Santa Rosa's FlashCo Manufacturing wins North Bay Maker Award
With a rebound in the roofing industry from recession FlashCo Manufacturing, Inc. has expanded its product line, introducing new roof flashing materials and accessories for both commercial and residential applications.
FlashCo has also overcome a major industry challenge by making pre-fabricated products that save contractors time, eliminating the need to fabricate parts on the job while reducing both installation and labor costs. Making flashing accessories from scratch can take five times as long – from 20 to 25 minutes each -- compared to only three to five minutes with FlashCo solutions.
“Flashing” is defined as a thin, impervious sheet of material (or pre-formed accessories) securely placed on a roof during construction to prevent water penetration, or to direct the flow of water, around chimneys, pipes, vents and joints as well as in spaces between a roof and a vertical wall.
Today FlashCo is growing at an annual rate of 20% and has expanded from one plant in Sonoma County to six locations throughout the country while retaining its Santa Rosa headquarters. Some 70% of its revenues come from customers in the Western U.S.
According to President Greg Morrow, FlashCo delivers 90% of its orders within three days.
“It’s a huge relief for our roofing customers to know we can put parts on their job sites within 72 hours, especially when they are needed to help the roofing contractor finish the current job and move on to the next one.”
In 2007, FlashCo recognized the growing popularity of new heat-reflective, single-ply TPO (thermoplastic polyolefin) and PVC (polyvinyl chloride) roof membranes. Through innovative designs, and capital equipment investments, single-ply flashing quickly became a major part of FlashCo’s business to go along with lead, copper, zinc and galvanized.
“A growing percentage of the population also prefers ‘garden green roofing’ using natural soil, plants and flowers that require a waterproof underlayment that single-ply membranes can provide,” Morrow added.
Single-ply roofing membranes made of TPO and PVC are quickly replacing other commercial roofing products. These innovations have gained broad industry acceptance for their performance advantages including flexibility and durability, quick and easy installation and the ability to not degrade under solar UV radiation. With a white surface, these products reflect the sun’s rays significantly reducing the ‘heat island’ effect in urban areas, and without producing thermal transfer inside.
The quality and durability of the materials used to make the flashings enable FlashCo to offer an industry-leading 20-year guarantee.
In 1980, builtup tar roofing was the number one system of choice accounting for 80% of commercial applications. Driven by the growth of TPO, single-ply will account for 80% of the commercial applications by 2020, at which time TPO is expected have 50% of the market.
“Commercial construction has been strong, and residential is coming back up. The lengthy recession resulted in deferred reroofing and extended maintenance, but this is going away now as well,” said Rob Drew, marketing representative for FlashCo, one of the largest fabricators of roof flashings and accessories in North America.
“We have worked hard to build a strong brand and our customers associate the FlashCo name with quality, speed, value and innovation. With our tracking system, debossing a stamped code on each product as part of our branding initiative, our customers will be assured that they are receiving genuine FlashCo parts and accessories,” Morrow added.
