In the summer of 1987, at the age of 16 I went to work for my dad’s business, Armao and Kleitz Roofing in Richmondville, N.Y. I tore off shingles all morning and carried bundles of new ones up the ladder all afternoon. For three summers of high school I did that for $4.50, $5.00, and $5.50 an hour. The second and third summers I learned to do other tasks including installing some shingles. Fast forward to 1996. I was a young man with a young wife and two kids. I was working a full time job, going to college, and working side jobs like lawn mowing, cutting and selling firewood, tree work, anything and everything I could find to make ends meet. I decided maybe I could make more money on the side roofing than all these other side jobs so I ran an ad. Back then there were a lot of new homes being built so I did a lot of new construction. There were no weather worries and I could work between my college classes and full time job. Usually it would take me a week or so to roof an average 2500 square foot steep new house by myself. At first I would do about one a month. Then it became two, then three, then as many as possible, working every spare minute. In those early days I would use as much of the money as possible to buy equipment and tools. Every job I did I would buy something I needed. Sometimes I would get a friend or two to help me on a Saturday so I did not always work by myself. By the summer of 1999 I could not keep up with two jobs anymore. I had graduated from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga with a degree in business in May. I was still working 40 hours a week at my old job and sometimes more than that roofing. I decided something had to give so in September I quit my other job to concentrate on roofing full time. 15 years later we are still at it. I still roof almost every day and every job. This hands on approach is what separates us from other roofing companies when it comes to quality. I personally train and oversee all employees. We have worked hard to improve our system to provide a quick, clean, high-quality job and we stand behind our work with a five year labor warranty