Latest News at ABC
Monthly Newsletter - Charlie Smith, President
Note: See Previous Newsletter
April 2009 - Greetings!
20 Great Years, 20 Better Ones Ahead!
Greetings, Comrades!
I want to start by saying that in the midst of all the gloom and doom, I am looking forward to this, our 20th year, being our best. Our mission is to use our advanced metal solutions such as Archzilla™, the new 238T panel, and our 30’ brake to solve roofing/siding problems and provide the lowest total cost of ownership to the end user. We see a lot of opportunity out there.
Right now we are in the midst of making a lot of personnel and operational changes that I believe will result in better products and service for you. Please bear with us while we work through this!
Personnel Changes
- Sales/Marketing
- Brian Selig has moved back in from outside sales covering Houston/Austin. He will be our product manager working with me to determine our most logical product mix, our pricing strategy and geographic areas of interest. Lisa Putney and Martha Clawson with EMLI Inc will be handling the sales for the Austin market now.
- Meredith Roberts is back! Meredith came with ABC when I bought the company 20 years ago. He is a great salesman, and I am grateful he decided to retire at Brand X where he whipped up on us for the past 15 years. This old geezer has tremendous knowledge of the industry and our local Houston and surrounding market. Meredith’s Cell number is 832-228-2308, mroberts@archmtalroof.com
- Julio Puga will no longer be doing shop drawings. He will be concentrating on estimating as well as generating most of the quotes that we send out.
- Gary Todd is our lone inside salesman for now.
- Production
- Linda Sims: Linda is our operations manager. She came here from General Motors in Columbus, OH. She is here every other week until I can convince her to move here. She is doing a great job of focusing our production staff to be better and more responsive to your needs. I see significant progress every week. If you have any production related issues or questions, whether they are quality, delivery or whatever, please call Linda. She was not making metal roofing in Ohio, but she understands production and customer satisfaction. (614) 306-6918. LSims1@columbus.rr.com.
- Debra Heppner is taking over the Drafting department for us. She has extensive experience doing shop drawings for Brand Y and brings a lot of knowledge to us in this field. If you have any questions relating to shop drawings or special details, please contact Debra at extension 121. dheppner@archmetalroof.com
- Raymond Bahena is production manager now. Linda has put Raymond in charge of production, and he is a hard hitter that gets things done.
- Bill Harris is in charge of scheduling the production. If you have a schedule issue or concern, contact Bill at extension 108.
- Office Stuff
- Audreann Haridy is in charge of AR and warranties. Don’t be dodging her calls or she may come hurt you.
Billing Schedule
Gary should be asking about your jobsite billing schedule on orders you place with us. It is our goal going forward to do what we can to help both of us with our cash flow. As I stated last month, if we can get you an invoice to submit on the 20th, for materials that will deliver on the 22nd, then we both can gain 30-45 days on our cash flow on that job. Please let us work with you on this very important issue.
238T Training Classes
We are setting up a permanent training installation structure here at the plant. Once it is complete, we will require jobsite foremen to be certified in the installation of the 238T in order to qualify for a Weather Tight Warranty with this system. Certification will help us maintain a quality installer base and teach your guys the ins and outs of installing this system and the associated components. Early certification will increase your odds of getting at 238T specified job. Our plant is to have monthly training classes at a nominal fee to cover the materials and installation tools we intend to send your foreman home with.
238T Tapered Panels
We have invested a significant amount of money to be able to form long 238T Tapered panels, on site if needed. We have 2 jobs upcoming that have tapered panels with lengths in excess of 80’. We are doing these with no laps. Since the 238T is symmetrical, it allows for easy adjustment panels to be added if you start getting off module. You can stop and start up again a couple of feet away then back fill later with a special panel. There is no better system for tapered applications.
Now on to Featured Projects & Jobs of the Month:
Valley Problem Addressed
Last month we featured the Sam Houston Race Track re-roof here in Houston being done by R and B Roofing out of Dallas. Here we want to look at one of the problem areas on the roof which was the dormer valleys. This was one of those nightmare steep slope/low slope roof valleys where the water coming off the 10/12 slope roof is going to try to run under the panels on the 4/12 slope roof. To make matters worse, this is an open frame job.
The existing situation looks like this: No Vee in the valley and a trapezoidal panel that is IMPOSSIBLE to make watertight on an angle cut. The panels are fastened directly to the valley plate.
Here we are putting a new 48” wide 16 gauge valley plate on top of the existing 24” plate. This is no place to chinch. The new support framing had to be added.
Ice and water shield was installed on top of the new plate and this new valley with a 2” tall offset diverter is being installed. The diverter is offset from the center line with a nearly vertical angle facing the steep slope. A double cleat is installed in the open hem and the panels hook into the cleat.
