The Disaster Roofing Business: Temporary Roofs, Real Margins

Summary

Podcast Summary: Owned and Operated – "The Disaster Roofing Business: Temporary Roofs, Real Margins"

Host: John Wilson
Guest: Adam Cherup (Disaster Roofer)
Date: January 15, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into a niche segment of the roofing industry: disaster response roofing—specifically, the business and operational details of using shrink wrap as a temporary roof solution. Host John Wilson is joined by Adam Cherup, who shares his decade-long experience "putting plastic on roofs" in the wake of hurricanes, tornadoes, and other disasters, discussing everything from margins and logistics to market entry barriers and wild stories from disaster zones.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. What is Disaster Roofing?

• Adam identifies himself as a "disaster roofer":

  "I call myself a disaster roofer. I put plastic on roofs." (00:00)

• Focus is on providing immediate, temporary roofing after major natural disasters (hurricanes, tornadoes, severe hail) using shrink wrap instead of traditional tarps.
• Shrink wrap lasts longer (guaranteed for a year, sometimes in use for two years) versus tarps, which typically need replacing every 30–60 days.

2. Economics & Margins

• Shrink wrap jobs offer exceptional margins:

  "The margin is way better on shrink wrap. It's upwards of 60 to 80% sometimes." (08:06)

• Typical job pricing:
  • Residential: $20,000–$30,000 for a whole house
  • Schools: $150,000–$350,000
  • Large commercial (e.g., stadiums): Can approach $1 million

  "I'm not going to say it's cheap." (10:53)

• Material costs are low—primarily plastic sheeting, furring strips, fasteners, and propane.

3. Business Model & Operations

• Disaster roofing is highly reactive and opportunity-driven.
• "Ninety days is the most I'm usually around" after a storm (07:28)
• Majority of business is tied to large-scale events (hurricanes more so than tornadoes because of disaster area size).
• Operations are mobile: crews bring campers, cooks, and generators, staying on-site through the end of the project.

  "It's like camping on steroids for me. It's like being back in the Marine Corps and being out in the field." (13:01)

• Most jobs are quick turnarounds—some schools wrapped in a day.

4. How Adam Got Started

• Originally a handyman and roofer for 20 years.
• Discovered the shrink wrap roofing product at an industry expo.
• Persisted in networking and followed a key client (“referral guy”) to disaster zones until he was trusted as a go-to shrink wrap pro:

  "It took me about a year and a half, two years to chase that guy down." (06:22) "Once I chased him down and followed him to a couple of tornadoes...that's really where I made my business." (06:27)

5. Market Factors & Client Acquisition

• The majority of demand comes from large institutions and businesses rather than homeowners.
• Networking is key; much business comes from relationships, word-of-mouth, and being visible at the right time.

  "It's really a networking thing...my goal was to get bigger contractors than me to want to use me for that portion of it." (30:36)

• Insurance companies have become more accepting but still dislike the high costs. Success in billing relies on clear documentation and helping clients frame loss mitigation under insurance terms.

  "I've gotten fairly good, almost 99% success rate with that." (14:27)

• Increasingly, people are looking for services online; TikTok and other platforms poised to be powerful marketing tools.

6. Technical Challenges & Training

• Learning curve exists: training staff to apply heat correctly (not too much, not too little) and mastering installation techniques.

  "The heating aspect of it is the hardest part to learn...you want to apply too much heat...you're thinning the material." (15:15)

• Product selection is crucial—Adam’s loyalty to a specific shrink-wrap brand after trial and error.

7. Use Cases & Limitations

• Applicable for wind, hail, hurricane, and even fire-damaged roofs (the wrap is non-flammable).
• Only effective as a temporary solution; usually paired with eventual permanent roof replacement.
• Especially valuable for tile and metal roofs, offering a solution where tarps fall short.
• Not suited for all disaster types (e.g., tornadoes often leave little regular structure to wrap).

8. Pairing with Roofing Companies

• Disaster shrink wrapping is best as a service extension for established roofing companies:

  "You got to be a roofing company because you got to understand roofing to put this product on." (20:12)

• Standalone shrink-wrapping businesses are tough to sustain due to needed expertise and episodic demand.

9. Challenges & Lifestyle

• Requires frequent, often extended travel to disaster zones and living in sparse conditions.
• "A lot of time away from the family. It's best...if you have a roofing company too." (28:33)
• Not for the faint of heart—exposure to disaster zones, complex logistics, and unconventional hours.

