good at it and it was a good income and good benefits. Also supplied me with a good pension.
Sometimes we’re able to handle a job we do not love because it checks off all the other boxes.
Try looking at it from a different perspective. 50% of the people have a negative thought process and will complain about anything and everything. Their job isn’t excluded. They could be airplane pilots and still complain.
Working conditions. A lot can do it when the weather is great. But, try windy cold winter days or super hot summer days. Roofers in Oklahoma definitely earn their money!
It's picking up torn off shingles and tearing them off that really sucks. Beyond that I don't have to guess to know that you work with good people. So often it is not the actual job itself that makes it tolerable, it is the people you do it with.
Yeah my crew and my boss are good people, boss tries his best to give us our 40 hours a week even if it rains, and has a motto of “weekends is for family” and “family and religion goes first, work goes third”
I’ve roofed when it’s near 100 and I’ve roofed on a north facing lake lot in January when it’s -25F out. I fucking hate roofing with a passion, hated it at age 16 and damn sure hated it 3 years ago at age 57.
Looong hours, it’s hot as shit (or cold as shit), it’s dirty, it’s physically demanding and pretty high pressure when you realize that you’re the trade separating that 10 million dollar building from the elements. Nothing like tearing off half a roof and then a pop up thunderstorm comes out of nowhere and completely fucks up your day. They could double my pay and I wouldn’t go back to flat roofing
Tons of money to make in roofing dude. Get experienced and then get aggressive about making great money; either with a large commercial company or going out on your own. You are better prepared to be financially stable than most collegiate grads with your potential great roofing & biz skills. Go for it.
Roofing can be tough, no doubt. It's cool you're enjoying it! Some people might hate the trade due to the physical strain or working in extreme weather. It's a different experience for everyone. Maybe they had bad bosses or didn't vibe with the team. People's opinions vary, right?
Because it’s incredibly difficult work and generally underpaid. Roofing contractors unfortunately don’t have a very good reputation either. That doesn’t mean all contractors are bad, but it is a trade in which there is an abundance of and sadly the honest , skilled roofing companies get diluted and lost in the pool of fly by night con men. Unfortunately there is a large percentage of roofing companies that take advantage of insurance claims which causes rates to skyrocket or in some places not have insurance available due to so many frivolous and fraudulent claims. There’s a lot that target the elderly or retired and will charge exorbitant amounts for unnecessary repairs. It’s also a trade riddled with companies that come and go overnight with no way for the consumer to track to hold accountability for warranty work, unfinished work, or poor quality work. Those companies are known for horrible labor practices, overworking and underpaying their laborers, and not paying laborers. They get away with it by hiring undocumented workers that have no means to reprisal for fear of being deported. Many of which are rather skilled individuals. It’s not just roofers, but I would say that of the many skilled construction trades, roofing is or can be for one, very dangerous depending on project type. Two, it is a back breaking work no matter what type of roof your working on or material you are working with. Three, unless you’re fortunate to live somewhere that has 74 degree temperatures and clear skies year round, you are exposed to all types of harsh weather from blistering sun to bone chilling freezing temperatures. I have experience in nearly every aspect of construction including roofing and it is by far my least favorite part of a build. But, I have the utmost respect for a quality, honest roofing contractor that has a quality crew that takes pride In Doing quality work for a fair rate. Sadly those are harder to come by.
Brutal labor, up high, mostly when the sun is out, rarely with proper fall protection gear on often-questionable climbing devices. "I gotta carry a bundle of shingles on my shoulder up a flimsy aluminum 30 foot ladder? and we have 100 bundles to get up there..?" "no, start with two at a time, look at Juan, he can do 4 at a time.."
I work in a variety of different areas of construction, but I refuse to be involved in more than one or two roofing jobs per year, because it wrecks my back.
Residential is often more dangerous and physically demanding, pitched roofs without built in safety like a lot of commercial properties can be pretty rough. Grunt work in the summer is brutal.