This should prevent water from running under the low slope panels from above.
Now onto Jobs of the Month:
Louisiana
First, we will go to Louisiana where our friends at Roof Technologies did one hell of a job installing a low slope retrofit on the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s office. This was an existing tar and gravel flat roof. A low slope frame system was installed over the existing roof and a new 238T X 18”W wide was installed on the frame. The big deal here is that even though there was a 130 mph wind zone, NO ADDITIONAL FRAMING was required in the edge zones to meet the wind uplift using the 238T panel
Here is a before shot:
Here is the after. Another SUPER FINE installation by the boys at Roof Technologies. Congrats to Bill Luebbert, Rowland Seal, Kevin and the rest of the gang at Roof Tech for a job well done!
Our second job in Louisiana goes to our friend Rusty Bell at Dixie Roofing in Pineville for this outstanding installation on the 911 Communications Center in Opelousas, LA. This was a really nice installation of 16” wide surrey beige 200DL. The valleys and closures are really nice and tight. First Class work here. Congratulations to Rusty and Rene Bell and Shane.
Our second job in Louisiana goes to our friend Rusty Bell at Dixie Roofing in Pineville for this outstanding installation on the 911 Communications Center in Opelousas, LA. This was a really nice installation of 16” wide surrey beige 200DL. The valleys and closures are really nice and tight. First Class work here. Congratulations to Rusty and Rene Bell and Shane.
Our second job in Louisiana goes to our friend Rusty Bell at Dixie Roofing in Pineville for this outstanding installation on the 911 Communications Center in Opelousas, LA. This was a really nice installation of 16” wide surrey beige 200DL. The valleys and closures are really nice and tight. First Class work here. Congratulations to Rusty and Rene Bell and Shane. Here is another shot.
Here is another shot.
Alabama
Now we move onto the state of Alabama where we have a couple of really nice installations: First RB Atkins again demonstrates superior workmanship at the Eastern Health Center in Cullman, AL. These guys do consistently superior work. This was a large Curved 200 DL roof in Terra Cotta.
Here is a look-see at the hard part.
Next we move over to Roofing and Sheet Metal in Huntsville, AL for a Bowling Alley Roof on a Military Base in TN. This job had 150’ long 300 DL X 22” wide panels on a very low slope installed on it. As usual Laddy Ratcliff’s boys did a great job installing this roof, especially the super critical Zee Closures. This isn’t real exiting to look at, but the installation is great.
Mississippi
In Mississippi, our friends at Cross Roofing did a really nice job installing a large Copper Metallic Permaseam Roof on a Fire Station in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. There were a lot of trials and tribulations on this job for Jeff Church, but in the end, he persevered and came up with a winner. Here is an overall shot.
Nice work here.
Texas
Next we want to move here to the GREAT state of Texas where LD Tebben did another fantastic job installing a big bunch of Terra Cotta 200 Series panels on the new San Marcos Convention Center/Embassy Suites in San Marcos, TX. Larry’s boys ALWAYS do a great job. Congratulations to Larry, Tom and the rest of the crew at L. D. Tebben
Here is a valley shot. Very nice work here.
Finally We want to finish with a shot of the Humble High School done by Pyramid Waterproofing and Sheet Metal. These guys did a great job here. This roof looks great and we are extremely happy with the quality of the installation.
The early days here at ABC
Last but not least since Meredith is back after a 15 year hiatus, I want to tell you a story about the good old days here at ABC. I think it is good to start at the beginning. For those that do not know, I used to be a geologist. I was a geologist in Houston when the joke was, “What do you call a Geologist in Houston?” You said “Hey Bartender!!!” In the late 80’s, I was working in a mine in Ecuador, South America. Let’s just say that was one of those life experiences that was preparing me for something else, but I was not sure what. After a couple of years of that crap, I decided I had enough. The day after I got back to Houston, I was visiting with my dad in his office discussing what I was going to do. I said “You know, it would sure be nice to have a business here in the states where you don’t have to worry about a bomb going off in front of your house. “ Right that second, the phone rang and there was a guy I knew from a long time ago that had a metal roofing manufacturing business for sale. That was 20 years ago this month.
The business came with 3 employees. Meredith and two shop guys. On day 5, the head shop guy asked me if he could borrow $500. I asked what for and he said he wanted to get all his teeth pulled out. He was my age, about 30 and his teeth didn’t look bad. I asked him why on earth do you want to get his teeth pulled out? He said he was tired of brushing them.
Welcome to my world.
Charlie Smith
Architectural Building Components
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