10. Niche Business Model Difficulty Rating

• John rates the difficulty to enter and operate this business as a "7.5 to 8" out of 10.
• Adam agrees:

  "I would 100% agree with you. I was going to say eight on land and that's me going through it." (30:03)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the wildness of the business:

  "There's something about people that make money in the weirdest ways ever." — John Wilson (00:26)

• On margins and comparison to regular roofing:

  "It's like printing money, dude." — Adam Cherup (00:29)

• On large-scale projects:

  "We bring campers in and a cook and a big generator...It's like camping on steroids for me. It's like being back in the Marine Corps." — Adam Cherup (13:01)

• On starting out and securing key relationships:

  "It took me about a year and a half, two years to chase that guy down, but once I did...that’s really where I made my business." — Adam Cherup (06:22–06:31)

• On learning curve and product selection:

  "In the beginning, you want to apply too much heat...you're thinning the material." — Adam Cherup (15:15)

• On the disaster lifestyle:

  "You're going to a disaster zone. You gotta realize you’re going to live in a rough segment...But yeah, that's what we do." — Adam Cherup (19:46)

• On training and skill crossover:

  "You got to understand water shedding and how that roof's going to flow...Roofs aren't just up and over anymore. Architects have gotten involved recently and put all kinds of dumb crap on roofs for no reason." — Adam Cherup (20:16)

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Important Timestamps

• Shrink wrap’s durability and economics: (00:09–01:51)
• What it's like in a disaster zone: (03:01–04:12)
• How Adam entered the niche: (05:04–06:31)
• Margins, materials, and typical job size: (08:02–11:13)
• Operational logistics (bringing a city with you): (13:01–13:41)
• Insurance company dynamics: (13:42–14:32)
• Challenges in technical training: (15:05–16:21)
• On finding work and networking: (17:11–18:18)
• Lifestyle realities and disaster zone living: (19:41–19:59)
• Pairing with roofing business: (20:12–21:04)
• Difficulty rating and barriers to entry: (28:18–30:26)
• Building the brand and importance of reputation: (30:36–31:20)

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Final Thoughts

This episode offers a fascinating look at a lucrative, demanding, and narrowly specialized home services niche that leverages unique technical expertise and a willingness to chase storms and live on the edge—literally and figuratively. The business is high-margin but highly dependent on networking, event-driven demand, and the operator’s willingness to travel and persevere in chaotic environments. Shrink wrap disaster roofing is best suited as an extension to a roofing company rather than a standalone business.

If you want to see this process in action, Adam and John suggest showcasing it on social media, especially TikTok—that’s where the next generation of clientele might be found!

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Listen to the full episode on your favorite podcast platform for additional stories and actionable advice. For more, visit www.ownedandoperated.com.

Transcript

[Adam Cherup]

I call myself a disaster roofer. I put plastic on roofs.

[John Wilson]

This is wild.

[Adam Cherup]

I mean, you're going to some messed up areas, you're going to a disaster zone.

[John Wilson]

Can you walk me through like the economics of this, how the margin is.

[Adam Cherup]

Way better on shrink wrap. It's upwards of 60 to 80% sometimes.

[John Wilson]

What's a normal job price?

[Adam Cherup]

20, 30 grand. If you're doing the whole house, you get into the schools, you're talking anywhere from 150 to $350,000. Commercial ones, you can get up into almost a million dollar range. I'm not going to say it's cheap.

[John Wilson]

There's something about people that make money in the weirdest ways ever.

[Adam Cherup]

It's like printing money, dude.

[John Wilson]

Foreign. Welcome back to owned and operated. I am your host, John Wilson. Today I'm joined on the show by Adam Cherup and we are talking a niche business breakdown which is pretty new to me and I'm excited to talk about it. Adam, welcome to the show.

[Adam Cherup]

Thank you. Nice to be here.

[John Wilson]

Yeah, this, this will be a lot of fun. You were coming on originally to talk roofing, which is super interesting. We're probably going to talk about it, but. But then you casually mentioned that. How did you describe it?

[Adam Cherup]

I put plastic on roofs.

[John Wilson]

You put plastic on roofs. It's almost like wrapping them in between roof replacements. Is that the way to think about this?

[Adam Cherup]

So definitely it's more after a natural disaster. Let's talk like hurricane, mostly tornadoes. I've done primarily hurricanes. Big wind events where you see extensive roof damage. And you know, these people a, don't have the money to put on a new roof right away and B, they're probably going to go through an insurance claim, which is a nightmare. So what this product offers them instead of blue tarps that you get to replace every 30 to 60 days, the insurance company only pays for them once.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

Now the homeowner's paying for them again and again. This is a year long product that.

[John Wilson]

Yeah. Well, like as in it lasts one year.

[Adam Cherup]

It's guaranteed for up to a year by the manufacturer. I have seen it on my clients properties for over two years.

[John Wilson]

Okay.

[Adam Cherup]

And got a letter. We were the first check that woman wrote when she paid us for that wrap. A year and a half, almost two years later. She was, she showed us the checkbook. We were the first check that she wrote out of her insurance payments.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

To pay us and then pay to get a new roof put on. So.

