Home is where heart is

More than 25 years after the dramatic film Pay It Forward inspired moviegoers to engage in acts of goodwill, serial reciprocity is alive and well at Pristine Roofing and Siding.

Natural disasters, accidents or wear and tear can put a roof in rough shape, risking the overall well-being of a home. Since not everyone can afford the repairs needed to feel safe and secure in their own house, staff at the Winnipeg company decided to do something about it.

Last year, Pristine launched its “Pay It Forward Project.” Manitoba residents can nominate someone who’s fallen on hard times and is in dire need of a new roof. The company chooses one recipient annually and does the repair work for free.

“We’re always looking at ways that we can help our community out,” says Don Fata, sales manager, who, along with Ash Boyd, started Pristine in 1998.

In the past, that meant supporting local hockey teams, organizing a fundraising golf tournament and making regular contributions to Siloam Mission. For several years, Pristine — which takes on around 1,000 projects annually — donated $25 to the homeless shelter for every roof it completed.

“The community’s been very good to our business, so I think it just kind of makes sense to look at ways that we can give and help wherever we can,” Fata says.

During a weekly staff meeting a few years ago, Fata asked Pristine’s project managers to think of a different way the company might try making a difference.

Rick Lavallee, a project manager who’s been with the firm since 2013, pitched the pay-it-forward idea.

It was a couple years after the COVID-19 pandemic and roofing costs had risen significantly. Lavallee says he was shocked at how many times he would visit a home to make an estimate and find the roof actively leaking. More than once, when Lavallee presented a homeowner with the estimate, tears welled up in their eyes because they couldn’t afford it.

“I said, why don’t we just give away a roof?” Lavallee recalls. “And not just give it away, but try to give it away to somebody who really deserves it.”

The inaugural recipients were siblings with mental health challenges whose parents had died. Their bungalow was in disrepair and the roof was leaking. Pristine employees showed up and fixed the roof in a few hours.

“Our guys are (always) pretty proud of the work that they do,” Fata says, “but they knew what they were doing that day and they felt good about it.”

For Fata, the pay-it-forward project connects to what he finds most life-affiming about his work: getting to know people and lending a hand. The company’s services go beyond simple roof repair, he says. Employees deal with complex issues such as insulation, ice damming and condensation problems, and many jobs require attic restoration work.

“We’re helping people make good decisions on protecting their homes (and) adding value to their homes, and I really enjoy that,” Fata says. “You get to see people’s homes, how they live and (their) pain points. Coming up with solutions for that is pretty rewarding.”

Fata, 54, and Boyd, 51, developed a friendship while attending high school at River East Collegiate.

In 1997, Fata was a foreman at an asphalt company and Boyd worked for a roofing business. Boyd invited Fata to join him on weekends for roofing side jobs.

“I started making more (money) on the Saturday and Sunday than I was all week and I kind of liked the work better,” Fata recalls.

The duo started Pristine the following year, hiring two labourers and running the company out of their homes. In 2008, they moved to their current headquarters on Fleet Avenue, just off Pembina Highway. Today, the company has a dozen crews and a fleet of 16 vehicles. During peak season, around 60 people work at Pristine. Annual revenue is north of $8 million.

Most of Pristine’s work takes place within a three-hour radius of the Manitoba capital, but Fata says the company will take on projects “pretty much anywhere.” Employees have been especially busy in recent weeks, following the intense storms that hit southern Manitoba in June.

Fata fields calls from first thing in the morning until well into the evening.

“People get freaked out and panicked, right?” he says. “Especially if you’ve got water coming into your house, coming through the ceiling. There’s been a lot of that.”

That panic turns into relief when Pristine employees arrive, Fata adds, noting the company is “hyper-focused on doing very good, quality work.”

Roofers receive ongoing training, a supervisor inspects the work before a crew leaves the job site and any issues are dealt with immediately.

Lavallee, who has worked in the roofing industry for close to 30 years, says Pristine’s commitment to quality makes it an honour to be associated with the company.

“It’s not about the money,” he says. “It’s about making sure that at the end of the day, everything is done in a way that we’re happy with and that the customer will be happy with.”

Beyond the pay-it-forward program, there are other new developments at Pristine. The company is experimenting with an artificial intelligence voice agent to answer phone calls; staff members have named the AI, “Pristina.”

The company will also renovate its headquarters in the coming months. Fata and Boyd rented office space in the building — and shared it with the owner — for years until purchasing the property last September.

Now that they have the 4,000-square-foot building to themselves, Fata and Boyd plan to invest around $300,000 to upgrade the facility, including the warehouse behind the office. Employees found five or six leaks in the warehouse roof during the hailstorm on June 9, so repairs are in order.

“Which is OK,” Fata says. “We know how to do that.”

aaron.epp@freepress.mb.ca