Western Market Share
The Roofing Product Market in the West
by Marc Dodson, Editor
With the economy in a state of flux and the unknowns of tariff repercussions looming on the horizon, the roofing industry can always count on the reroofing portion of the industry to offer stabilization. The roofing industry has always been fairly consistent. As long as there are homes and buildings, people will always need to repair or replace the roof over their heads.
As such, roofing contractors are basically an optimistic group. This confident attitude was confirmed in our annual reader survey. Western roofing contractors are keeping busy. The complaints heard frequently were not enough skilled, or even unskilled labor, to handle the jobs available. The grumblings concerning material shortages have all but disappeared and manufacturers have stated that production is back to normal.
As noted previously, many former office workers are now performing their tasks remotely. Some are working 100% from home, some part-time remotely while part time in the office, and some have completely returned to office work. Partly due to the freedom of working from home, new housing starts are on the rise in states such as Montana, Idaho, Nevada, Arizona, and Texas.
Construction is on the rise across the nation, and in particular in the West. The Associated General Contractors recently reported that, “Construction employment in May totaled 8,314,000, seasonally adjusted, an increase of 4,000 from April. Headcount rose by 126,000 jobs or 1.5% during the past 12 months, topping the 1.1% growth rate in total nonfarm payroll employment. However, the sector’s rate of growth was markedly slower than the 2.8% increase in construction employment recorded a year earlier.”
Steep-Slope & Low-Slope
Reroofing will again make up the majority of the steep-slope market this year. While the resale of existing homes has stabilized, and prices are rising in many areas of the West, with starts of new homes increasing. As a result, roofing materials traditionally used more for new construction, such as slate and tile, are increasing in popularity. Reroofing materials, like fiberglass shingles, have also increased.
New low-slope construction has started to rebound, and reroofing and recover will again account for the majority of growth this year. The low-slope market is expected to capture about 54% of the total this year with steep-slope taking about 46%. Overall, the projected 2025 market is 21% for new construction, 54% reroofing, and 25% repairs and maintenance.
Western Product Mix
In the low-slope market, TPO continues to take the biggest cut of the roofing pie in the West with a 36.7% share, up again from the previous year. Metal roofing, both architectural and structural, also showed slight increases. Other materials remained steady with only minor fluctuations.
On the residential side, the top performer in the West for this year will once again be fiberglass shingles with a commanding 66.1% of the market. This figure is up from last year as the majority of the sales of fiberglass/laminated shingles comes from the high-end used on reroofing projects.
Slight increases were seen in other reroofing materials. The market shares are based on dollar volume of the jobs as reported by contractors answering our surveys.
The Road Ahead
What lies ahead for the remainder of this year? The Western construction market has stabilized and seems to be increasing. Western roofing contractors state they expect both the commercial and residential roofing markets to continue a slow but steady increase. As stated previously, one of the biggest obstacles for many Western roofing contractors is finding, and keeping, qualified roof mechanics to do the work.