[John Wilson]

All right, so the idea here is Katrina comes through, rips a bunch of Roofs, damages a bunch of roofs. But maybe the building is still good, functional, people are working inside it. Yep. You are the stop gap between the roofer, which you also do. But the stop gap between the roofer and the damage today, a year, two years.

[Adam Cherup]

Sure. So we're the people that you want to come in immediately and stop the water intrusion from the roof so that the dry out companies can get in there and start doing what they do. This product is going to encompass either one whole section, one whole side or more than likely the entire property, the entire roof. Depending. Depending on the damage. Like if I don't need to do the whole roof, I cannot do the whole roof.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

And save some money. But 98% of the time you're wrapping the whole roof because something's got problems somewhere.

[John Wilson]

Yeah. And it's basically reducing the amount of loss because the time between, especially like a huge event, the time between like hey, my, my roof is damaged. I mean if it's a big commercial thing, it might be a year or two. And like what could happen in a year to a million dollar building?

[Adam Cherup]

Oh, millions of dollars of damage.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

It just compounds more and more. So for us to be able to come out and service a building.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

I mean maybe in a day to. I mean I've had projects that went on for 12 days, but that was two seven story condo buildings that had zero roof framing left that we actually had to build a frame and then wrapped the frame itself and it was two buildings and I did those in 12 days.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

So I mean imagine like I did a school recently in Jamaica one day.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

So it's. The scale is there and you can.

[John Wilson]

Just because of the storms that were in Jamaica like what, two months ago?

[Adam Cherup]

Two months ago. Yeah. Hurricane Melissa. We spent about 45 days over there doing some work and trying to. I met with a lot of people.

[John Wilson]

You are looking tan.

[Adam Cherup]

That's benefit of Florida too. But I met with a lot of the ministry over there trying to convince them, hey, this is a great product to use. But not only that, hey, we need to rebuild over here in a better fashion because what you guys have doesn't work.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

So that was kind of a hand in hand project that's actually still going on for us.

[John Wilson]

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[Adam Cherup]

Let's see, probably 10 years ago, I was walking around IRE International Roofing Expo, and I saw this because you've been.

[John Wilson]

In roofing for a minute band roofing.

[Adam Cherup]

For almost 20 years now.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

Started out as a handyman cleaning gutters and. And working on tile roofs, kind of fixing little things here and there and then cleaning them was a big thing. Moved into running a roofing company with my wife and found this shrink wrap product out of Australia. And it was really interesting to me because I hated tarps. I hated putting up synthetic. It's just, you know, it's not a good product for after a hurricane.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

And bought into the product, Got it, used it a ton in Panama City after hurricane Michael and found a guy that he positions himself before these storms and then is looking for vendors that can service his clients after the storm immediately.

[John Wilson]

So, like a.

[Adam Cherup]

So he's.

[John Wilson]

You only have a couple days of notice. Right.

[Adam Cherup]

He's a referral guy. So he would be already talking to the hospitals in the government building.

[John Wilson]

Hey, you know, this is coming in two days.

[Adam Cherup]

I've got the team that can come and fix your roof if it goes bad. And then I was the guy that they called. It took me about a year and a half, two years to chase that guy down.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

But once I chased him down and followed him to a couple of tornadoes.

[John Wilson]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

He. He believed that I would follow him, and that's really where I made my business. Was that client.

[John Wilson]

Yeah. How much? Sounds like most of this is chasing random. I mean, you're in Panama City, and.

[Adam Cherup]

I'm all over the place. Panama City. We went up to open an office that started out as doing some, like.

[John Wilson]

Panama city in Panama? Just.

[Adam Cherup]

No, in Panama City, Florida, after hurricane Michael up in the panhandle. So it started out, let's go do some donation work on Tyndall Air Force base. And that spread out into. Hey, we've got the shrink wrapping. They're not using it there. Let's go use it in town.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

Okay. Let's open an office up here to where we lived up there and bought a house. And you roofed up there for a couple of years. We've since shut that office down and come back down to central Florida. But the idea of traveling, it's. I mean, if you're a roofer and you can do the things I do, you got to travel.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

I call myself a disaster roofer. I'm not a regular.

[John Wilson]

I mean, you pretty much have to. I mean you're really like. You're only there for like the first month is when it all happened.

[Adam Cherup]

90 days is the most I'm. I'm usually around.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

Within 90 days, I've usually wrapped up most of the things that I can get my hands on.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

As far as big projects or I've gotten a hold of those projects and they're in the pipeline.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

So in that case, you're there for a little longer. But I only stay and re roof stuff that's in my state. So if I go to Louisiana and do a whole school system in shrink wrap like I did.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

I'm turning that roofing over to Louisiana roofers. I don't want it.

[John Wilson]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

It's too much logistically to handle.

[John Wilson]

What is the. Is the margin? I guess. Can you walk me through, like the economics of this?

[Adam Cherup]

The margin is way better on shrink wrap.

[John Wilson]

I would have to imagine. I would have to imagine insane.

