As Fletcher-owned DECRA Roofing Systems Inc. commemorates its 50th anniversary in 2007, the company has plenty to celebrate. Sales of DECRA’s stone coated steel roofing products are on the upswing, keeping folks busy at the company’s 104,000-square-foot UL registered ISO 9001:2000 manufacturing facility in Corona, Calif. The company recently opened a brand-new Indianapolis warehouse and moved its Arlington, Texas, warehouse to expanded facilities last October.

Automation Alley was established in 1998 to bring together Southeast Michigan businesses, educators and government officials. Its goal is to accelerate commercialization of new technologies and services for its 680 member organizations. In the fall of 2004, Automation Alley opened its new 11,000-square-foot headquarters in the Detroit suburb of Troy, Mich. Housing a Technology Center, International Business Center and the Great Lakes Interactive Marketing Association, the structure is visited by over 500 business owners, facility managers and residential consumers every month.

A roofer relies on his work truck to be a mobile office, toolbox, taxi, billboard, waste hauler, tow vehicle and lunchroom - sometimes simultaneously. The challenge for contractors is to maximize the functionality and reliability of their company vehicles while minimizing costs.

The third annual Roofing Contractor Best of Success Conference was bigger and better than ever. Attendance figures for the event have risen every year, and at this year’s event more than 200 elite contractors joined manufacturer sponsors and industry executives for the two-day educational conference. The meeting room at Pointe South Mountain Resort in Phoenix was filled to capacity as contractors eager to improve their business practices and bolster their bottom lines participated in educational seminars and panel discussions led by industry experts, including top-flight commercial and residential roofing contractors.

ROCHESTER HILLS, Mich. - Multifaceted roofing and sheet metal contractor Allen Brothers Inc. is operating in one of the toughest local economies since its inception in 1952.

Contractors looking to close a sale, add profit to the job, and ensure a clean, crisp roofline are looking in the gutter. Portable gutter machines allow contractors to custom-manufacture seamless gutters on site, lowering material and labor costs while increasing productivity, versatility and visibility.

rom ancient manmade structures to the latest examples of modern architecture, building drainage systems have been rendered useless by Aceraceae germen - the dreaded Maple seed, whose swarms are known to homeowners everywhere as "helicopters."