Roofing themselves out of business

By Emma Peterson.

Don Lighty and Randy Young share how quality has guided both of their careers.

Recently, we sat down with Don Lighty of Lighty Roofing and Randy Young, one of Duro-Last's sales rep, for an episode of Stories from the Roof all about how a commitment to craftsmanship and quality has been key in both of their lives.

Don opened the episode by sharing how this idea has been a throughline of his entire career:

I was born into the roofing business. My dad was a roofer and for my first job, my twin brother and I were handed a block of wood, a pile of nails and a hammer by our dad. The job? Nail those hammers into that block, learn how to swing the hammer right... From there, I grew up doing everything from painting and stapling up insulation to re-bricking or re-roofing.

And Don’s dad wasn’t the only mentor he had who emphasized the importance of getting the basics correct and ensuring that quality is seen in the rest of your work. He recalled, “Eventually I found myself working for a guy in Oklahoma who taught me fine woodworking skills where we made our own molds. Our builder wanted everything to be absolutely perfect. He would feel the joints, make sure they were smooth – everything had to be perfect.”

This dedication to doing it right, carried through the rest of Don’s career all the way to founding Lighty Roofing in the 1980s. He explained, “These early experiences guided my thinking and anything that I ever did after that I looked at with the goal of doing it right... For example people would come needing something replaced, like a window and they’d always start with how much is this going to cost? And I always tell them, ‘That shouldn't be the first question. You shouldn’t decide based on what the cheapest is, you should figure out what the best quality you can get is.”

This perspective of quality as the utmost importance is something that Randy couldn’t agree with Don more on. As Randy put it, “My stepdad was a roofer and my mom the CFO. And what I learned from them is that if you are going into this industry to make money, and that's your sole objective, then you are already starting out in the wrong realm.” Instead, like Don described, the goal should always be quality. Randy elaborated, “I had a lot of mentors on the roof that taught me the importance of quality and consistency and I truly believe that if you go into any kind of business with passion and quality, you will set yourself apart just because of those reasons alone.”

And, for both Don and Randy, working with and for Duro-Last respectively has been a great experience because the company also prioritizes quality before anything else. As Randy described, “We have a little motto of we are in the business to roof ourselves out of business. And we do that with quality.”

Listen to the whole episode to hear more from Don and Randy about the importance of quality in all parts of roofing and life.