[Adam Cherup]

It's. It's upwards of 60 to 80% sometimes, depending material cost. If I buy enough of it is next to nothing because it's like plastic sheeting.

[John Wilson]

Like what I would wrap.

[Adam Cherup]

It's a big roll of plastic.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

Is what it is. It's about a 330lb roll of plastic covers 2,800 sq ft. Yeah. So you're covering big. That roll. Yep. And then you can take another roll and connect them together by welding the plastic together. So. And there's obviously a secret method, the secret sauce. As you know, it's not a big secret. But yeah. There is a way to do that. So that. And that also is. So we can go back and if the insurers and say, hey, we didn't like your pictures. I want to look at the damage. All right, no problem. I can cut that plastic open, peel it back. They can do their thing. I can close it back up and weld a sheet over top of it.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

To make it watertight again.

[John Wilson]

Yeah. How much of the business is this now?

[Adam Cherup]

30%.

[John Wilson]

20.

[Adam Cherup]

30% depending on when a storm hits. No storms. It's very low percentage because it's really storm driven.

[John Wilson]

Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, even just like tornadoes, because, I mean there's tornadoes.

[Adam Cherup]

All tornadoes are rough because we have to travel really far for them.

[John Wilson]

Really.

[Adam Cherup]

And the swath is I guess not far from swath is very narrow. Now it's two hours.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

So on a tornado the swath is wide as this table. On a hurricane it's generally the state or a very wide 100 mile region.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

You can cover a lot of.

[John Wilson]

Yeah, yeah. Lots of roofs.

[Adam Cherup]

Lots of roofs. And there's lots of tornadoes inside that hurricane. So I've never had great, great success chasing the tornadoes other than it showed the client that I have that I'm willing to go where he asked me to go.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

And that's what paid him.

[John Wilson]

Tornado is probably like damaged far more that, like more structural than a wrapped, you know, it doesn't matter.

[Adam Cherup]

Oh yeah.

[John Wilson]

The house is in shambles I guess.

[Adam Cherup]

Correct.

[Quick Staffers / Advertisement Voice]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

I mean I can say I can save a wall or a window, some siding. But like hail. Oh yeah, hail. Hail damage. Yep. This is great for hail damage. We get, we get hail damage in Florida. So wind storms probably wind, hail and, and hurricanes.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

The big interesting, the big ones, fires we can wrap over a fire. This stuff won't carry a flame. So if you got a roof that's totally ripped, ripped off from the fire, we can cover you up so you can get your house rebuilt until wild. It's some, it's some cool stuff.

[John Wilson]

And what's a normal job price on this?

[Adam Cherup]

I would say your average house, 20, 30 grand. If you're doing the whole house. I mean it's rapid. It's like paying for a new roof. I'm not going to say it's cheap.

[John Wilson]

Yeah, yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

You're going to get what you pay for because you're getting a year of my service. You're getting a year of that. Product note. Yeah, it's good by the manufacturer.

[John Wilson]

UV protect home for a year between now and roofing. I mean some of those roofing things it can take. There's a long time.

[Adam Cherup]

Some of the projects we get on there, it's eight, nine months before you're even touching it. Yeah, absolutely.

[John Wilson]

Yeah, that makes sense. I was talking to, I had somebody on Paul. He came on like maybe a year ago and he's, he's storm chasing commercial roofs. Just a replacement. And you know, we're, you know, in my mind at the time storm chasing was, you know, you go down there and fix the roof and he's like, oh no. Like that is, that takes like years. So they chase a storm and if it's a big enough storm, they establish an office and that office is open for like three to five years. And, and I'm like, dog that I had no idea. I thought like, you know, you just go fix a roof. So.

[Adam Cherup]

Yeah, this, this definitely not in Florida either.

[John Wilson]

Yeah, yeah, this is, this is wild. All right. So you found out about the product?

[Adam Cherup]

Yep.

[John Wilson]

Did you tell me what the average job size was? You said 20, 30.

[Adam Cherup]

When I, when I started, when I started out, you know, it was anywhere from 20 to 25. 30 squares. Houses. Yeah, I've really moved away from doing houses and I'm really focusing on schools, churches, hospitals, large commercial loss because it's just I can move my team there. And we, when we travel for this, we basically travel as a city. We bring campers in and a cook and a big generator to run everything. And I talked to the clients and I said, hey, I'm going to be here for three or four days. I want to set my campers up in your parking lot and hook your water hose up to your spigot. It's all I need. Are you okay with that? That means I've got bathrooms, sleeping, food. We get up, we go to work, we come down, you go back to work, you come down, you go to sleep. These guys have nothing to do other than eat, sleep and work. They get to bank a ton of money. I'm paying for the food. How do you. It's like camping on steroids for me. It's like being back in the Marine Corps and being out in the field. So I enjoy it.

[John Wilson]

What's the average dollar amounts of these.

