Winter of 2017 was harsh. Carlos Simpson remembers heavy snowfall and saw an opportunity... for his daughter, "to earn some extra cash for her Pokémon hobby," he tells. "So I took her through our neighborhood on Awbrey Butte to offer to shovel some driveways and walkways. She certainly earned plenty shoveling snow, but what struck me most were the neighbors' panicked pleas to remove the ice dams that were steadily growing on their roofs."
At the time, Simpson didn't even know what an ice dam was. (It's a mass of ice that forms at the edge of a roof and prevents melting snow or water from draining off the roof; the backed-up water can leak into a home.) He went home, "researched ice dam removal and hired 25 people to remove snow from roofs and driveways," Simpson says.
Less than 30 days later, Simpson "had a business license, all the necessary insurance and bond policies and a general contractor's license," he says. "A few weeks later, we hired our first crew of experienced roofers and replaced our first roof."
Born out of necessity and in the spirit of helping his neighbors, this was the beginning of Deschutes Roofing & Insulation, a veteran-owned and family-owned and operated roofing contractor. Seven years in and "thousands of roof replacements and repairs later, we're still going strong and have opened a second branch in Eugene," Simpson says.
Simpson understands that "getting a new roof isn't usually the most exciting home project compared to other home renovations, and it can be stressful at times," which is why his team focuses on quality customer service, including simply being responsive.
"I was determined to fill that void by just showing up to appointments on time and giving my customers what they needed," he said, and, "solving the root causes of ice damming: poor ventilation and insulation," all while minimizing the impact of a large construction on homeowners' properties.
Second place: 541 Roofing & Heat Coil
