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POSTED: Monday, October 06, 2008

John De Rego says being “;up on the roof”; isn't like how the Drifters made it out to be in their famous song. More likely it's hot and uncomfortable, and dangerous as well.

               

     

 

 

Who: John De Rego Title: Roofing foreman         Job: Leads a crew of roofers

A roofer for more than 10 years, De Rego last week said he loves working outdoors, but he's seen many a strong man quit the business because of the heat, the manual labor it requires, and even fear of heights.

Currently he is a foreman for Tropical Roofing and Raingutters Inc., which was started in 1986 by Charles Beeck.

Beeck last week said the company has a main office on Sand Island, two warehouses and - depending “;on if the surf's up”; - about 70 to 80 employees.

De Rego joined Beeck's company in June 2007 and these days leads a crew of two to three other roofers.

De Rego is a graduate of James Campbell High School in Ewa Beach, the same neighbor-

hood where he lives with his fiance, Stephanie Maria, with whom he has a young son and another child on the way.

De Rego, 34, said last week he leaves for work every morning around 4:30 so he can beat the traffic into town.

  “;If I leave later, it will take me an hour or more,”; he said. “;Without traffic, it takes just 20, 25 minutes. The traffic out of Ewa Beach is crazy. They gotta stop building houses already.”;

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Mark Coleman: What is your work title?

John De Rego: Foreman.

Q: Foreman of what?

A: Tropical Roofing and Raingutters.

Q: In charge of whom?

A: My crew.

Q: What does your crew do?

A: We repair and re-roof roofs.

Q: So what does a roofer do? Are you like a carpenter or something?

A: Yeah. If there's rotted wood, like from termite damage, we change the wood that needs to be changed. And we tear off old roofs and apply the new roof systems.

Q: Besides carpentry, what else would be involved.

A: We do all kinds of roofs. Shingles, shakes, coating, tile ...

Q: What about pitch and gravel? Do people still have that applied to their roofs?

A: No, hardly. We tear off old roofs with that stuff. That's pretty much obsolete now. There's still some people that do it, but hardly anymore. There's a lot of new roofing systems.

Q: I worked as a roofer for a few months long ago. I drove one of the trucks and we were up there mostly power washing the roofs, but there were also guys doing some pitch and gravel work at one site, and it seemed really dangerous. One guy spilled hot tar on his arm. It was bad.

A: Yeah, that stuff is dangerous, with the kettle and fire. I've seen people get burned.

Q: Is it hard to get pitch and gravel off the old roofs?

A: You can just scrape off the gravel and go right over it with that premium coating

  the elastomeric coating. That's really good stuff. You gotta clean it first - take off all the rock. If it needs to be power washed, you can powerwash it. Then cover it over with the elastomeric coating. That's applied with a base coating first, then we apply non

woven, polyester fabric after that. Then that's coated, and when that cures, we paint it with the finish coat.

Q: What's the most popular roofing system you guys apply these days?

A: That's Hydro-Stop, the elastomeric coating.

Q: Is that the white coating that's also energy efficient because it reflects the sun?

A: Yeah, it's UV resistant.

Q: How many people in your crew?

A: Four guys.

Q: Besides homes, what kinds of roofs do you work on?

A: We do commercial buildings, homes ... We do pretty much anything that you can waterproof or reroof.

Q: What's the most common reason people want you to be working on their roofs? Is it mostly because they had some leaking or something like that?

A: Yeah, leaking. It's all for the repairs, to be re-roofed or just repaired.

Q: Are you involved at all in the estimating for jobs?

A: I'm starting. I'm being trained by Charlie (Beeck, the owner).

Q: How dangerous is your job? Do people ever fall through or fall off the roofs?

A: I never worked where somebody fell off the roof yet - knock on wood. But it can be dangerous. We all have personal safety equipment that we use. We have harnesses; we set up delineators - cones - for a perimeter on the roof, like warning lines.

Q: What kind of tools do you have up there with you.

A: Your basic tools: hammer, knife, chalk lines, nail pullers, scissors ... And when we're tearing off, we have tearing-off tools, like spades and o'o bars.

Q: What's the highest roof you've ever worked on?

A: I think it was a building in Pearlridge. It has that white cap on top.

Q: What were you doing up there?

A: I was helping put in a satellite dish.

Q: So it wasn't really a roofing job?

A: No, it was. I had to waterproof where they put the hole. I had to HydroStop it.

Q: Who was your employer at that time?

A: Tropical.

Q: How high up was that?

A: I'd like to say about 30-something floors. I'm not sure.

Q: So I guess you're not afraid of heights.

A: No, I'm not afraid of heights.

Q: At least not up to 30 floors.

A: Yeah. (Laughter)

Q: How long does a typical roofing job take?

A: It all depends. On a regular, normal house - like this job we're at (in Manoa) - that job, without rain-off days, about three days should do it.

Q: You guys had a day off today because of rain, yeah?

A: Yeah. But I had to go measure some roofs

Q: How often does that happen, that you have rain days off?

A: It all depends on when it's raining. (Laughter) When it rains out real bad, then we get off.

Q: But does that happen very often?

A: No, hardly. And right now it's summer, yeah?

Q: What do you do if your job for the day gets called off?

A: It depends if I got anything to measure. But if not, that's it - we're done for the day.

Q: How do you stand the heat or humidity on a really hot day?

A: (Sigh) You just gotta man up. Somebody's gotta do it, yeah? (Laughter) But, like we have a job in Pearl City - ho, that area, it's hot!

Q: Kaimuki must be another hot area.

A: Yeah, and Hawaii Kai, Ewa - all the Leeward side. But especially on the roof, because you're so much closer to the sun. Plus, when it's white, it reflects the heat off the roof, too, yeah? So it becomes way hotter.

Q: What's your favorite part of the day to be up on the roof?

A: When the job's finished, when we're doing the production and it's going good - that's the best time.

Q: You don't like the morning better than the afternoon?

A: It don't matter. It's still hot.

Q: Do you like that song, “;Up on the Roof,”; by the Drifters, and later by James Taylor?

A: Yeah. (Laughter) That's a good song.

Q: So, up on the roof, is it “;peaceful as can be,”; with the air always “;fresh and sweet”; -like the song says?

A: No. (Laughter) It's hot up there.