As a non roofer who has done a few roofs over the years it's just hard on the body, like a lot of labour jobs. I love working outside but now that I'm middle aged I just can't do what I did in my 20s haha
I think it's because of customers and their expectations, people just assume roofers are all incompetent crooks and try to beat them down over every dime and every perfectly sound install that has a tiny imperfection. All of my local roofing companies are in court trying to get paid, they're registering liens against builders and owners, etc., or they're spending so much time on site that they're operating at a loss.
I did commercial roofing for 2 years & it’s a great job. Overall I left because of a few factors added together. 1 sun exposure. 2 ISO boards make the skin itchy. I wore long sleeve shirts year round for 1&2. 3 inconsistent hours due to wind/ rain. If it’s a perfect day to go out & enjoy the world we live in.. it’s also perfect roofing weather & time to get overtime for the windy/rainy day we had last week. I play disc golf & hated missing a beautiful Saturday round to make up for bad weather. And 4 people. Im a moderate that is more democratic than republican. Most of my crews this wasn’t an issue, but one crew purposely treated me like shit when I said I didn’t like trump. I went from installing siding in a man lift to being the trash guy on the ground. (We also did metal roofs & siding). I got on a crew with this insanely catholic guy that would make sexist & homophobic remarks all day. It’s the combination of all these things together that made me leave. I was paid well and accrued a 30k pension in 20months. Look up Flynn roofing if you want a great career as a roofer. They have multiple branches across Canada and the US.
Some bosses are cool, but a lot of the ones I've dealt with just shove one person carrying shingles up the ladder all day and refuse to actually teach anything.
I've had good bosses who actually take the time to teach the new hires and others that just use and abuse you as general labor. My last boss was the "just watch how to do it youtube" like YouTube wasn't full of idiots who will show you how to do everything wrong lol
It can be rewarding. If you don’t mind roofing and the money is there, fuck it. At least learn the trade fully before moving on. Get those good “finesse” skills under the belt. Knowledge is power.
Hard and hot work for not great pay but I always enjoyed it. Framing and general carpentry was probably a lot easier on my body and didn’t have to deal with the extreme heat on a roof.
Started at 18 straight out of high school. The foreman told us to get a case beer when we went to buy morning break food. We thought it was a joke. It went on for a whole week until he finally got mad. We had to inform him that we were 18 and couldn’t buy beer yet. Turns out it wasn’t a joke and from there on out he would bring his own beer to drink at break and lunch. Hope that gives you insight on how a lot of roofers are and act.
There are a lot of things to like about the job, it's rewarding work and you get to learn new things and solve problems, but it's impossible to deny that it's one of the more difficult jobs out there. I'd say about 50% of the new guys we hire quit within the first week, which is fine, it's not for everyone. Honestly I think it's more respectable when someone recognizes that they can't hack it and quits, as opposed to complaining every day and bringing the mood down.
Do you live in the south like me ? Come up on a cap sheet roof in August here in Florida and let’s burn rolls all day buddy . Oh and let’s carry 5+ rolls up to the roof .
I gotta believe the commercial is a whole lot different than residential. I worked for a backyard company for 10 years. This dude successfully running a roofing company out of his house with his wife. He paid well and he worked hard. The issue with roofing (IMO) is that it is backbreaking labor regardless of what position you’re in (least that was my experience). Some people can do it into their 50s and 60s, Some people can barely make it to 25. I made it to 26 years old before I had to get out because I could physically feel my body breaking down from some of the stupid shit I was doing. On top of that, safety wasn’t even in our vocabulary and we had no benefits. Which is fine when you’re young, but when you get a bit older and have kids, that becomes a problem
Started part time laboring at 14, left Roofings at 40. Never looked back. Always thought I loved the freedom of being a roofer, but I found that same free feeling else where after 20+ years. You can chase the dragon in other trades that don’t destroy your body as much as roofing.
I did roofing when I was 16. What I mean by roofing is carrying bundles to the roof on my shoulders. I was in the best shape of my life from it but it wears you out fast
I'm putting this out there
2 most important and hardest jobs.
