Some of the people who call The Roofing Company of Charleston are not shopping for a new roof. They want someone to climb up and tell them whether the one they have still has a few more years in it.
Drew Rhodes, who owns the company, encourages that kind of call. He wants to be open with people about what is going on over their heads, he says, “even if that means they’re not spending money with me. If they just need some ideas of what’s going on with the roof, for peace of mind, that’s really what I push.”
Other customers come to him with the opposite goal. They are starting fresh and want a new design for the house. Either way, Rhodes says, the roof is only part of what they get. “Not only are they getting a good quality roof, they’re also getting our expertise,” he says.
He ties that expertise to where he is from. Rhodes was born and raised in Charleston, “about as local as you can get,” and he believes it gives him a read on the people he works for. “I feel like I have a good tendency to know what people are actually looking for around here and what’s going to actually help them,” he says.
Roofing has been his work his whole life, on government contract jobs, commercial buildings and houses. When he struck out on his own, he set out to build a company around “customer needs rather than just gross sales,” he says. The company counts more than 15 years of experience in the roofing industry.
Houses are the work he prefers. The crews install asphalt shingles, standing seam metal, screw-down metal and slate. The company also takes commercial jobs and puts up gutters and siding. It is based in North Charleston and works across Mount Pleasant, West Ashley, James Island, Summerville and Ladson. It is licensed and insured, keeps weekday hours and sees customers on weekends by appointment.
On a job, much of the work is explaining. Rhodes says he does not try to sell people on what-ifs. “I show them exactly what the process is and what’s going to happen,” he says. The company’s estimates spell out scope, materials and timing, and homeowners hear where things stand at each stage, from the first conversation to the final walkthrough.
A Summerville homeowner saw that up close. She had interviewed 10 roofing companies at her kitchen table before she chose his. In her review, she described Rhodes coming back to the house two more times to help her settle on a shingle, putting his guarantee in writing, and a crew that finished the replacement in a day and a half.
Rhodes traces the way he works to growing up in Charleston and the sense of community he took from it. He calls what he is building “a real local company trying to help its community,” and he wants the crew on the roof to carry that same approach to every house: a homeowner who feels at ease about what is happening, with no pressure about any of it.
For anyone standing in the yard, looking up and wondering, his pitch is the same as it was at the start. “I show them exactly what the process is and what’s going to happen.”