[Adam Cherup]

Projects you get into the schools and, and the stuff like that, you're talking anywhere from 150 to $350,000.

[John Wilson]

So to wrap it and then like are the roof replacement, is it basically equal to that? Another 200 to 400 commercial ones, they.

[Adam Cherup]

Get up there a little bit more. You can get up into almost a million dollar range on some of these replacements, depending on what you're doing. And if you're replacing coping metals and.

[John Wilson]

Stuff like that, so does insurance like this.

[Adam Cherup]

I won't say that they like it. They're becoming a lot more accepting of it.

[John Wilson]

I mean, it prevents future loss, which seems pretty important.

[Adam Cherup]

They hate the sticker price of it.

[John Wilson]

Oh yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

Really?

[John Wilson]

Oh yeah. I mean, you're telling me 100 grand. I'm like, that's.

[Adam Cherup]

You really got to work out with the insurance company a fine line of a fair price.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

Now what I like to tell my clients is, hey, they're going to tell you you have a mitigate. You have to mitigate your loss. That's on you as part of your insurance. So give them a bill. They've given you a bill every month for how many years and you've never filed a claim? Just give them my bill and say, hey, I had to mitigate my loss. This is what it cost me. Pay me back. And I've gotten fairly good, like, almost 99% success rate with that.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

There's always one or two that you got to go to court for, but it is what it is. That's why our lawyers.

[John Wilson]

Yeah, yeah. So that's interesting. All right, so big ticket price. Big ticket price, but much less material involved.

[Adam Cherup]

You're using plastic itself and labor furring strips to wrap it in.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

And nails or screws to secure it with.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

Propane to heat it with four items.

[John Wilson]

People doing this with houses, probably?

[Adam Cherup]

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. All the time.

[John Wilson]

You get a $5 million house, you're going to wrap it.

[Adam Cherup]

Yeah, I've done a $5 million. I've done a really expensive slate tile roof house before that.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

Right after hurricane in Louisiana and Lake Charles area.

[John Wilson]

Yeah. So what was the hardest part to starting this?

[Adam Cherup]

Training everybody to learn how to do it and accept what it's.

[John Wilson]

That installing a temporary.

[Adam Cherup]

That's.

[John Wilson]

That's a culture shock.

[Adam Cherup]

The heat, the heating aspect of it is the hardest part to learn. Because in the beginning, you want to apply too much heat. You want to shrink it so much that it's super, super tight. But what you don't realize is you're thinning the material.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

And now you're, man, why am I having to go back? And the other. The other team that I worked with when I learned how to do is they're not going back to their jobs. Well, you find that fine line as you start to go down the road a few times and realize, okay, I see the difference now. Finding a better product than the first product I use. That was a huge difference. So the product that we use now I've been using for probably five years now. And I. I wouldn't buy a different product. I just don't believe in the other products at this point.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

Yeah. If I could find another product that did it all like this one did and was the same price or cheaper, great. They're out there. But I just. There's little things that when you've used different products, you. I'm sure, you know, you find. You find what you like for your companies. We find what we liked and. And we go with it.

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[John Wilson]

I mean, the other big thing is like, how do you get the work? So it sounds like that one dude was super helpful to you. So find the guy that storm chasing before you.

[Adam Cherup]

I found that guy and I guess we kind of found each other.

[John Wilson]

It's romantic.

[Adam Cherup]

And. And yeah, he was my. He was my bromance crush for a little while.

[John Wilson]

Slid into his dms. Hey, bro, you got links.

[Adam Cherup]

You know, I mean, I slid into the line next to him in a conference. I was like, hey, my name's Adam. I around for a little while, really like to work with you. And I mean, that's essentially how it happened. Yeah, I did know about his company. I knew what he did.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

And I had seen him speak at a conference and.

[John Wilson]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

So it wasn't lost on me. So I knew that it was a good way to position myself to get more work. And I did. And I got a ton of work. And then out of that, I got called to fix other people's work. That didn't do it as good. This all was taking place up in Panama City, Florida. And after that, I guess really unbeknownst to me, I kind of became the shrink wrap guy because all of a sudden, people started calling me.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

And most recently, I mean, you said.

[John Wilson]

Some people were finding you just like searching for it, which that was. My next one is like, are people looking for this on the Internet? And.

[Adam Cherup]

Yeah, they definitely are.

[John Wilson]

You could put this on Tick Tock.

[Adam Cherup]

This would do numbers. It would be a hit. So a guy found me that. He's like, hey, I heard you're the man to do shrink wrapping. I want to bid on. Oh, yeah, on shrink wrapping. Tampa Bay Ray Stadium, when their roof blew off. Oh, from Hurricane Ian, I think. Yeah. And I was like, cool, let's bid it up, man. Here, we'll get some numbers. It was just A random phone call. I've never.

[John Wilson]

How do you even.

