Is the roof repair service in Sydney broken?

The Roofing Portal is the solution to the simmering problem affecting the roof repair segment of the building industry in Sydney.

This problem simply boils down to:
A drought of expert roof technicians who are able to diagnose the causes of roof leaks and problems – and also have the training to deliver the right solution that is mutually beneficial.

This problem is two-fold.

First, the homeowner who has a leaking/faulty roof and struggles to find a roofer who can do the repair work that is most ‘fit for purpose’.
Then, the ordinary roofer stuck in their world of mediocrity, not knowing that just by learning how to do their job properly by joining up with a bunch of burgeoning roofers, they have a lucrative career and life ahead of them.

Coping with the demand in roof repairs – The roofer’s predicament…

There are over 1,200 roofing businesses in Sydney. Since most of these businesses are small players doing repair work, there must be a big demand for roof repair work in Sydney – to support that many businesses. “] (roofing service businesses estimated from ibisworld)

The large companies look after all the commercial roofing work – leaving the smaller players picking up the residential sector. That still means over a thousand roofing service businesses doing some sort of roof repair work.

“My problem is a deluge of roof repair work and a shortage of smart roofers available to me to cope with this demand” JACK

Jack’s story.

Who are roofing business owners?

If 5,000 roofing businesses employ 12,000 (according to ibisworld), then there are only 2.4 workers in the average roofing business.
Jack was average when he started. There was just him, a veteran roofer, and a labourer. The standard of work provided by the business was also very average.

People can stay average for a long period and Jack followed this trend. It took him over 10 years before it dawned on him that he had to get uncomfortable. Growth was uncomfortable. Taking on more work and putting more roofers on the payroll meant more risk.

Roofers came and went from Jack’s business. The good ones got trained up and left – most of them became independent contractors. About every third roofer is an independent contractor which meant jack always had some contractors working for him.

Independent contractors are not totally self-sufficient. Most have the option of working anywhere and for anybody. But not many have the ability to generate a continuous stream of work. So, they are usually forced to spend some time working for a bigger roofing company to make ends meet.

The legacy problem with independent roofing contractors.

Working for yourself means working alone.

An independent contractor drags a huge anchor amongst onlookers who are unwilling or incapable of help. Growth demands continuous high-quality learning. It is the only way to jettison the anchor and level up.

Learning is percolation. You need drip torture to slowly force open your mind to see things in a new light. Call off the lesson early and you will be in a position of “knowing just enough to be dangerous.”

Jack supported many roofers through their initial learning, and very quickly, they all thought they had learnt enough. Off to the lucrative roofing market they went, fully confident that they would make a killing.

Every single one of them ended up in their own version of Jack’s traumatic first decade in business. They did not see the anchor they were tethered to. They thought they knew enough to be successful.

There is technical knowledge and business knowledge.

Most independent roofing contractors have some grasp of the technical side but are no more than virgins in the business world. Virgins in the cut-throat building construction world always get taken advantage of.

The pendulum swing – more roofing problems, and a solution.

Once Jack got the hang of what make businesses tick, he had a fresh problem.

It was now the other side of the pendulum swing. He was getting too much roof repair work from homeowners who (having discovered the one roofer who could deliver the goods) desperately wanted a final solution to their roof problems – leaking roofs that many other roofers had failed to repair.

Jack was a ‘Wanted Man”. But one man only has one pair of arms and 8 hours in a day. And for someone in his mid sixties, the arms were getting tired.

Jack knew that the solution was not to grow his company like every other business owner. A growing collection of independent contractors each with their own limited knowledge base and agendas is just too hard to control and scale properly.

What if he could build a roofing community with roofers who yearned for a place with a culture of mutual support and strict continuous learning? A community that grows with its members. Where its natural attraction generates a continuous stream of well-paying roofing work. A place that puts more importance on life than just making a dollar.

This will scale. More happy roofers doing better quality work that they are proud of.

For Jack, this is worth a try.

Getting a roof leak repaired – The homeowner’s predicament.

If you own a home in Sydney, it is worth a lot of money. It will also come with a list of problems. Amongst the top items on that list will be problems with the roof.
If you are ever faced with a leaking roof, it is often a real hassle to get it fixed properly.”]

Lets take Matt as an example…

“….ceiling leaking into room around cornice. I can show where the water drips off one of the rafters in the roof to get to the ceiling but don’t know where it is originating from as it is coming from above the roof lining.”Matt

When Matt had a leak along the wall of his bedroom, he got into the ceiling cavity to investigate. There, he was faced with a homeowner’s first hurdle. Obvious signs of water entry – but no clue about what was causing it.
It was going to be a job for professionals.

It can’t be that hard to find one.
It was 2020. And the best search tool was (and still is) google.

First Google page full of unhelpful directory listings

“If you don’t know exactly what you are looking for – beware of the result”

Matt did what most homeowners would have done. He picked the number 1 listing. Hipages had all the best rating stars and it offered to get Matt 3 quotes.

The three roofers who turned up were all pretty average. Matt made the decision and went with the one who could do the job the next day. This one charged by the hour and ended up costing over $2000.
It was not Matt’s job to check and understand what the roofers were up to He just had to pay for a successful repair…and cross his fingers while he waited for the next deluge.

It was dismay when it next rained.
The drips down the wall this time seemed worst than before the Hipages roof repair. With some anger and disappointment, Matt contacted the roof repairers. They promised to take another look.

When they returned, it seemed like they used a lot of silicone and paint. They left saying that It was now fixed.

(Any good roofer will tell from the picture below that those roofers from HiPages were ‘dodgy’ and that Matt still had a challenge).

Invitation to good roofers to pick the mistakes on this valley repair job

The drips came back when it rained again. Back to the phone and this time, it rung out. It became a battle to get the roofers back and after a few months, Matt just gave up.

But the leak was still there. Back to Google again for Matt, and this time round, he was smarter. He bypassed all the service directories that had front page listings and went researching into individual roofing companies instead.

He finally found the real roof repairers. And this is how we get to tell Matt’s story.

This is the reason for The Sydney Roofing Portal

If we had enough well trained, skilful roof repairers in the current marketplace, the roofing portal will be totally useless.

The founders of the roofing portal have the same problem as homeowners with finding enough well trained and skilful roof repair technicians. It is a case of too many roof leaks and not enough qualified roofers to fix them.

I’ve had a leaking roof for a while, however things have gotten much worse. I have not been able to find a decent roofing person. One person came and changed $1000 to redo the topping, however problem still not fixedKrish

So, the aim of the roofing portal is to find and train the right roofers to satisfy the demand that homeowners have.
With this pool of skilful roof repairers, The roofing portal will match leaking roofs with the right roofer to satisfy the simple wish for a proper roof repair that all the homeowners are looking for.

With the future growth of The Roofing Portal, the Sydney roof repair landscape will get to experience these two impacts:

Eliminating the spate of poorly repaired roofs that homeowners have to put up with;
Giving the opportunity for the right roofers to elevate their skill levels and catapult them into the status level of well-paid professionals.

Whether you are a homeowner looking for a skilful roof repair or a roofer looking to becoming a trained professional (and well paid) roof repairer, your next step is to enter the roofing portal via the options below:

HOMEOWNERS ENTER HERE

ROOFERS ENTER HERE