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Beldon CEO Brad Beldon is shown at the administrative offices for the family-run roofing company. Founded in 1946, it is a fourth-generation, family-owned company that focuses on residential and commercial roofing with branches that specialized in gutters, windows, doors and fiber cement siding.

Jesus Perez, 52, works in the Beldon sheet metal shop. Perez has been with the San Antonio roofing company for 29 years.

Jae Estrada, 23, right, and Eli Martinez, 31, work on a customized coping cap in Beldon’s sheet metal shop. Over nearly 75 years, the business has done more than 100,000 commercial and residential roofing jobs.

A custom-made splash pan is seen at Beldon. In addition to its roofing business, Beldon has divisions that specialize in the installation of gutters, windows, doors and fiber cement siding

Jae Estrada, 23, right, and Eli Martinez, 31, work on a customized coping cap in Beldon’s sheet metal shop.

Brad Beldon started working at the family-run roofing company when he was 12. His first job was mowing the office’s yard. In 2004, he succeeded his father as the CEO.

When you’ve got the last name Beldon, it’s no surprise that you’re in the roofing business. But for Brad Beldon, it’s not just about meeting family expectations — he loves the work.

He returned to the city two years after graduating from University of Texas at Austin to take his spot working for the family-run roofing business in San Antonio.

In 2004, he took over from his father, Mike Beldon, who took over from his father, Morry Beldon, who started the company in 1946. Last year, Brad Beldon’s 24-year-old daughter, Mackenzie Beldon, joined the firm as its business development manager.

Over nearly 75 years, the business has done more than 100,000 commercial and residential roofing jobs. It also has divisions that specialize in the installation of gutters, windows, doors and fiber cement siding.

As a commercial contractor, they’ve snagged national military contracts, but the residential side is what brings in the most contracts.

Here’s an edited transcript of the interview where Brad Beldon talks about some of the biggest challenges in the roofing industry and how the coronavirus pandemic has affected the business.

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Q: Can you tell me about your company and how it started?

A: My grandparents, they’re Bostonians. My grandfather was on Gen. (George S.) Patton’s staff, and he did two tours of duty through Fort Sam (Houston). At the end of the war, my grandmother told me, she did not want to go back to Boston. She didn’t like the cold winters, and they really enjoyed their time in San Antonio. They opened up a business here in 1946, and today we’re in our fourth generation.

A: No. We started out as a lumberyard for Ray Ellison, which is now (Los Angeles-based) KB Homes. Then that lumberyard morphed into a roofing company, and so we’ve been installing roofs for over 70 years.

Q: When did you take the reins?

A: I graduated in ’86 and I went to work for another roofing contractor in the Washington, D.C., area for two years, and then came back here in 1988 and have worked with my father ever since.

I started in the summer of my 12th birthday. My dad brought me in and I got to cut the grass (at the office). We have about maybe 300 feet of grass, and he would come and complain about how I cut it, and then every night I would complain to my mom. Finally, we agreed that we were not creating Wimbledon grass, and that I would do the best that I could to cut the grass and he would leave me alone. Finally after that, we got along just fine.

Probably 14 years old was the first time I got up on a roof, and it was a metal roof. I learned every part of our trade in the summers. It was everything. Since I was a little kid, I’ve always wanted to be in the business. My dad used to bring me when I was little. He said I used to ask him which office would be mine.

Q: You briefly had a tech startup called Roof Monitor. Would you do something like that again?

A: Well, yes and no. I think I was ahead of my time on using tech in the roofing industry, and a number of competitors just recently have come out with similar products. I don’t think that the roofing industry has accepted the use of technology like many other industries. Not yet. I think it’s coming. There are sensors all over buildings. The roof is just the logical next place to see those sensors. Would I do it again? Probably, but I’ve certainly learned a lot of lessons on what not to do.

It definitely created a lot of gray hair and certainly cost a lot of money. It was a very expensive lesson. I met a lot of great people through the process, and I learned a lot about how to get better at what we did as a roofing company.