[Adam Cherup]

Never met the guy. Stadium, one section at a time. Just like there are roof. There was a roof. There is. It's gone now. I mean, but there was a roof. There was a roof. The, The Tampa Rays baseball stadium had a. A canvas style roof.

[John Wilson]

That's crazy.

[Adam Cherup]

So it got all destroyed.

[John Wilson]

Yeah, that's probably like a $50 million roof.

[Adam Cherup]

Oh, yeah. Every bit of it.

[John Wilson]

Oh, yeah, every bit.

[Adam Cherup]

It would. It would have been 30 million at least for us just to wrap it and I think to replace it. We were bidding somewhere in the hundreds.

[John Wilson]

That's crazy.

[Adam Cherup]

So it came down to one other contractor in us. Unfortunately, they went with the other guy because they had done it before. They ended up not temping it in at all and just went straight to reconstruction, which I think was like a $5 million project.

[John Wilson]

That's crazy. All right, so. So people are looking for this. The average ticket's pretty big.

[Adam Cherup]

Yeah.

[John Wilson]

Work can be complicated. Definitely travel. Like, that's a big. That's it.

[Adam Cherup]

I mean, you're going to some messed up areas. You're going to a disaster zone. You got to realize you're going to live in a. In a rough segment. And yeah, you're making do with what you can find. But yeah, it is what it is, you know? Yeah, that's what we do.

[John Wilson]

Yeah, that's funny, man. What else do I want to know about this? So people are looking. So it could be possible. Do you think it's best paired with a roofing company? Because then you can do construction.

[Adam Cherup]

Yeah, you got to be a roofing company because you got to understand roofing to put this product on.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

You got to understand water shedding and how that roof's going to flow. And you got to understand, you know, if I put it here, how am I tying it into this? Roofs aren't just up and over anymore. Architects have gotten involved recently and put all kinds of dumb crap on roofs for no reason. But yeah, I mean, it's definitely got to be paired with a roofing company. It's not something you're going to sustain solely on its own. Because in that case there is a lot of cost. Right. Because now you're. You're having all your roofing company costs onto that, which draws your margin down. Down. Yeah, my roofing companies, it's just. I'm taking some texts from my roofing company that I've already trained or roofers that I've already trained. They can go with me. Yeah, I've Got ones that'll travel. Let's go.

[John Wilson]

Yeah. What do you think about. I'm. I'm imagining this shrink wrap thing. And we've gone to Tampa a few times and, like, stayed. And when we're down there, they do this termite fogging. And that reminds me a little bit of this. Obviously, that's like, more.

[Adam Cherup]

But they, like where they tend the house.

[John Wilson]

They tend the house?

[Adam Cherup]

Yeah. That's a really, really good question.

[John Wilson]

I mean, it feels like if you have roughly the. I mean, that's a similar skill set. Like, do you think you could do it? And those things are crazy.

[Adam Cherup]

I don't think the product would work. Like, the tent would work because the tents are so heavy and thick to. Yeah, yeah.

[John Wilson]

If you're listening, you should Google it. So it was wild. Like, you'd walk by a house and there's just like a tent on top of this.

[Adam Cherup]

White style, man.

[John Wilson]

Crazy.

[Adam Cherup]

Walter White's in there doing his thing now.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

But, yeah, it's like. It's a really bad problem. We almost had to do it to our house recently.

[John Wilson]

Termites.

[Adam Cherup]

Termite. We almost had to.

[John Wilson]

Specifically in Florida.

[Adam Cherup]

Yep.

[John Wilson]

Yeah, we saw a few out. That's not a thing up here. I mean, there are termites, but I've never seen a. There's a house.

[Adam Cherup]

All different kinds of them down there. Subterranean wood and this, that, and the other. And there's. You call your pet pest guy. That's all I can tell you. If you're listening, call the pest guy called Truly Nolan. That's who doped us. So.

[John Wilson]

All right, so. So you don't think the same skill set applies? Like, you couldn't get into termite fun.

[Adam Cherup]

Ah, it's. No, it's different skill set for sure.

[John Wilson]

Yeah, Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

I don't want to mess with the poisons either.

[John Wilson]

Yeah. I'm imagining you getting into this. Like anything that involves ridiculous wraps. Like, you're the shrink wrap.

[Adam Cherup]

I'm the shrink wrap guy.

[John Wilson]

So apparently that's what I got told. Let's go do boats and cars.

[Adam Cherup]

So they definitely do boats. You'll see. Boats are going down.

[John Wilson]

Yeah, yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

I remember you saying very, very similar. The material is composite is different.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

We can't use that stuff on the roof.

[John Wilson]

They're just using that to protect it on the drive.

[Adam Cherup]

I think doing it on the drive. People are winterizing their boats like that in colder areas. I noticed it in California by Bare Mountain. A lot of boats get wrapped around.

[John Wilson]

There because there's a boat place down the road and they're all wrapped up.