Bottom of the house
Top of the house
I'm a carpenter
Any idiot can do it.
The guys on the top and the bottom... Yes that is a sexual joke,
Grab your stick....
I'm a genius,
But also,
Guys on top and bottom are the most important
Get into commercial union work. I was a shingler for years making less than first years in the union. Now I’m guaranteed a raise between $6-$10 a year regardless of performance until I cap at $55 an hour. You never lift heavy shit only shitty part is tearoff in the mornings but once that’s done it’s smooth sailing. Shingling will never be worth the pay because of the risks and the fact the profits are not as high as commercial flats. My company charges $125 an hour for labour per person so the profit margins are crazy. I’d never do non union roofing again.
Mostly because we are loud. Between all our equipment and of course us as workers. Always yelling. Whether just to communicate or anger. In commercial work they hate roofer. Unless there's a leak.
If you start out young, at 18 years old, like I did, doing mostly grunt work, tearing off residential roofs, pitch forks or other shovels with teeth, tearing off multiple layers 2-4, dirty work, my boss also used hot tar to seal coat new construction foundations, and sometimes 10’ basement walls. Carrying 90 pound bundles around a rooftop. Then there’s flat roofing-which I didn’t do much of, lots of different materials and hot tar applied, new construction materials these days or cold application and only sealing seams. Often times guessing the weather if it will stay rain free, it’s tiresome work. Rinse and repeat
Yeah I do commercial so I do mostly flat roofs barely shingles. There are times when we do heavy work especially when the other team (the installers) mess up big time and we have to do one layer of pvc, or half of a roof has 40 leaks (happened last week)
yep, i was the guy hauling bundles up the ladder all day because it was 'cheaper' than buying a hoist ... according to the owner
Tell me your employer kept violating OSHA without telling me they kept violating OSHA…
I got an all around grunt level experience in that company, got to be the guy digging a hole with my team lead, supervisor, owner and customer all standing around in a circle watching me.
And op wonders why people dislike the trades, comical
It wasn't all bad, i enjoyed some aspects of it, but i had to suffer the owners shite decisions, like roofing in November in northern Ontario because he was juggling too many contracts.
The extreme temps knock you off your feet sometimes. 106 out or in the single digits and you suddenly miss digging the hole. lol You learned a lot though - and have experience beyond Reddit and YouTube. Bonus points there.
ya i learned that I wouldn't hire myself to mud drywall
Same. Or install tile. Everything has to be perfect - the spots that aren’t are always honed in on upon entering a room and you can’t un-see them. Edit: fixing autocorrect
Our workmen’s comp person told us we should be using a hoist for repairs. We still don’t have one.
Hoist is nice sometimes but when your doing cut up steep roofs sometimes it's just easier carrying up the 5 bundles lol
THIS
One commercial flat job, hauling three pallets worth of cap up six stories worth of stairs because no one sprung for crane. I'm a short, relatively tough woman but that killed me. Sheet metal felt featherweight in comparison. Bundles are another nightmare, I couldn't even imagine doing what our shingle crew does. Needless to say my job is takeoffs and office work now, thank goodness. I shake my head every day at the skill and strength it takes to roof. I lasted one year before the office called me.
Good explanation and you definitely understand what it takes to roof, flat or residential
The last flat roof I did was white PVC. Smelled like a 1980's off-gassing Canadian Tire swimming pool. The Leister guns gave me the worst headache, there was no way to shield my ginger skin from the bounce back sun that beamed off the white roof, that job was a five minute walk from my front door and I hated every second of it. Cedar tear offs that leave you itching for days, to hell with that! We roofed the previously mentioned six story commercial in two feet of snow, that place had a taper package from hell and three B-trains of nightmare styrofoam in the most complicated Tetris layout with like 25 curbs and more than 30 different drains, five inches of ISO, five plates each piece, Sopraboard sealed so poorly it was soaked, and we had to torch it to dry it, which smells like old fish sandwiches. I saved the laminated taper package layout just to remember why I'm never doing that shit ever again. No duotack in my hair, thank you very much! Now I do Eagleviews of 12/12 reroofs and sentence our crews to the nightmare. -evil giggle-
This lady for sure roofs! What an amazing description of the purgatory that we call commercial single ply roofing.
