Roofer profile: Josh Yandle – Umbrella Roofing

By Rocky Mountain Snow Guards.

By focusing on quality craftsmanship, dependable service and doing things the right way, Umbrella Roofing has earned the trust of repeat customers who continue to choose and recommend them year after year.

Over the past 26 years, Umbrella Roofing has grown from a local roofing company into a trusted name serving homeowners, businesses and communities throughout Colorado's mountain region. Led by Josh Yandle and his partners, that growth has been built one project and one relationship at a time.

In a unique aspect for a roofing company, Umbrella Roofing has committed to giving back 1% of gross revenues since January of 2011 to the communities it serves through its “1% Close to Home” program. To date, that sum totals more than $1,635,000.

Tell us about the geography you install roofing in and what kind of snow retention systems are needed for your customers.

We work in the Rocky Mountains between 6,000’ and 10,000’ elevations. This means we add snow retention to almost all the homes we replace roofs on. For our projects, we install a lot of pad-style snowguards along with clamp-to-seam fences and bolt-thru fences.

What type of roofing material do you tend to install most, and what’s your favorite “go to” snow retention product that you use repeatedly with that material?

In our area, we install a good amount of DaVinci® Roofscapes composite roofing. The Select Shake and DaVinci Multi-Width Shake are popular here, as are the DaVinci Slate products. These synthetic products all require snow retention. We place RG16s, RG10s, No-Flash Fences and have recently started using the Everest Guard snow guards. When we’re installing snow guards, we very much prefer a soldier row pattern.

What do you think of the Everest Guard snow guards for projects so far?

I really love this product and am excited to see it go through a couple above average winters to really test the product and see its capabilities. Our crews like how easy it is to handle and store the Everest Guard products. Really, so far we love the space savings and stacking ability of the product.

How many years has Umbrella Roofing been using Rocky Mountain Snow Guards for your snow retention needs?

It’s been so long that I’m not exactly sure! I’d guess between 18-20 years. We use the free architectural snow retention plan services on 2/3 of the projects we do.

What keeps your company coming back to Rocky Mountain Snow Guards for your snow retention needs after all these years?

We have developed a trust in the people within the Rocky Mountain Snow Guards company, along with a trust in the systems they provide. They have the highest quality snow retention systems that work with our roofing products.

How has Umbrella roofing grown over the years... and how do you hope the business will continue to grow in the future?

We've expanded our team over the years, strengthened our service and maintenance operations and developed expertise across a wide range of roofing systems. This includes everything from asphalt shingles and metal roofing to synthetic shake and slate, low-slope systems, snow retention and heated roof solutions.

While our projects and reach have become larger, our approach remains the same: provide exceptional workmanship, stand behind our work and build long-term relationships with the people and communities we serve. 

Your company’s “1% Close to Home” project is an inspiration to other roofing companies. How did it start?

Trevor Cannon, one of our company’s original founders, came up with the idea and we started the program in 2011. It’s all about giving back to different non-profit organizations in the areas that we serve. The “1% Close to Home” project allows us to connect back to our community every day with financial contributions that support dozens of programs from a percentage of our gross revenues.