Want to Talk Metal Recover?  Meet Charlie Smith in the RCS Metal Forum

By Heidi J. Ellsworth, RCS Partner.

Charlie Smith has a long history in metal roofing with an eye to an unconventional future that he wants to share with roofing contractors.

I had the pleasure of visiting with Charlie Smith of McElroy Metal in a recent Roofing Road Trips with Heidi Podcast.  I love these types of interviews where I get to hear an inspiring roofing story and learn about new initiatives that can make a difference for building owners and roofing contractors.  I wanted to share his story along with inviting our RCS contractors to take some time to visit with him in the RCS Metal Roofing Talk Forum.

First, I want to share Charlie’s roofing story, “Well, basically I got into this business with absolutely zero experience. I was a geologist working in Ecuador for a few years after I got out of college but soon knew I wanted to be in the US.  I had a chance to buy a metal business and never looked back.”

“I thought it was a great opportunity. I had no idea what I was getting into but one thing nice about just jumping in is that you have no preconceived ideas on how to be in the metal roofing business or about manufacturing. I knew nothing about roofing to speak of. We had limited space, we had some portable equipment and I was in the metal roofing business all of a sudden.”

Charlie continued, “We would take equipment in and out of the manufacturing line to make roof and/or siding panels. What I learned was that if I wanted to be successful in the business, I had to be faster and a lot nimbler than the people that I was competing against.  One of the things that I did was to build inventory levels where I felt like I could produce a hundred flat sheets in any color for a contractor today and run a 40,000 square foot job in any color this week. By doing that, we moved faster than anybody else out there.”

“And then the other thing I wanted was to develop the idea of site forming panels better than anybody else.  I built a couple of big trucks with scissor lifts on them that we could drive out to the job site and manufacturer the panels right onto the roof for a contractor. Over the next 23 years, I shifted my focus from new construction to using standing seam roof panels to recover existing roofs. We put metal over metal, metal over single ply or modified and metal over shingles,” stated Charlie.  

He then successfully sold his business to McElroy Metal.  He is now the National Recover Manager for McElroy Metal.  One thing that was clear when talking to him was that throughout his career in the metal roofing industry he has been passionate about expanding the use of metal roofing in non-conventional methods.  I found out that he is known for his unique ability to problem solve, turning napkin sketches into viable metal roofing solutions. 

His efforts have made him one of the industry’s foremost authorities on recover systems utilizing metal roofing.  Holding several patents in the recover field including both metal-over-metal and metal-over-shingle solutions, he also co-wrote the new IIBEC (RCI) Metal Roofing course and is a frequent presenter at IIBEC symposiums and other roofing industry events. 

So since the podcast, we have invited Charlie to share his expertise and answer industry questions in the RCS Metal Roofing Talk Forum.  Known for his great teaching and mentoring abilities, we asked if he could share that expertise, helping the industry really understand the opportunities with recover systems utilizing metal roofing.  At RCS, we are inviting contractors to ask questions or just chat with Charlie about metal roofing here.  I am sure you will have the same great experience that I did.

Learn more about McElroy Metal in their RCS directory.

Visit the Forum now.