A-1 Roofing Company has had the same philosophy for 100 years. “To be diverse enough in our roofing systems to service our customer’s needs with the best roofing systems for their building,” said Mitchell Rabin, President of A-1 Roofing Company in Elk Grove Village, Ill.

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A-1 Roofing Company has had the same philosophy for 100 years. “To be diverse enough in our roofing systems to service our customer’s needs with the best roofing systems for their building,” said Mitchell Rabin, President of A-1 Roofing Company in Elk Grove Village, Ill.

Rabin, 51, who is also Executive Secretary of Roofer’s Insurance LTD, an insurance company for roofing contractors, and his brother, David Rabin, together forge a partnership in the family-owned business that was founded in 1910.

The company, which employs about 100 people during the peak season and also has an architectural sheet metal shop, had over $20 million in revenue last year.

“Been in the business all my life,” said Mitchell Rabin, who noted that he and his brother earned accounting degrees from the University of Illinois and were licensed as CPAs.

The company was formed by Rabin’s grandfather, Joseph Rabin. “My father, Robert, then joined the company,” Mitchell Rabin said. “Early on the company did more sheet metal than roofing. My aunts would use the sheet metal brake to make the gutters and downspouts, and my father and grandfather would install them.”

The main idea hasn’t changed, but the type of work the company performs has. “We recently did the new Holocaust Museum in Skokie (Illinois),” said Mitchell Rabin, calling it a “very complicated Sarnafil project.”

“We have also done many 40-plus story high-rises in the city of Chicago, including many green roof applications utilizing Live Roof and GreenGrid,” he continued. “We just completed a new Village Hall in Elk Grove Village with 44,000 square feet of Firestone TPO and 14,000 square feet of green roof.”

Rabin said the company works with Johns Manville, Firestone, Carlisle, GAF, Soprema, Sarnafil, Henry, Dow, and other manufacturers. “We install coal tar pitch, asphalt, modified bitumen, TPO, EPDM, PVC, fluid applied systems, below grade waterproofing, green roofs,” he said.

“Customer service and quality workmanship are the key components when doing business with us but especially during tough economic times,” Rabin continued. “Due to these times other roofing contractors are putting out unrealistic low bid numbers. These bids invariably lead to a lower quality of product that A-1 Roofing Company will not be a part of.”

A-1 Roofing clients know that Mitchell and David are the project managers on the jobsites, thus ensuring the quality of the workmanship and a safe and clean jobsite. The company has an extensive safety incentive program in addition to having weekly jobsite toolbox talks and a weekly safety meeting with the foreman.

Mitchell Rabin believes that upgraded business systems give them a competitive edge in today’s marketplace. “We have a custom computer system which I have been designing with a consultant since 2000,” he said. “This program runs our entire company from bids to job completion. We can break down company projects by any parameter including dollar amount, squares, roof types, number of bids and many more. This allows us to analyze our strengths and weaknesses and to adjust for market trends in a timely fashion. We have also committed to reducing the excess use of paper by utilizing blueprints on CD’s and digitized computer takeoffs.

“A-1 Roofing Company’s commitment to quality work, a safe workplace and personal attention to detail, makes us uniquely positioned for the challenges of this difficult economic environment and to provide the highest level of service to our customers for the next 100 years.”