Rain Proof Roofing: An Alaskan Success Story.

AuthorAnderson, Tasha
PositionBuilding Alaska

Patrick Reilly is a lifelong Alaskan. When he graduated from West High School in the early seventies he was "working odd jobs in construction" while dating April Markley, who would later become his wife and business partner. April's father, Jack Markley, then-owner of Rain Proof Roofing, needed short term help in September 1973 and asked Reilly to be a laborer on one of his crews for a couple of weeks. "I didn't really want to do it," Reilly laughs, "But I did it, and 'the rest is history.' I didn't really want to work for him because I was dating his daughter, but it worked out. It's worked out."

Reilly knows the business from top to bottom, which makes sense because he worked his way from the bottom up. "I started as a laborer on one of the crews, [moving on] to shoveling gravel, then to shingling, and then running a crew, and when my father-in-law decided he wanted to retire he turned the business over to me and my brother-in-law," Reilly says.

Markley founded Rain Proof Roofing in 1962; in 1978 Reilly began running the company and in 1983 the Reilly's bought out Markley and Pat became Rain Proof Roofing's president. The company has grown in almost every aspect since '62, when it primarily provided residential roofing services. As just one indicator, when Reilly began work in '73 the company had six trucks, when he took over as president it had fifteen, and today it has about fifty.

On the Business of Roofing

Rain Proof Roofing provides residential and commercial roofing services. "We cut our teeth in the residential market and the new construction market back in the sixties and seventies when it was booming," Reilly says. Shortly thereafter "we had that big surge of construction in the seventies and then again in the eighties," and as opportunities presented themselves Rain Proof Roofing expanded into the commercial market. At present approximately one-third of the company's business is residential and two-thirds is commercial. "About half the residential is new construction and half is reroof," he clarifies. The average lifespan of a roof is about twenty or twenty-five years, Reilly says, so there's a steady supply of roofs needing to be repaired or replaced.

On a day-to-day basis one of the first things Reilly does is check the weather, which has a significant effect on the company's workflow. Rain Proof Roofing's work is highly seasonal. "We don't do reroofs in the winter; it's not cost-effective and you don't get the same [quality of] job as you do in the summer. Roofing doesn't perform well in the cold." Typically the roofing season kicks off in May and runs until the snow begins to fall. "Halloween, Thanksgiving, somewhere in there is our big push, and then between the darkness, the cold, and...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT