When is The Slow Season for Roofing and What Roofers Can Do

What is the Slow Season for Roofing Replacements?

The slow season for roofing replacements is that time of the year when business slows down, primarily due to extreme weather conditions. 

During this period, jobs are hard to come by. Roofing companies also occasionally charge lower prices due to a significant dip in demand. 

Additionally, materials like asphalt shingles, metal roofs, and sealants respond to weather changes, making them difficult to work with.

Generally, the slow season starts at the onset of winter, specifically between November and March.

However, roofers in the South sometimes avoid working during peak summer because of extreme temperatures. Those in the central basin of the United States are usually concerned by the hurricane season, which lasts between July and November.

Conversely, spring, early summer, and fall are the best months for roofing projects due to their favorable weather. Roofers are in demand within these periods and consequently charge higher prices.

What Affects Demand for Roofing Services?

Demand for roofing services ebbs and flows for a couple of reasons.

Top of the list is the weather.

Cold temperatures and extreme heat make it difficult and dangerous to access roofs. Slips, falls, and dehydration can cause fatalities or injuries. 

Additionally, roofers tend to work for shorter periods during the winter due to shorter daylight hours.

Conversely, roof damage from extreme weather phenomena such as storms, hurricanes, and hail can cause increased demand for roofing services. Property owners will urgently need to fix leaks to prevent water damage.

The economy also affects the demand for roofing services.

During seasons of economic recessions or high inflationary pressures, households and businesses shelve their roof repair or replacement plans. They instead prioritize essential expenditures such as food, clothing, and shelter. 

Lastly, the season affects the demand for roofing services.

As expected, demand peaks in the spring and summer due to favorable weather and working conditions. However, holidays and vacations can reduce demand since homeowners usually travel within that period.

Who Does the Slow Roofing Season Affect?

Those affected by the slow roofing season are mainly roofers and homeowners.

Homeowners are forced to postpone all roofing projects until the season is concluded. However, they may benefit from the decrease in prices.

Roofers must find a way to survive the slow season. Few work orders exist, and prices are at their lowest.

Other people impacted by slow seasons include subcontractors who rely on roofing projects to get jobs, roofing material store owners and suppliers, home insurance agents, and suppliers.

How Does the Slow Season Affect Prices?

All things being equal, prices and demand for roofing materials share a direct relationship: prices reduce when demand reduces.

To that end, prices are naturally lower during slow seasons since fewer homeowners request roofing services. Roofing companies are also forced to offer discounts and lower prices to compete for the limited jobs available and attract customers.

Slow seasons are the buyer’s market, as homeowners are spoilt for choice and have leverage and advantage in price negotiations. Roofing companies are forced to try to appease customers in whatever way they can.

What Can Roofers Do During the Slow Season?

Successful roofing companies leverage the downtime afforded by the slow season to strategize for the upcoming busy period. Here’s a breakdown of the strategies they apply to this effect.

Let’s explore them further.

1. Promote home maintenance contracts

Major roofing projects are paused during slow seasons. However, nothing prevents you from doing minor roof repairs and maintenance to help customers avoid reroofs, major leaks, and other costly damage.

This includes snow shoveling, equipment installation, installing and removing Christmas lights, unclogging gutters, and emergency repairs.

To that end, use the winter to undertake maintenance runs for customers with active service contracts and relentlessly promote it to others.

Emphasize the cost-savings and protection against costly repairs offered by a service contract. You can even sweeten the offer by adding a warranty and guarantee. This will grow the customer base and generate revenue to survive slow seasons.

Are you looking for a way to manage service contracts and prevent canceled jobs? Consider investing in ServiceTitan’s Service Agreement software.

It allows you to create service contracts customized to customers’ needs. You can add details such as equipment specifications, location, and special discounts, which are instantly reflected in a generated service contract proposal.

This allows you to easily create professional proposals that meet customers’ unique needs, increasing your chances of getting a positive response.

ServiceTitan’s Service Agreement software also computes and displays a profitability report, which shows the actual and budgeted labor and material costs for each contract.

This helps you maintain a healthy profit margin and identify the right time to increase prices or offer discounts.

For Laing Roofing, ServiceTitan’s Service Agreement software helps them manage roof maintenance, inspection, and upgrades. This triggers a long-term relationship with clients, placing the company in pole position to land big-ticket roofing replacement projects.

“The goal for us is to own the life cycle of that roof, because roofs don't last forever,” says VP Robert Maier. 

“And if it's 10 years down the road that the client needs to replace their roof, then it only makes sense that the company that’s taken care of them for the last 10 years is going to be first in line to do that big-ticket item.”

2. Maintain and upgrade equipment

The busy nature of the roofing season puts a strain on roofing tools and equipment. The downtime of the slow season provides an opportunity to service, repair, and upgrade them.

This will minimize disruptions during the roofing season from downtimes and workplace injuries. It also boosts efficiency and saves you from costly equipment repairs and replacements.

Roofing companies use ServiceTitan’s Inventory Management software and Fleet Pro platform to streamline the maintenance and upgrade of equipment and tools during slow seasons.

Business owners use Fleet Pro to create custom schedules for servicing roofing equipment. The system then notifies technicians whenever equipment is due for service.

This keeps equipment and tools in top shape and ready to handle any roofing project.

ServiceTitan’s Inventory Management software helps roofing companies track the exact location of tools and equipment with templates.

The software’s Item Overview section provides a one-stop view of each inventory item's exact quantity, location, and state. This helps roofing companies restock during slow seasons so technicians always have what’s required for every roofing project.

