Author: Dan Stout | April 26, 2024

Roofing is a seasonal business. For Northeast and Midwest roofers in particular, the transition from winter to spring means a spike in demand, as homeowners discover leaks with melting snows and spring showers.

If you're wondering how to prepare for roofing season, here's what you need to know about staffing up, assessing your tools and materials and kick-starting your job pipeline.

Staff Sizing

More work means more workers! There are three ways to adjust your staff size to accommodate roofing season: recruit, rehire or reallocate.

Recruit

Hiring a fresh batch of workers is probably the hardest path to take each year. It means starting from scratch when it comes to HR forms and payroll processing, especially if you're hiring W-2 employees rather than subcontractors. You'll also need to do the appropriate background checks and conduct any required training. Even the best potential workers need some time to get a feel for your workflow and quality standards.

Rehire

If possible, try to rehire workers whom you've been happy with in the past. You don't need to start at the top of training, and they understand your expectations for quality and jobsite behavior.

Unfortunately, the best workers are often snapped up by other companies during the slow season. That's why the ideal solution is to keep your star employees busy during the offseason, and reallocate them when work picks back up.

Reallocate

In an ideal world, you'll shift workers to maintenance or out-of-town work during the winter, allowing you to keep them on staff. Turnover is expensive, and if you're able to keep your crews busy, you won't have to worry about another roofer poaching your workers.

Of course, this is easier said than done! You might need to make tough decisions about who to let go and who to keep on staff to work through winter.

Whatever you decide, give your workers as much heads-up as possible. When workers understand that reallocation decisions are made to help provide steady employment, they'll usually be more accommodating and have higher morale.

Tools and Equipment

At the end of winter, it's time to pull tools and equipment out of storage and test them to see if everything is in good shape. The goal is to identify any issues well before you're on the jobsite. It's not great if your ladders and nail guns are seized up, but not nearly as bad as finding out while you're on a roof post-tear-off, and needing to stop work while you run to the nearest store.

A great way to check equipment is to shingle a mock-up roof in a warehouse or on a controlled jobsite. You can even bring in any new hires and use it as a training session.

This is also the time to test any vehicles that have been in storage. Make sure they're running properly and are up to date on maintenance. Again, you're better off finding an issue in your garage instead of when you're doing 65 mph down the highway.

Marketing and Pipeline

To get your job pipeline up to speed, start marketing before the busy season begins. Advance marketing lets you get the job (and any deposits) in hand before you scale up your workforce and payroll expenses.

Previous customers may be the key when it comes to repeat business or referrals. Sending a card during the holidays or a newsletter at the start of the year is a great way to stay top of mind with consumers who already trust your work. This is also a great time to offer discounts. Many homeowners will be on the fence about getting maintenance for minor work done, and you can push them into action with a few well-placed flyers or ads.

As you get jobs under contract, try to schedule start dates that give you time to rehire, recruit or reallocate workers. It's possible that some homeowners will want to begin work right away — before you've staffed up. In that case, you may be better off turning down the job than scrambling and hiring workers you don't have full confidence in.

Seasonal Swings

Marketing, staffing and tool checks work hand in hand, ensuring that you have the jobs to pay for your staff, and the staff and tools required to get the jobs done. It can be a bit of a dance to get all this in the right order. But once you master the rhythm, you can reap the benefits every spring.