[Adam Cherup]

Probably all wrapped up. Yep. So it's a bit. That's actually a. A real business is shrink wrapping boats. Like people just do that.

[John Wilson]

That's crazy.

[Adam Cherup]

Yeah.

[John Wilson]

What else can you shrink wrap? Everything.

[Adam Cherup]

If I can wrap plastic around it and put heat to the plastic without damaging.

[John Wilson]

What else? Okay, so what else do people shrink wrap?

[Adam Cherup]

I mean, I've seen it from, I guess cars maybe.

[John Wilson]

I don't know.

[Adam Cherup]

Maybe.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

I mean, I see bags on cars more these days when they're traveling or. Or like a. I'd be afraid a film coat. Something that's sticking to it. More like a sticker.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

On all the high end stuff now like the stickers you peel off your tv almost.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

So I think the PPE film has taken away from that as far as what I would be able to do with it. But as far as like tile roofs, metal roofs, that's the only way you can protect those roofs after a storm.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

You're not putting a tarp up there on a tile roof.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

I mean, what are you going to secure it with?

[John Wilson]

Yeah, yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

Sandbags. Now you got a projectile on top of the roof that's going to come off.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

I literally was standing at a guy's house quoting him a shrink wrap job and he had loose tiles holding his tarps down and one almost came off and hit him in the head.

[John Wilson]

Wow.

[Adam Cherup]

While we were standing there and I was like, you really need to not do that.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

People do what they got to do to get by. But yeah, it's the real. It's the real answer to stuff like that.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

A metal roof or a tile roof. The only way that you're going to be able to do something right is wrap it.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

Because you're encompassing the whole roof at that point.

[John Wilson]

Yeah. So this is hilarious. Yeah. This is super funny. This, this reminds me a little bit of lining. So our industry has sewer lining.

[Adam Cherup]

Okay.

[John Wilson]

And now it does count as a permanent installation. That might be the difference. But you know, you can, when you're replacing a sewer, if it's in a certain type of distress, you know, if it has root intrusion or like some holes in the pipe, like it fell through or something, you can clean that out and basically put a sock through it. And then you use this UV tool to harden the. The lining and it like stretches out up to actual size and it becomes the new pipe.

[Adam Cherup]

I've seen that.

[John Wilson]

Yeah, it's really.

[Adam Cherup]

I know you're talking about, but yeah.

[John Wilson]

Like, I've seen some cases. Yeah, yeah. You see on YouTube or tick tock probably. But. But yeah, there's some cases it won't work. Like if there's a belly in the line or, you know, similar to your stuff, has areas, it won't work too. But it is interesting. It's really interesting technology. Yeah, we. We've been doing more and more of that. We missed all the regular roofing stuff, but honestly, like, this is.

[Adam Cherup]

Regular roofing's boring.

[John Wilson]

It's totally different. Like, we've never done anything like. This is.

[Adam Cherup]

This is way cooler.

[John Wilson]

Yeah, this is.

[Adam Cherup]

This in the commercial stuff that I do is the cool. The wrap stuff is the coolest stuff I get to do.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

Because like I said, it's disaster roofing. Like, who else is going to go. Yeah, we literally walk on that. Doesn't have a roof sometimes.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

The school that we just did was so a metal roof, but a metal roof that was on a metal building.

[John Wilson]

Yep.

[Adam Cherup]

And it just has been going across that are eight feet apart. And these panels are just. And then there's cutouts for skylights, right?

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

Well, half of the front of the front half of the building, because it's just a gable, like this long, like this. This whole half, there was no metal. So you had to get the roll back from the backside.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

From the middle. And then stretch it from the inside on ladders to the edge where you had to roll our wood and then secure it into the metal frame.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

And then try to heat all that from underneath or on top, reaching as.

[John Wilson]

Far as you can. Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

Without falling through. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And then we got video of the kids when we went back to check it, and the kids were actually back in school.

[John Wilson]

Like under kids or like.

[Adam Cherup]

No, the Jamaican school kids that go.

[John Wilson]

To that school months ago.

[Adam Cherup]

This is like a month and a half, two months ago.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

And within two days of me finishing.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

There was kids back in that school.

[John Wilson]

That's crazy.

[Adam Cherup]

Yeah.

[John Wilson]

I mean, the speed makes sense.

[Adam Cherup]

Oh, yeah.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

I was shocked.

[John Wilson]

I mean, hospitals, offices, they didn't have.

[Adam Cherup]

Me do more schools over there.

[John Wilson]

Yeah, yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

There's a.

[John Wilson]

Who. Who pays for shit in Jamaica? Like, how's that even work?

[Adam Cherup]

Private clients, mostly. Most the ones that I've gotten paid so far are all private clients. If I go back and do the schools like I want to do.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

It'll be the government.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

It'll be straight. Straight paid from the Jamaican government. Got $6 million in bids out over there.