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Q: How has the roofing industry changed from when you first came on to now?

A: When I started, most of it was built-up roofing, which is multi-ply. A lot of labor, very labor-intensive. Now, a vast percentage of roofing products are single-ply and they go down as one layer, thus reducing that labor cost dramatically. I think that you’re going to continue to see components put together in a way to reduce labor.

Q: Does it come with an extra sort of danger involved in being up on the roof?

A: Oh, sure, absolutely, but safety also has come a long way. We have devices today that make it considerably safer than when I started in this business, and those will continue to improve. From the outside looking in, it doesn’t seem like an exciting type of business, but yet everything that we do changes every day. That’s what’s exciting about it, is that no two days are ever the same, and no two buildings. Even if they’re built side by side, the buildings, just historically wear and tear is different on each building.

Q: How long are home and commercial roofs supposed to last? Has that changed over time?

A: The products have gotten a lot better. A typical residential roof with shingles will last 10 to 15 years. A typical commercial roof, you’ll probably get 20 years out of one (that’s) well designed, if not longer if it’s well maintained. When I started in this business with the organic materials, 10 years was pushing the limit.

Q: What were some of the biggest challenges for the industry before COVID-19?

A: I mean, that’s been our biggest challenge — labor, for the last 10 years, and it continues to be a problem. Immigration, you know, there’s not a lot of people lining up that want these jobs, and solving the immigration problem I think will help the trades. Regardless of what construction trade, we all need a pool of labor to continue to do what we do best.

Q: Any newer challenges after COVID-19?

A: I think COVID-19 has made us look at our businesses differently. Before COVID-19, we used to think we couldn’t do anything remotely. Even though we did a very good job of putting everything in the cloud, we still thought you had to be next to each other to be successful. I think what we’ve learned through COVID is that we can work virtually from anywhere, except for putting the roof on, but the support team can work from anywhere in the world. I don’t think we actually thought we could do that before. Ultimately, what that does is it provides a happier workplace for more of our employees.

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Q: As far as the workforce issues, how are you overcoming these hurdles?

A: Prior to COVID, we started Beldon University, and it’s a training program to bring new people into our industry that have not had experience. We were doing quite well until COVID hit, and then we shut down the classes because we had an issue with social distancing. Once we have some sort of vaccine out there, we already have the curriculum built, the classroom is built, and we’ll go back to putting together a program that will allow us to work with vocational students or others looking to get into the industry.

Q: How has the pandemic affected the revenue for the company?

A: Our revenue dropped dramatically because of COVID. Not only did the revenue drop, but the opportunities have slowed down. I think there’s a tremendous drop in consumer confidence, as well as a lot of our commercial customers have had a fear of having somebody at their facility.

What we did, though, is every day we check everybody’s temperature and we hand out a dated wristband so that everybody knows that their co-worker has been checked. We also have a four-question questionnaire that all of our team members go online every day and fill out, dealing with COVID-related issues.

Our goal is to create an environment at work that’s safer than their environment at home. We work at that daily. We’ve invested over $150,000 since COVID hit on safety supplies.

Q: You have offices in other parts of Texas?

A: Yes. Austin, Houston, Dallas and we’re headquartered here in San Antonio.

Well, from a commercial roofing standpoint, we’re licensed in 45 states and Puerto Rico. We travel all over the country installing commercial roofing. We just don’t do residential roofing outside of the San Antonio area.

Q: Were you able to qualify for the PPP or for any of the support?

A: Yes, and that helped, especially when revenues were down. We’re a large employer with 270 employees, and we wanted to make sure that everybody kept their job. It’s difficult to do that when people aren’t calling you.

Laura Garcia covers the health care industry. To read more from Laura, become a subscriber. laura.garcia@express-news.net | Twitter: @Reporter_Laura

Laura Garcia is a reporter at the San Antonio Express-News focused on health care. Previously, the South Texas native was the features editor and nonprofits reporter at the Victoria Advocate. She is president of the San Antonio Association of Hispanic Journalists, which gives scholarships to communications students and advocates for diversity in news.