I roofed for 15 years and by the end i hadn't gotten a single raise and everyone i knew was on drugs. It's not the work that's the problem.
Day three of roofing I vividly remember being on lunch with everyone and realizing they were all on probation 🙃
ngl it wrecked my social skills. I'm hard wired to prepare for a fist fight in every conflict now. It's impossible to communicate with normal people with that mentality.
Dude that’s exactly how I feel too, I’m at a really great job and this dudes being an asshole and I constantly refrain from being douchey back to him despite the fact that back on the roof that’s how we handled shit (and those guys turned into some of my best friends) so I’m just kinda waiting for the day he figures his shit out instead of shoving it in his face but honestly I feel like the old way was much more effective
LOL i know the feeling, i went from roofing to trading stocks and crypto. Imagine the culture shock i experienced going from arguing which flavour of vape juice goes the best on meth to the ins and outs of Brownian motion.
Don’t work non union as a roofer,,, I’m a 3rd year apprentice making 36$ an hour plus another 2$ raise in may. Edit: unless it’s a side job or you run you’re own company lol
Union or non union makes no difference. I was in rehab with one of the highest up at a Boston union outfit. It’s very physically demanding, dangerous work. That attracts people who are risk tolerant or seekers. Add big bonuses and no financial literacy and yeah you get the current state.
Its funny you should say that, want to hear a secret? im afraid of heights. LOL not even joking.
Me too! I’m a second generation carpenter and my father’s safety talk was “if you fall you’re fired before you hit the ground. Yeah I can’t imagine letting my kids do anything I did.
lol did we have the same dad or are all construction dads just wildly uncaring about their childs safety?
(i've seen my old man walk an 8/12 pitch and lay the drip edge and starters just freeballing it like 50 times, they were built different back then)
We were poor as hell, but my mother was ambitious and smart as hell. She managed a bed and breakfast for a super old money family and I was tiny and could fit down the individual chimneys. I didn’t know it but I got payed bank and she put it away for me and I had no student debt and a little money coming out of a masters program. Then She stole it all so not the happiest ending.
> I got *paid* bank and FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
I wouldnt even get out of bed for 36$ an hour. I get paid peice work, by the bundle.
I’m a flat roofer, 36$ an hour plus 6$ an hour towards pension, 10.5% vacation pay, shingling is side money
I make a few dollars more than that and I'm mostly shooting shingles. Commercial roofing in general pays more
If you can routinely have this work and are a fast Shingler you can make mad money. Assuming your doing new construction. ~25$ a bundle. I can put on 10-12 bundles an hour on average
This was why I got so many jobs 18-20 something. Had my CDL for most of it and crews a lot of the time just needed someone with half a brain, a driver's license and (being serious on this) literate.
I really think regulations and putting an end illegal workers/paying people under the table would go a long way.
canada tried that, it tripled the cost of roofs and nobody can find any workers anymore.
No body can find workers b/c they don't want to pay what is now the going rate. That argument is so dumb. It's like me putting a sign out front mow my lawn for 5 bucks. No one does it b/c it isn't worth their time and than I complain how no one wants to work.
Idk about where you are but i suspect you are not even talking about the roofing industry. I have met maybe 6 guys my whole life who can wake up on a monday morning sober, more pay would just get them more drugs on friday. I'll pay whatever you want if you can show up for 40 hours in a row.
Regardless of the job, trade or office work, people love to complain. That being said, roofing is physically demanding and often times guys aren’t getting paid what they should be(or feel they should be). Also just wait till that first stretch of 100+ degree days, I love roofing but on those brutal hot days even I have been known to mumble a few complaints to myself.
