Of
everything they could learn from more than seven combined decades of
roofing experience, 46-year-old John Halliday, along with his brother,
Mike, are most content with two takeaways in particular handed down by
their father — and his father before him:

Always focus on
high-quality craftsmanship and keep things as simple as possible. The
two brothers have made a career sticking primarily to those two
principles and mixing in a high dose of customer care for more than 20
years in the desert as the owners of Halliday Bros. Construction.
They’re more than just the owners of the roofing company based in Mesa,
Ariz.; they’re the only employees — and that’s how they like it. 

“Everything
is small, and we prefer to work with highly trusted family members,”
said Mike, 38 and the middle Halliday sibling. “All of the business side
of the company is directly on me and my brother John. We’ve been
partners since the beginning.” 

Together, they handle residential
and commercial work, including intricate repairs such as underlayment
replacement, tile replacement, leak repair, flat roof systems, roll roof
systems, and porch patio roof replacements. They’re also proficient at
shingle roof replacement and protect homes from the elements of desert
weather by incorporating foam roofing repairs, replacement, and
high-efficiency coatings. 

Youngest brother Joseph, 35, also works
with the company, but with just each other as company full-time
employees, the elder Hallidays rely on subcontractors they hire by the
job. Depending on the scope of the work and location, they typically
have around a dozen non-union roofing installers in the field at any
given time. The Hallidays said the contractors are trusted, trained and
treated just as they were when working jobs for their dad.

John
said they’re paid daily, provided lunches, given unlimited sick days and
can earn vacation bonuses in a system where maximum freedom creates
good workers and results in a good working environment. They also take
training subcontractors seriously. One of their first hires was a
veteran roofer and safety protocol expert who still operates safety
training procedures and works with all subs. No one gets on a roof
without five years of roofing experience and completes the in-house
training reviews. 

“Any new hires we bring on, if they don’t have
experience in roofing they are going to be gophers on the ground and
will not sniff a roof for quite a while,” John said. “We take safety
seriously because we are nothing without those guys.”

Most work
these days falls on the residential side, with the vast majority in
repairs or reroofing in Phoenix. This now-sprawling desert metropolis
includes neighboring cities Mesa and Gilbert, each a burgeoning exurb.
The latest population data shows Phoenix is now the nation’s
fifth-largest city with more than 4.7 million people within its
metropolitan area, a 1.3% increase from 2023. For perspective, imagine
operating in a market larger than the state of Maryland.  

Simply
put, the area is growing fast, and there’s a lot of demand for housing
stock, which the Halliday Brothers tapped into by launching at the right
time.

The Personal Touch

John
and Mike practically grew up on construction sites as children, helping
their father out on roofing jobs and earning extra cash over the
summers starting at around age 13. As his father told it, John recalled,
their grandfather was a roofer for more than 70 years and passed on the
knowledge and skillset. Their father worked as a handyman and roofing
specialist for roughly five decades. While the brothers were in their
early 20s, their father became ill and had to step back from the
business’s day-to-day. They gradually took on more responsibilities and,
in 2004, launched their own company with their father by their side,
literally until the day he died in 2018. 

“He had a job on a
Saturday and passed away on a Sunday — his one day off,” Mike said. “Our
family has been doing roofing forever, and our father taught us
everything we know.”

With a new company and new contractor’s
license in tow, the pair put their skills to work and found success
early on, including a milestone job for all buildings on a large church
campus in suburban Phoenix. 

“The day I got my contractor’s
license was a really proud day for me,” Mike explained. “Our family had
been handymen before that, so taking on bigger roofing jobs was an
important step for me. They gave us the (church) job because they loved
the quality of our work. Back then, we had never gotten a job that big.”

From
that job to the next, they built a business model based on personable
service and strong referrals, just like the generations of Hallidays
before them. Among the projects they take the most pride in is
consistently getting work in the Trilogy at Power Ranch, a sprawling
retirement community in Gilbert, where they’ve completed more than 400
jobs based solely on recommendations from homeowners. 

“We are
very personable with our customers, and it is a testament to our hard
work,” John said. “Our entire business was run on word-of-mouth for a
long time, and our customers are lifelong friends. We provide the
highest quality work and treat their homes like they were our homes.” 

A Seasonal Approach

While
commitment to high-quality workmanship and customer care may have come
from watching Dad at work, the Halliday brothers developed a formula for
success by maximizing their seasons. And we’re not talking about the
typical fluctuations in the weather-type seasons. The Hallidays plan
their year based on the following “seasons”: 

Snowbird Migration. This
is the season where part-time Arizonans with roots in colder, northern
states return to their respective hinterlands for milder (some say more
tolerable) summers. John said this period generally runs from May
through October but really picks up in late April as homeowners rush to
have their roofs inspected and repaired before leaving for several
months. 

Monsoon Season. Monsoon storms typically hit in
late June and early July and don’t end until late September. Between
then, residents get a high dose of heat and higher humidity, leading to
thunderstorms, downpours, hail and other potential roof hazards.  

Snowbird Return. As
the days shorten in the north and beautifully clear, crisp weather
returns to the desert, so do the nearly 1 million estimated residents
and tourists drawn to the Grand Canyon State from October through the
following spring. John said that gearing up for their return means
girding up for a steady stream of calls requesting wintertime repairs. 

Tax Season: Overlapping
many of their other seasons is what the Hallidays refer to as “tax
season.” It’s not the busy run-up to April’s tax filing deadline, as
accountants know it. Instead, it’s a relatively short time between
post-filing and the beginning of summer; experience has taught the
brothers that this is the window when tax refunds are often used for
one-time home improvements — like a roof.

New World

Looking
back, the Halliday brothers say they are thankful for all they learned
and that they came up in the roofing industry at a time when simplicity
still translated into profits. The environment is much different today,
with roofing company consolidations rising and private equity
acquisitions changing the landscape. 

None of which seems to bother the Hallidays.

“We
didn’t get where we are by consolidating with bigger roofers,” Mike
said. “We got where we are by being small and personable. Our mission
statement is to provide every customer with as much info as possible to
ensure a quality roofing job regardless of whether they hire us or not.”

His
brother said the attitude has more than paid them back over the years.
They also get positive feedback about transparency on costs and avoiding
hidden fees they see with competitors. 

“My dad would be working
right beside me if he was here today,” John said. “He’d be so proud of
what our business has become, the integrity that we’ve kept, and how it
has grown.”

He’s not so sure there won’t be a fourth generation of
Hallidays on the rooftop — 10-year-old daughter, Annie, is a natural
around the jobsite.

“She’s worked with me ever since she was 3
years old,” he boasts. “On days off from school, she loves working with
her dad and meeting new people.”

The brothers’ best advice for other roofers is to be as up-front and honest as possible with their clients. 

“Give an upfront cost at any job,” John said. “Be honest, do good work, and you will do great.”

Sounds simple.