Innovative companies rely on early adopters to introduce new products to the marketplace and to provide valuable feedback to the manufacturer. That pretty much describes the relationship between Porter Roofing and Firestone Building Products.
Porter Roofing, a Firestone Platinum Council member, headquartered near Nashville, is an early adopter of Firestone Building Products. The company is willing to try new products because, as Rodney Cadorette, Porter Roofing vice president, says, “Firestone stands behind its products, and when new ones are launched, we try to find a way to use them.” “They implicitly trust Firestone’s quality proposition,” says Thomas Weaver, a Firestone sales representative with the Larimer/Shannon Group.
Early adopters often make great case studies. Consider the Smith Springs Elementary School project. Owned by Metro National Public Schools in Antioch, Tenn., the project specifications called for 76,000 square feet of fully adhered EPDM — chip shot for Porter Roofing. But as a result of bad weather, the project installation was more than 50 days behind schedule — a serious delay considering the 800 students who would be showing up for class would expect a roof on their new school.
Weaver had learned about Firestone’s RubberGardTM EPDM SA with new Secure BondTechnology and brought it to Porter Roofing as a possible solution to the pressing deadline.
The product featured a self-bonding membrane engineered to stick, eliminating the time needed to apply adhesives and wait for ash off. No more buckets, rollers, sprayers, mixers, tools and overall clutter that can create hazards and eat up valuable time in clean up. Cadorette could see the benefits.
“Essentially it was peel and stick,” he says. “No priming. Just roll it out, peel and stick. And the installation time was incredible. It took five of my guys about 12 minutes to lay out and adhere one 10-foot-by-100-foot roll. It would have taken on average 30 minutes to lay the same amount using the old method. It was just so fast.”
Fast enough to complete the Smith Springs Elementary School project on time. Weaver recalls talking with the project foreman.
“His impression was that he doesn’t ever want to put anything else down,” Weaver says. “He also won’t miss lugging those 5-gallon buckets of glue.”
For Rodney Cadorette and Porter Roofing, the experience could not have been better. Every one of its expectations was exceeded by Firestone’s RubberGard EPDM SA with Secure Bond Technology. Being an early adopter paid off.
“Everything we bid now is with EPDM SA,” Cadorette says. “The reduced installation time raised the morale of the crew and increased the amount of roof that could be installed daily. Our crew now has valuable experience installing SA. Time and, therefore, money is being saved on every job.”
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Case Study: Early Adoption Brings Roofing Success