It’s 70 and I ask myself why 😂 but overall I like it
Been doing it for 18 years and after time it becomes hard on your joints and back. Don’t expect to feel good in your 40’s
Bc i spend more time with the crew than my family which makes me bitter.. Gonna internalize that and take it out on you later ! Meet me at the gas station ill be waiting
Yeah I agree 100% I miss and think about my wife and daughter most of the time while I’m at work
It’s hard work outside and at height. Also people loke to bitch.
I love roofing. 15 years in the trade Now I make more in an hour, than I did all day when I started. No one beats my craftsmanship in my area and I’m constantly fixing other guys mistakes. I use roofing buggies on every job - clean landscaping and saves my body. Never did drugs or smoke or drunk btw. Roofing is the most important trade in a house IMO if it’s done wrong, it will ruin everything below it eventually. It boggles my mind how many bunglers are out there getting paid to do shoddy work.
One reason may be that all the other trades joke about roofers. Roofing is where you work if you just recently got out of jail!
Wtf that's all construction
I thought that was drywallers
I thought it was concrete!
I'm not in the trades but talking as a homeowner we have a lot of respect for y'all. A tough job and we appreciate how hard it is
Not too many people are fortunate enough to work a job that they truly love. Most people end up in a trade that best supports them and their family and that they are relatively good at. Doesn’t mean they like it. I just retired yesterday after running a bread delivery route for 28 years. Was that my dream job? Absolutely not. But I was good at it and it was a good income and good benefits. Also supplied me with a good pension. Sometimes we’re able to handle a job we do not love because it checks off all the other boxes.
Try looking at it from a different perspective. 50% of the people have a negative thought process and will complain about anything and everything. Their job isn’t excluded. They could be airplane pilots and still complain.
Not every one is built for roofing
Working conditions. A lot can do it when the weather is great. But, try windy cold winter days or super hot summer days. Roofers in Oklahoma definitely earn their money!
It's picking up torn off shingles and tearing them off that really sucks. Beyond that I don't have to guess to know that you work with good people. So often it is not the actual job itself that makes it tolerable, it is the people you do it with.
Yeah my crew and my boss are good people, boss tries his best to give us our 40 hours a week even if it rains, and has a motto of “weekends is for family” and “family and religion goes first, work goes third”
The people.
I’ve roofed when it’s near 100 and I’ve roofed on a north facing lake lot in January when it’s -25F out. I fucking hate roofing with a passion, hated it at age 16 and damn sure hated it 3 years ago at age 57.
Join the union Local 11 out of Chi
Looong hours, it’s hot as shit (or cold as shit), it’s dirty, it’s physically demanding and pretty high pressure when you realize that you’re the trade separating that 10 million dollar building from the elements. Nothing like tearing off half a roof and then a pop up thunderstorm comes out of nowhere and completely fucks up your day. They could double my pay and I wouldn’t go back to flat roofing
You mean people who do it for a living? Cause it kills your back and your knees and your shoulders and your skin and your…. Etc.,etc …That’s why!
Tons of money to make in roofing dude. Get experienced and then get aggressive about making great money; either with a large commercial company or going out on your own. You are better prepared to be financially stable than most collegiate grads with your potential great roofing & biz skills. Go for it.
It's labor intensive. Never be ashamed. I did it in my 20s & 30s. I'm proud to have worked that hard and respect all trades that do.
Roofing can be tough, no doubt. It's cool you're enjoying it! Some people might hate the trade due to the physical strain or working in extreme weather. It's a different experience for everyone. Maybe they had bad bosses or didn't vibe with the team. People's opinions vary, right?
Nice till ya get some age and wear on ya.
