Durable foundations for a career in roofing

By Dani Sheehan. 

Learn from John Chan as he highlights his unique blend of technical expertise and interpersonal skills that have allowed him to excel in the industry. 

The Stories from the Roof podcast celebrates the incredible people working in this industry and helps educate and inform others by sharing industry expert’s stories and wisdom. In a recent episode of Stories from the Roof, sponsored by Ruby, Megan Ellsworth learns from John Chan, one of the owners of The Durable Slate Company. 

John’s journey into roofing began as a summer job during his college years in Columbus, Ohio, while he was home from UCLA. He had no idea then that it would pave the way for a lifelong career. He shared, “After college, I came back and started full-time, and at that time all we did were slate repairs because there was nobody really doing it, and then we started to get into the other historic roofs.”  

His work started to expand from slate repairs to other historic roofs, driven by customer demands and his own growing curiosity. He explained, “It was actually kind of funny. One of our customers who had a lot of rental property down on campus, all of them were slate so we always fixed her leaks. She always tried to get us to work on a clay tile roof and we said, ‘Well, we don't really do that.’ That's how we got into tile because she said, ‘Hey, I've had 13 different people out here and nobody can fix my leak. I need somebody to fix it.’” 

He attributes much of his foundational knowledge and introduction to slate roofing to Steve May and Ken McGhee. He told Megan, “Steve May, he's the guy that taught me about slate roofing originally, told me about layout and headlap, and when you tear off so much you also learn how roofs were put together, and you also get to see what failed.” It was from Ken that his curiosity drove him to get more involved in the industry: “From Ken I realized that salvage tile had a value, so we also started salvaging clay tile roofs. In doing that process, I also saw why clay tile roofs failed. I saw the underlayments fail, I saw the flashings fail, and I saw what lasted and what didn't.” 

Beyond his comprehensive understanding of roofing, however, John shared that one of his biggest lessons was learning how to relate to people. He continued, “What I really learned was how to deal with everybody and treat them with respect and be able to communicate with people and really just get to understand people so that you can achieve your goals of whether it's sales or recruiting or whatever it is, that you treat people with great respect and being able to handle things with communication.” 

Read the transcript or Listen to the podcast to learn more about the renowned, historic restoration work he’s done throughout the U.S. and Europe. 

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