“When I started out 12 years ago, one of the hardest things was accessing information and ensuring that your product was getting used correctly,” says David Eccleshall, Architectural Manager of Roofing Industries. “There are more instructional videos available now, but they’re often Americanised and not compliant with New Zealand building codes. They don’t always have the relevant context around things like dealing with Councils, and all the changes in Health & Safety policy over the last 20 years. My job is to walk installers and roofing suppliers through that process to ensure that clients get exactly what they want.”
Roofing Industries is privately New Zealand owned and operated long run roof and cladding manufacturing company with branches strategically positioned throughout the country and operating on a national basis.
Their product line includes an extensive range of metal roofing and cladding products, flashings, rainwater goods and other accessories. “We offer sinusoidal and trapezoidal profiles as well as trough sections,” says David, “and if we were to name a flagship product, it would probably be our elite Eurostyle range.” When reflecting on Eurostyle’s spanlok™ and epic™ product lines, David refers to them as Roofing Industries’ masterpiece. “It’s hard to describe to anyone who hasn’t worked with European styles before, but when you see it put together, it really is incredible. We’re also working with these products to really push the boundaries on self-supported materials when, historically, they might have been supported by ply or a rigid air barrier.”
David also highlights Roofing Industries’ True Oak® Corrugate as a New Zealand first. The first major advancement in corrugated roofing in a generation, True Oak® is a return to the deeper, sinusoidal wave corrugated profile of the 1940s and ‘50s. “It was around that time that the industry started stretching traditional corrugation in order to get better yield, but if you look back at roofs built before then, you’ll see that they have a rounder profile. We kept getting asked for these types of traditional profiles, particularly to match and blend with heritage buildings, which is why we brought in the True Oak®.” In addition to its charming aesthetic qualities, True Oak® also out-performs competitors, David says, with enhanced water-carrying capacity and the ability to use greater spans to reduce construction costs. “True Oak® can be installed down to a 4-degree pitch [compared to the industry standard of 8 degrees] and the True Oak Deep® can be installed down to 3 degrees, which provides incredible new options for metal corrugate.”
Alongside some game-changing products, David credits the passionate Roofing Industries team with cementing their place in the New Zealand industry. “I used to look after both architectural and technical management but, because we’re growing so steadily, I’ve recently split my role with Tony Rallis who has taken on the Technical Manager responsibilities. We have 60 years of industry experience between us, so we’re particularly adept at finding practical solutions to unique design challenges, while still supporting the aesthetic vision of each build. With Tony on board now as an extra resource, we’re able to provide more comprehensive assistance to the design community and our customers around product selection, detailing, specifications and ever-increasing RFI [Request for Information] paperwork requirements.
“As for the wider team, many of our branch managers have a roofing background and are also shareholders in the company, which means that they have both a deep understanding of the materials we’re using and a long-term commitment to our shared future. With a new branch coming online last week, we now have 15 throughout New Zealand and, with that growth, we’ve also built one of the biggest trucking fleets in the country. That means we are able to control our own destiny with drivers who have expertise in delivering flashings and cladding sheets up to our maximum of 42 metres. That’s a huge asset for us, compared with contracting out that part of the work. Ultimately, we have the resources and infrastructure to take on big jobs, but we don’t get bogged down with the often time-consuming processes of a corporate entity. We can deliver on complex jobs, but still get things done quickly. It’s the best of both worlds.”
Roofing Industries has taken on a number of challenging jobs over David’s tenure, the most recent of which being the Te Pae conference centre in Christchurch, RANZ’s Commercial Roof of the Year for 2022. “It was a huge project for us and our partners at Roof Logic. They worked with the architect to come up with the design, and we helped them with all the detail around materials, in particular around making sure that the space was acoustically sound.
“We also recently completed the roof of the ticket office at the Remarkables Ski Field in Queenstown which has annual snow loadings that required a lot of planning. They wanted a European-style roof, but we needed to address the challenge of water getting into the joints, re-freezing and then expanding over the winter period. They also wanted the roof to go down in line with the walls, so we created a waterfall feature for that application.”
David works closely with architects across all of New Zealand, but admits that he can’t get out to visit everyone in person as often as he’d like. His focus, as Roofing Industries continues to grow, is in finding new and creative ways to support the industry he loves. “Helping installers and roofing companies that install our materials is a really important part of the work that we do. Once you put a screw in it, you own it. So we want to make sure that you’re going out to site armed with the right information about our products. We do all our own drawings and have one of the biggest suites available for architects and designers. Now that Tony has come on board, he’s helping me to make sure they’re all up-to-date. This has enabled me to focus on 3D modelling for our designers and showing them how components are put together.”
David is excited to join the Teulo community and connect more with the industry remotely, in particular with emerging professionals. “I love everything about creating solutions that our end-users can really enjoy. If you’re on this road and you look at the people around you, many of us have been in roofing for 30, 40, 50 years. It’s great to see, but we also need to support the new blood coming up. If we can create a platform for that younger generation to want to do this type of work, we’re doing our job.”
To learn more and connect with David, visit www.roof.co.nz, ring Roofing Industries on 0800 844 822, follow them on Instagram, or contact David and Tony directly at davide@roof.co.nz and tonyr@roof.co.nz.