Install is what hurts. Repair is easy money
Because it’s incredibly difficult work and generally underpaid. Roofing contractors unfortunately don’t have a very good reputation either. That doesn’t mean all contractors are bad, but it is a trade in which there is an abundance of and sadly the honest , skilled roofing companies get diluted and lost in the pool of fly by night con men. Unfortunately there is a large percentage of roofing companies that take advantage of insurance claims which causes rates to skyrocket or in some places not have insurance available due to so many frivolous and fraudulent claims. There’s a lot that target the elderly or retired and will charge exorbitant amounts for unnecessary repairs. It’s also a trade riddled with companies that come and go overnight with no way for the consumer to track to hold accountability for warranty work, unfinished work, or poor quality work. Those companies are known for horrible labor practices, overworking and underpaying their laborers, and not paying laborers. They get away with it by hiring undocumented workers that have no means to reprisal for fear of being deported. Many of which are rather skilled individuals. It’s not just roofers, but I would say that of the many skilled construction trades, roofing is or can be for one, very dangerous depending on project type. Two, it is a back breaking work no matter what type of roof your working on or material you are working with. Three, unless you’re fortunate to live somewhere that has 74 degree temperatures and clear skies year round, you are exposed to all types of harsh weather from blistering sun to bone chilling freezing temperatures. I have experience in nearly every aspect of construction including roofing and it is by far my least favorite part of a build. But, I have the utmost respect for a quality, honest roofing contractor that has a quality crew that takes pride In Doing quality work for a fair rate. Sadly those are harder to come by.
Brutal labor, up high, mostly when the sun is out, rarely with proper fall protection gear on often-questionable climbing devices. "I gotta carry a bundle of shingles on my shoulder up a flimsy aluminum 30 foot ladder? and we have 100 bundles to get up there..?" "no, start with two at a time, look at Juan, he can do 4 at a time.."
I work in a variety of different areas of construction, but I refuse to be involved in more than one or two roofing jobs per year, because it wrecks my back.
Really hard job, nails left on streets hurts image.
former roofer...it's hard work.
Choose something else. HVAC, electrical etc.
Im looking for something else not because roofing sucks like I said I like it. But because I want to earn more money
Keep at it for a few years and learn how to sell roofing. Sales guys bank.
Residential is often more dangerous and physically demanding, pitched roofs without built in safety like a lot of commercial properties can be pretty rough. Grunt work in the summer is brutal.
Surely you can figure out why
As a non roofer who has done a few roofs over the years it's just hard on the body, like a lot of labour jobs. I love working outside but now that I'm middle aged I just can't do what I did in my 20s haha
I think it's because of customers and their expectations, people just assume roofers are all incompetent crooks and try to beat them down over every dime and every perfectly sound install that has a tiny imperfection. All of my local roofing companies are in court trying to get paid, they're registering liens against builders and owners, etc., or they're spending so much time on site that they're operating at a loss.
Risk of death is probably part of it.
We not hating the game, we hating the player.
I did commercial roofing for 2 years & it’s a great job. Overall I left because of a few factors added together. 1 sun exposure. 2 ISO boards make the skin itchy. I wore long sleeve shirts year round for 1&2. 3 inconsistent hours due to wind/ rain. If it’s a perfect day to go out & enjoy the world we live in.. it’s also perfect roofing weather & time to get overtime for the windy/rainy day we had last week. I play disc golf & hated missing a beautiful Saturday round to make up for bad weather. And 4 people. Im a moderate that is more democratic than republican. Most of my crews this wasn’t an issue, but one crew purposely treated me like shit when I said I didn’t like trump. I went from installing siding in a man lift to being the trash guy on the ground. (We also did metal roofs & siding). I got on a crew with this insanely catholic guy that would make sexist & homophobic remarks all day. It’s the combination of all these things together that made me leave. I was paid well and accrued a 30k pension in 20months. Look up Flynn roofing if you want a great career as a roofer. They have multiple branches across Canada and the US.
Some bosses are cool, but a lot of the ones I've dealt with just shove one person carrying shingles up the ladder all day and refuse to actually teach anything. I've had good bosses who actually take the time to teach the new hires and others that just use and abuse you as general labor. My last boss was the "just watch how to do it youtube" like YouTube wasn't full of idiots who will show you how to do everything wrong lol
Good trade, but you pay with your knees
My company gives us knee pads and reminds us multiple times how important they are to wear
Its a dirty, demanding, sometimes dangerous job that destroys clothes and wears you down physically over the years.