[Quick Staffers / Advertisement Voice]

Yeah.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

I'm praying that two of one or one of them hits the whole trip pays. Pays off. And the whole trip pays off.

[John Wilson]

And you got to go to Jamaica.

[Adam Cherup]

I got to go to Jamaica, which isn't bad.

[John Wilson]

I bet you saw like a month. I bet you saw a beach.

[Adam Cherup]

I did see a beach. I actually got in the ocean once.

[John Wilson]

That's funny. Well, I appreciate you diving into this with me. This, this is definitely a new one. It's a good niche business model breakdown. This was a lot of fun. Normally at the end of these we rate how hard it would be to start. So one is like, you know, my five year old could start it. And 10 is like very hard. And I'm curious what your rating is because you actually went through it.

[Adam Cherup]

Yep. Like, give me your guess first.

[John Wilson]

Yeah, I'm gonna, I'm gonna. I honestly think like a seven and a half eight. Like, I think it's kind of tough. I think the lifestyle is. I mean, that's a lot of traveling. That's a big part of it.

[Adam Cherup]

A lot of time away from your family.

[John Wilson]

A lot of time away from the family. It's best in its best class. Best in class. If you have a roofing company too. So like, you know that already ups the difficulty because how many people have that? There's not a lot of investment. From the sound of it, you're only.

[Adam Cherup]

Investing in what you need.

[John Wilson]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

So you can.

[John Wilson]

But I think the product of like ideally a roofing company does make it a little bit more challenging.

[Adam Cherup]

Yeah, for sure.

[Quick Staffers / Advertisement Voice]

Yeah.

[John Wilson]

I think seven and a half eight. I think leads would be really interesting. Like how do you get people to get TikTok? I'm telling you, it's going to be huge.

[Adam Cherup]

I've never, I've never thought about it.

[John Wilson]

Do this.

[Adam Cherup]

It's going, it's going to happen.

[John Wilson]

Oh, my God. Yeah. It's going to be hilarious. It would blow up.

[Adam Cherup]

Steal my son for a couple hours.

[John Wilson]

Be awesome.

[Adam Cherup]

But he's going to help me out. Yeah.

[John Wilson]

So I think seven and a half eight. I think the investment is not humongous. I think that leads could get a little bit weird. Like you had to go get this personal relationship.

[Adam Cherup]

Yeah.

[John Wilson]

And then lifestyle is really tough. You got to travel some and it's best if you have a roofing company. So like hard but not impossible. Your team's doing the work. Big reputation. Make sure that Google knows it. Some of the key areas they help are if you have multiple gbps, they can post on every single one of them every day. They can send reviews by your closest GBP to wherever the job was completed and they have built in SEO heat maps that show exactly where you rank on the map pack in real time. There's no more manual updates, no more missed opportunities, just results. Get started free at bigreputation AI and unlock 15 free SEO scans today.

[Adam Cherup]

I would, I would 100% agree with you. I was going to say eight on land and that's me going through it.

[John Wilson]

I should have said two just to piss you off. Oh dude, this is the easiest.

[Adam Cherup]

It's not. It's not. And you know what I'm going to say, go get them, man.

[John Wilson]

Come do it with me.

[Adam Cherup]

Because it'll just make me that much better. So it's all good. It's not going to bother me.

[John Wilson]

Me.

[Adam Cherup]

I love competition.

[John Wilson]

But yeah, seven's a good one.

[Adam Cherup]

I think in between seven and eight.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

Hit it right on the head. I mean it's. Having the roofing company was a big portion of it.

[John Wilson]

Ah yeah. I can.

[Adam Cherup]

Having those connections to. To the people that could provide leads.

[John Wilson]

Yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

Or that had that infrastructure to where they. That it's really a networking thing.

[John Wilson]

Oh yeah.

[Adam Cherup]

And can you get the networking and. And my goal was to get bigger contractors than me to want to use me for that portion of it. And that's where I mean just Serve.

[John Wilson]

Pro send these leads because I would imagine like you can't first off partner.

[Adam Cherup]

With Serve Pro in my local area because they're individually owned.

[John Wilson]

Yes.

[Adam Cherup]

So it's. You have to partner with that individual Serve Pro by you. And I found it very difficult. They were not as receptive to it. They wanted to do their own thing, I would imagine.

[John Wilson]

I mean I could see them doing this. You know, you see some of those. You see some of those disaster sites and Serve Pro pulls up semis. It's crazy.

[Adam Cherup]

Serve Pro. Belfor they all do. But you know what? A lot of them don't do what I do. They gotta rap and, and, and that's okay. I'm good. I'm good with it. Don't do what I do. I like doing what I do.

[John Wilson]

Oh man, that's funny. Well, thanks for coming on today. This was awesome.

[Adam Cherup]

Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.

[John Wilson]

You like what you heard? Sure. You give us a like a sub and five stars wherever it is. You listen to shows.