ServiceTitan’s Inventory Management platform also has an IoT Condition-Based Maintenance feature that allows users to monitor the equipment condition in real time.

It tracks each piece of equipment's status and automatically designs a maintenance schedule based on its use frequency.

This allows roofing companies to proactively prevent equipment breakdowns and fix minor issues before they worsen.

3. Adjust marketing strategy

Marketing doesn’t have to end because leads are no longer flooding in. Rather, a change in strategy should put the company in pole position to emerge stronger from the offseason.

For starters, run email and text campaigns to inform customers of the new services you now offer due to the weather change. These include chimney repairs, gutter unclogging, and vent installations.

You could also promote discounts and maintenance agreements to retain existing customers.

Another marketing strategy to sustain you during the slow season is optimizing your website and building a social media presence. Use the extra time to respond to comments, write educational posts, and run engagement campaigns.

Furthermore, intentionally use the downtime to build your network. Attend events like the Roofing Process Conference and the International Roofing Expo. Use your attendance to learn how other businesses deal with the season and build a support community.

Lastly, use performance metrics to identify previously high-performing campaigns whose performance has begun to decline. Consider using ServiceTitan’s Home Services Marketing platform for this purpose.

The platform enables users to create and assign tracking numbers to each marketing campaign. 

With this feature, the software’s system can match generated jobs to their respective source campaigns, displaying the results with an intuitive performance dashboard.

Roofing companies use this software to decide which campaigns to pause or continue and to optimize campaigns for revenue.

4. Train your employees

Roofing companies can use the extra time available in slow seasons to build employees’ capacity and boost their ability to provide quality service. Roofers can get extra certifications and update their knowledge of OSHA safety standards. 

Given the roofing industry’s constant evolution, technicians can use slow seasons to find courses offered by roofing material manufacturers. Such courses will teach them how to use and install newly launched materials.

The slow season also presents an excellent opportunity to transition from clipboards to automated systems and learn how to use such tools maximally. These tools will help your company to automate administrative tasks like bookkeeping and invoicing and boost employee productivity.

One such tool is ServiceTitan’s Field Service App.

The application grants technicians access to essential customer data from their tablets and enables them to create good-better-best estimates for closing deals.

The software also has a presentation mode that resembles conventional shopping platforms. Customers can swipe to select any service tier that matches their income and budget.

Technicians equipped with this application can close sales unaided and provide personalized service to each customer. 

This helps them close and upsell the few leads that trickle in during slow seasons, providing revenue to stay afloat.

Robert Maier, VP of Laing Roofing, says this application was the main reason the company switched to ServiceTitan:

“That was the main thing for us; the way ServiceTitan has it set up to where there's a pricebook and our techs can estimate and take care of stuff while out in the field.”

5. Plan ahead

Imagine that two roofing companies are competing in the same region. 

One plans adequately for the slow season, putting strategies in place to cope with the difficult period. The other waits idly for the season to come and go, hoping for the best.

Who do you think survives? Of course, it’s the first company.

Failing to make plans makes it harder for roofing companies to survive the slow season. Without a strategy to counteract the negative effects of the offseason on their finances, roofing companies are vulnerable.

Conversely, planning for the slow season ahead of time helps you proactively put strategies in place to cope with the revenue drought. This includes cutting unnecessary spending, providing three to four months of financial runway, and creating business goals.

We created the Field Reporting software to help roofing companies monitor their financial state in real time and effectively plan for slow seasons.

The software has dashboards that users can customize to track metrics they find valuable. The dashboards also have advanced filters that allow users to view revenue by specific date ranges, quarters, and business units.

This allows roofing companies to pinpoint financial bloats and use real data to make the right decisions during slow seasons.

For example, Guardian Roofing used the reporting feature to make strategic business decisions to triple in size in eight years, generating revenue of $30 million in 2023.

“I can't even imagine going back to pre-ServiceTitan because of how archaic it was and not having real-time information,” says Lori Swanson, vice president and co-founder of the company. 

“Having to wait until the end of the month to know your metrics is just not scalable. It's really hard to grow that way. You find yourself really reactive.”

6. Offer offseason discounts

Limited demand for roofing services characterizes slow seasons. And multiple roofing companies are always in the running for each job. To come out on top, consider offering discounts.

Discounts can be granted for roof inspections and de-icing, gutter cleaning, and chimney repairs.

You can also take advantage of manufacturers' price cuts to offer discounts for installing roof coatings, ventilation, and installation systems.

Though you may earn less, such discounts will endear you to customers and generate valuable revenue, helping you stay afloat.

In addition, technicians can take advantage of the visit to encourage the customer to sign a service contract so the newly installed system can be kept in shape throughout the year.

What is The Busiest Time of Year for Roofers?

The busiest time of the year for roofers is before and after the winter and hurricane season. Specifically, the peak roofing season is usually within the spring and fall months, characterized by temperate weather and longer daylight hours.

During this busy season, roofers experience a spike in service demand, giving them the leverage to negotiate higher prices.

The Bottom Line

The slow season is a dreaded season for most roofing companies, as it causes a decline in revenue.

While some companies may close temporarily, we advise you to take advantage of the downtime to train employees, pivot your marketing strategy, and promote service contracts.

Slow seasons are also a perfect time to network and offer extra services that help you remain connected to customers.

You should consider using ServiceTitan to manage marketing campaigns, empower employees, and manage maintenance agreements.

ServiceTitan is an all-in-one platform for roofing companies. It’s the perfect tool for streamlining marketing, field operations, inventory management, and customer interactions. Join the many companies nationwide who use it to grow their revenue.