Homeowners shopping for a roof spend most of their time comparing shingle brands. It is the wrong thing to focus on.
Major manufacturers all make good products, and the differences between their comparable lines are modest. The variable that actually determines whether your roof reaches twenty-five years or leaks in eighteen months is who nailed it down.
Why installation matters more than materials
Roofs almost never fail in the middle of a slope. They fail at the details:
- Flashing at chimneys, sidewalls and skylights — done properly it lasts the life of the roof, done fast it leaks in the first hard rain.
- Valleys, where the most water on the entire roof is concentrated.
- Nailing. Wrong placement, overdriven or underdriven nails, or too few per shingle will void a manufacturer warranty and will blow off in the first serious wind.
- Ventilation, which determines whether the deck runs hot and cooks the shingles from underneath.
- Underlayment and ice-and-water membrane at the eaves and valleys, the layer nobody ever sees.
- Penetrations — pipe boots, vents, anything coming through the plane.
Every one of those is a judgment call made by a person on a roof, often in heat or in a hurry. Which is why a crew is not a commodity.
What we look for in people
Not what most people expect. We hire for:
- Reliability. Showing up, every day, on time. It sounds basic and it is the hardest thing to find.
- Work ethic. This is physical work in Midwest weather, and there is no talking your way around that.
- Coachability. We would rather teach someone our standard from scratch than correct habits learned somewhere that cut corners.
- Honesty. Our crews are at people’s homes, around their families. That is non-negotiable.
- Comfort with heights, which is the one hard requirement we cannot train around.
Notice what is not on that list: prior roofing experience. We hire people without it constantly and train them.
Why we train instead of requiring experience
Two reasons. The practical one is that the Midwest trades have a labor shortage, and any company that only hires experienced roofers is fighting over a shrinking pool.
The better reason is that we would rather build the standard into someone than argue with a standard they picked up elsewhere. A roofer who learned to do flashing the fast way will do flashing the fast way when nobody is watching.
What this means for you as a homeowner
- Crews that stay. Low turnover means the person on your roof has done this before, here, to this standard.
- Accountability. Employees answer to us. We answer to you. That chain breaks the moment a company is subcontracting to whoever is available.
- A warranty that means something. A lifetime workmanship warranty only works if the company standing behind it has crews to send back out.
- People at your home you can be comfortable with, which matters more to most families than anything on the estimate.
We are hiring
If you read the list above and recognized yourself — reliable, willing to work, not afraid of heights — we want to talk to you, in any of our markets. No experience required, and there is a real path from crew to leadership, production, estimating and sales.
This is a third-generation family business, family-owned since 1947, which in practice means the people who own it are the people you can actually reach, and the standard you are taught is the one the family’s name is attached to.
See what is open on our careers page.
And if you are a homeowner deciding between contractors, ask each one who will actually be on your roof: their own employees, or whoever a subcontractor sends. The answer tells you most of what you need to know. Call 1-800-564-6232 or book a free inspection.
Frequently asked questions
Does the shingle brand or the installer matter more?
The installer. Major manufacturers make comparable products, but roofs fail at flashing, valleys, nailing and ventilation, which are all installation decisions made by the crew on your roof.
Does John Beal Roofing use subcontractors?
Ask any contractor this question directly. Crews who answer to the company rather than to a subcontractor are what makes accountability and a workmanship warranty meaningful.
Do I need roofing experience to be hired?
No. We hire for reliability, work ethic, coachability, honesty and comfort with heights, and we train the trade from there.
What causes most roof leaks?
Installation details rather than materials: improper flashing at chimneys and sidewalls, poorly built valleys, incorrect nailing, inadequate ventilation and badly sealed penetrations.
Is there a career path in roofing?
Yes. People who start on a crew move into crew leadership, production management, estimating and sales. Our careers page lists current openings across all of our markets.