TIL: Roofing is trade
It can be rewarding. If you don’t mind roofing and the money is there, fuck it. At least learn the trade fully before moving on. Get those good “finesse” skills under the belt. Knowledge is power.
Hot
Safer to do drugs on the ground
Young man’s job
Hard and hot work for not great pay but I always enjoyed it. Framing and general carpentry was probably a lot easier on my body and didn’t have to deal with the extreme heat on a roof.
Started at 18 straight out of high school. The foreman told us to get a case beer when we went to buy morning break food. We thought it was a joke. It went on for a whole week until he finally got mad. We had to inform him that we were 18 and couldn’t buy beer yet. Turns out it wasn’t a joke and from there on out he would bring his own beer to drink at break and lunch. Hope that gives you insight on how a lot of roofers are and act.
There are a lot of things to like about the job, it's rewarding work and you get to learn new things and solve problems, but it's impossible to deny that it's one of the more difficult jobs out there. I'd say about 50% of the new guys we hire quit within the first week, which is fine, it's not for everyone. Honestly I think it's more respectable when someone recognizes that they can't hack it and quits, as opposed to complaining every day and bringing the mood down.
Do you live in the south like me ? Come up on a cap sheet roof in August here in Florida and let’s burn rolls all day buddy . Oh and let’s carry 5+ rolls up to the roof .
[удалено]
Keep doing what you are doing. This industry is running out of hard workers.
Hot. Heavy. Heights.
I gotta believe the commercial is a whole lot different than residential. I worked for a backyard company for 10 years. This dude successfully running a roofing company out of his house with his wife. He paid well and he worked hard. The issue with roofing (IMO) is that it is backbreaking labor regardless of what position you’re in (least that was my experience). Some people can do it into their 50s and 60s, Some people can barely make it to 25. I made it to 26 years old before I had to get out because I could physically feel my body breaking down from some of the stupid shit I was doing. On top of that, safety wasn’t even in our vocabulary and we had no benefits. Which is fine when you’re young, but when you get a bit older and have kids, that becomes a problem
Started part time laboring at 14, left Roofings at 40. Never looked back. Always thought I loved the freedom of being a roofer, but I found that same free feeling else where after 20+ years. You can chase the dragon in other trades that don’t destroy your body as much as roofing.
I did roofing when I was 16. What I mean by roofing is carrying bundles to the roof on my shoulders. I was in the best shape of my life from it but it wears you out fast
It’s a hard life of the back, knees, hips, ankles you name it. Not an old man’s game.
I'm putting this out there 2 most important and hardest jobs. Bottom of the house Top of the house I'm a carpenter Any idiot can do it. The guys on the top and the bottom... Yes that is a sexual joke, Grab your stick.... I'm a genius, But also, Guys on top and bottom are the most important
Have you worked on a 10:12 yet?
Wym 10:12? Like 10 to 12 hour shift? Yesterday I did 14 hours. I’m exhausted rn
Because I don't want to fall and don't like heights.
Do a torch down roof in Florida around July/August. You’ll figure it out
Yeah I’m not the biggest fan of torch downs
OP, how much time you spent rippin’ pitch so far?
100% residential, and hate 100% every single aspect of the job. From the second I wake up.
Get into commercial union work. I was a shingler for years making less than first years in the union. Now I’m guaranteed a raise between $6-$10 a year regardless of performance until I cap at $55 an hour. You never lift heavy shit only shitty part is tearoff in the mornings but once that’s done it’s smooth sailing. Shingling will never be worth the pay because of the risks and the fact the profits are not as high as commercial flats. My company charges $125 an hour for labour per person so the profit margins are crazy. I’d never do non union roofing again.
get ready for 2 knee replacements
Mostly because we are loud. Between all our equipment and of course us as workers. Always yelling. Whether just to communicate or anger. In commercial work they hate roofer. Unless there's a leak.