Originally founded in 2013 by Ryan Robichaud, Rugged Roofing is a sole-proprietor based small business. At the early age of 16 in 2003 Ryan set out on a journey from the East Coast of Canada, to the big city of Toronto, Ont. to find out what he wanted to do with his life in a place ripe with opportunity. With very little formal education, and only a strong will to succeed, and a bit of determination, he very quickly fell in love with working at heights, outdoors in the sun. It wasn't long before his first roofing job, that he had decided that he would start a roofing company one day, once he had the proper training.
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Ryan Robichaud (Owner/Operator):
"I remember back when I first started my roofing job an older Shingle Installer caught me looking up from the ground at the guys on the roof in admiration, and he asked me if I wanted to be an Installer someday. I said in reply that I did, and he went on to give me a piece of advice. He told me that if I ever want to be good at my job that I should learn what I can for a couple weeks here, and move on to learn more somewhere else, and then do it again and again.
At first I thought it meant that each employer would only be willing to teach me so much, however now that I've taken his advice I understand the benefit of it. There's so many different idea's and opinions out there of what constitutes a good roof. You have to learn all the different ways of doing things, so you can weed out the bad habits and take into account all of the different methods that outlast the others. Many roofers think they know how to put on a roof after being shown how, but what is acceptable to their employer may not be to the next. Now I can truly say that I've made a work of art out of my trade, and I have to set out and make sure that people get the roof they deserve, and show others how to do the same."
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In winter of 2012-2013 Ryan was going through yet another hard winter with little to no work available. Working the odd roof here and there with a handful of small roofing companies who we're still doing the odd roof here and there, until finally he found what seemed to be steady work with a guy who was what Ryan would soon learn was not cut out for the roofing business. He had roofers working for him previously that made a mess of a number of jobs before he started with him. With no knowledge at all as an installer Ryan was stuck fixing all their "major mistakes" while the rest of the crew moved on to other projects. Behind the scenes this mans money was running out spending time on all these repairs. His company went under and he had agreed to pay Ryan by a few things to get Ryan's company started. Namely, a compressor, a nailer, a hose, 2 rippers, a hammer-tacker, and an apology that he couldn't afford to pay him in full, and under what Ryan hoped would be better circumstances for his employer, he set out to find his own projects to do!
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When Rugged Roofing first opened it was a "sub-contracting" based business, meaning all the work we we're getting was from "general contractors". With the very few tools he had gotten from his previous job and a small loan for a cargo van he purchased at an auction he started his first job shortly after! He had an amazing run and had built a couple very solid relationships with a couple big contractors in the city who gave him all his work. He was busy!
In 2015 Ryan set out an attempt to sell his own work and ran a bite sized marketing campaign distributing only 2500 "target marketing" flyers. For the size of the campaign it was very successful. However, due to having to move unexpectedly only 2 months into the roofing season in 2016 out of a house the landlord had planned on tearing down, Ryan felt it would be difficult to provide an effective service living out of boxes while trying to cater to clients. He set out to work for others until which time, towards the end of the season he would finish the season off sub-contracting to bank nuts for winter.
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Rugged Roofing is now in 2023 celebrating being in its 10th year of business! It has been a long road, and not without its struggles. No business is built in a day and without it's hardships, however there has also been many successes to speak of as well. Namely, through every struggle and obstacle that has presented itself to the business has spawned change in operation procedures, added clauses to contracts, a flurry of documents added to the business that it has built its foundation on, and even triggered an implementation for a world of self-education and certification.
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Rugged Roofing is proud to say that we will be selling private contracts again in 2023! With a better built filing system, a comprehensive software to save time in paperwork during estimates and sales, much better paperwork and new partners and employee's, Rugged Roofing is going to hit the streets this summer 2023 with a bang! We have a lot of programs to encourage our clients to get involved in spreading our name in which they can save money on their roof as well as even getting cash-back rebates! As always the quality of our roofs will continue to be top-notch this season, as well we will be offering 1 free eaves-trough cleaning for all new clients.
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Whether your project may be big or small, residential or commercial, Rugged Roofing has a solution for you! Don't hesitate to call or send us a message on our "Contact Us" page of the website! We will be sure to give you a swift response and look at your project in record time!
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