Central Roofing, LLC, with locations in Mattoon, Sullivan, and Champaign, Illinois, is a licensed, bonded, and insured roofing contractor, and since its founding in 2012 has provided thousands of satisfied residential and commercial customers with a wide array of roofing services. The company offers free roof inspections and estimates, will recommend a roofing system that meets specific needs, develop a timeline that is convenient and efficient, and last but not least, ensure that customers are completely satisfied with the results.
We wanted to know more about this team which has been garnering multiple awards for outstanding work, including being named a Platinum Preferred Contractor for Excellence in 2024 by roofing manufacturer Owens Corning; rated in the Top 100 by the Roofing Contractor Group; ranked as a Craftsman Premier in the IKO ROOFPRO program, which offers extended protection limited warranty; and scored 4.9 stars in customer reviews, so we spoke with Andrew Hutchison, General Manager.
He told us the company’s roots go back to 2008, when founder and president Will Bates, a military veteran, and his wife Tasha began working with other roofing companies doing storm repair work anywhere and everywhere, from New York to Colorado. In 2012 they decided to settle in their hometown of Sullivan and start their own business. Hutchison first met them in 2014 when he was working for a lumber company that provided roofing materials to Central Roofing and began working with them in 2018.
But it wasn’t until the Christmas party, eight months later, that Bates, who up until then had “always worn all the hats himself, invited me to become general manager,” Hutchison says. “The year prior, they had done about $4 million worth of business, but in the intervening years, business has continued to grow, and this past year we were over $40 million.”
Much of this growth is attributable to Central Roofing’s qualified and highly skilled workforce, a result of the company’s investment in education and training through classroom instruction as well as the on-the-job training offered to roofers, installers, artisans, and project managers, which ensures the job is “done right at first try.”
Last year, Bates, who remains president of Central Roofing, combined forces with Omnia Exterior Solutions, headquartered in Dallas, Texas, an umbrella company comprising 11 roofing and remodeling companies serving home and business owners in 22 states. Its mission is to “revolutionize the home exteriors industry by building the nation’s premier collection of curious, collaborative, team-minded businesses.”
“The companies are all similar in size and we are aligned in the ethical way we conduct our businesses,” Hutchison explains. “Essentially, Omnia’s goal is to help us achieve our goals and encourage work done to the highest standards, thereby bringing customer satisfaction back into the spotlight in the roofing and remodeling industry across the country.”
Being affiliated with a national company gives each of the partners certain advantages. However, by maintaining their own independent regional offices, they are not slotted into a “one size fits all” approach and are able to do what they do best—which is to understand the unique weather conditions of their regions and how they will affect the roofs they install. Illinois, for example, has greatly varied weather conditions including heavy snow, rain, strong winds, and intense summer heat. Choosing the right roof and installing it according to the manufacturer’s specifications will protect against those elements and prevent water damage, mold growth, and energy loss by reducing heating and cooling costs.
Connecting with manufacturers
Whether a customer is looking for asphalt shingles, stone-coated steel, wooden shake shingles, tiles, composite shingles that look like slate or wood, or a commercial membrane roof, Hutchison says the key is to work closely with the manufacturer and understand the product, because the products have very different makeups.
Depending on the needs of a commercial property with a flat or low slope roof—such as hospitals, schools, multi-family residences, manufacturing plants, shopping centers, big box retailers, and restaurants—Central Roofing can recommend the right product for a monolithic membrane. EPDM (ethylene propylene diene monomer) for example, is a type of synthetic rubber. “It looks like black rubber, and can be adhered or attached to the roof, but if it were to be used on a restaurant rooftop with grease coming out of the vents it would deteriorate quickly around that area,” Hutchison tells us.
A better option for the restaurant would be TPO, a thermoplastic membrane, which is resistant to light grease, whereas if the roof is going to be installed on an industrial plant where chemicals or solvents are in use, the best material choice would be PVC (polyvinyl chloride), a single-ply membrane which is more resistant to chemicals. Because TPO and PVC membranes are typically white, it reflects heat, so it’s also suitable for a flat roof over a living space because it will keep the rooms below cooler. “We have installed roofs that include light foot traffic areas with walk paths and a few with decks on them where people can access rooftop mechanical equipment or lounge around on a sunny day.”
All the manufacturing companies Central Roofing has teamed up with are nationally recognized and quality driven, “and working with them is another way we make sure we take care of our customers,” Hutchison shares. “We do extensive training with manufacturers to ensure we are the best trained in our industry with their various systems and we also work closely with them on individual projects to make sure everything is done according to their specifications,” he says. “In construction, you run into oddities and there’s not necessarily a simple way of dealing with those, so we get together with the manufacturers and their technology departments and make sure we come up with the correct solutions to overcome those obstacles.”
He went on to say that the company has the capability to handle all the requests that come its way, even when it receives requests for a product with which it is not familiar. “What we do in those cases, is contact the manufacturer, learn about it, and make sure our guys are fully trained to install it before we begin the job.”
A lifestyle, not a job
Like the company founder and president, Hutchison also served in the military, as did many of Central Roofing’s employees, “but we didn’t go through the credentials to become a designated veteran-owned company,” he says. “We grew fast enough that we didn’t feel it necessary to take advantage of the programs that are available for veterans. We wanted to save room for smaller veteran-owned companies to realize the benefits and just went with our own organic growth.”
Indeed, concern for customer satisfaction and compassion for employees are at the heart of this company. Every employee who works in the field is provided with fall protection systems, most have gone through 30-hour OSHA or OSHA equivalency training, and all participate in safety refreshers regularly. “I love working at Central Roofing—it is much more than a job,” Hutchison says. “I had never worked with an employer before who allowed staff to express the kind of person they are; it was all about business. But here we show compassion and do things out of the goodness of our hearts.”
This business model extends to hiring practices that emphasize the importance of ensuring new hires fit in with the company’s culture of honesty and integrity. “Here we don’t treat people like a number. We are all one big family—we share our problems, we help each other through them, and we are very supportive.”
Community-minded
The service Central Roofing’s founder and many of its employees gave to the nation through the U.S. military is now being extended to the surrounding community in which it does business. The company supports sports teams, school programs, blood donor drives, and at Thanksgiving and Christmas, works with local grocers to put together food boxes for several families, which employees from Central Roofing deliver to their homes.
For many years, Central Roofing, did an “annual veteran roof giveaway, in which we supplied both the material and the labor,” to install a replacement roof on the home of a veteran. More recently, the team has participated in Purple Heart Homes, a veteran-based program in which it partners with Owens Corning, who supplies the material while Central Roofing supplies the labor to install new roofs.
Today, Central Roofing stands as a testament to what is possible when skill, service, and heart come together under one roof. The company has grown from a small local business into a nationally respected leader in roofing solutions, elevating industry standards while staying true to its roots—offering tailored, weather-smart roofing systems and cultivating a company culture where people matter.
