Home Improvement

Q. Describe the most common types of jobs you do for your clients.

A.
Siding, roofing, windows, gutters, 3 season rooms and basement remodels. We do siding identification for home owners, contractors and inusurance companies. We adjust and repair gutter and siding machines that others can't seem to do correctly. We do insurance jobs and make sure the customer gets paid for all their legitimate damages not just what an adjuster says is fair.

Q. What advice do you have for a customer looking to hire a provider like you?

A. We are a 4 digit license number 7983 which means we have been in business a long time. Newer contactors have an 8 digit number, no matter how much experience they tell you they have. Check them out with the department of labor and industry, contractor license lookup. We are here today, we were here yesterday and we will be here tomorrow. Compare thicknesses of material,insulation values, above all don't fall for the price drops of 30% to 50 % that some companies try to offer you to close the deal tonight. A legitimate company will not use these tactics. If that was their price, why didn't they give it to you to start with.

Q. If you were a customer, what do you wish you knew about your trade? Any inside secrets to share?

A. Compare the companies by the quality of their products. Let them know what you want. They should give you a choice, not what they want to sell you. The glass in windows vary greatly. The u-factor of the window with a low-e argon on even a lot of the major brands struggle to meet the .30 minimum for energy credits. Our windows are from a company that has made them for 41 years and uses the latest technology to decrease thermal bridging, excellent weather stripping and an interlocking seal. The u-factor on this window and glass is .27. That saves you heat which will save you money and the cost installed is about the same as others.

Q. What important information should buyers have thought through before seeking you out?

A. If you need vinyl, aluminum, or steel siding identified, please bring a piece from the home that is 18 to 24 inches long and includes the material from the nailing hem to the locking lip on the bottom. If you are taking it off the house try to include a weep hole in the bottom lock. We sometimes use this to positively identify a piece of siding by it's unique weephole design.
If you want a machine worked on, let us know what you have already moved what the symptoms are and bring a piece of material with you. Also bring enough coil for us to test the machine as we make adjustments.

Q. Why does your work stand out from others who do what you do?

A. We can do all types of siding including seamess steel siding. Most other companies tend to push vinyl because it is easier to work with. We consider ourselves masters of metal craftsmanship. We also can identify siding that others can not and have sources for obsolete material that is no longer made.

Q. What do you like most about your job?

A. With 40 years owning businesses either retail or wholesale in the home improvement field, we are considered experts at what we do. We enjoy helping and consulting with homewners and contractors who need help finding products that have been hail damaged. We also like things mechanical and have been repairing and adjusting siding machines and gutter machines when others can't.

Q. What questions do customers most commonly ask you? What's your answer?

A. We have hail damage, the insurance company says there provider wants to put a siding on my home that they say is a close match. We tell them it either matches or it doesn't. We will tell you what the product is, who made the product on your home, what profile, texture and what color it is or was and if it is currently available.

Q. Do you have a favorite story from your work?

A. Years ago I had a lady call us to do some siding work on her home. She asked me to come on a Friday evening to meet with her and her husband to give a proposal on siding their home. When I arrived the lady told me her husband was at work and wouldn't make it home so I gave her a presentation and agreed to bring a proposal on the following Friday when he would be home. I arrived the following Friday evening and he wasn't there but she said he had looked a the proposal and everything was okay. When we were working on the job site I stopped over to see how the job was going and bring the workmen some iced tea as it was hot out. a neighbor had stopped over and was talking to our workmen, so in casual conversation I mentioned her husband and he quickly looked at me and said her husband passed away 12 years ago. So after we completed the job, I asked her how did her husband like the work and she said he was very happy with it. I never let on like I knew that he was deceased and she never did tell me that he was.

Q. How did you decide to get in your line of work?

A. I was stationed overseas with a friend from Minnesota. We were both in the electronics radio relay equipment repair field. When I got back in 1970 that field was not hiring as engineers were taking tech jobs. He had been in the siding install business with his father prior to joining the Air Force and had gone back in the install end. I was in Minnesota visiting from Pennsylvania when he called me up and said his partner didn't show up and he needed help. So I began installing siding and moved here permanently in 1970. I learned quickly and began running a crew in 6 months and training others. We expanded and went from there. In 1985 we started Advance Aluminum Supply Inc and have diversified from just siding, awnings and gutters to roofing, siding including seamless ,windows, awnings, gutters, basement remodlels. We also do siding matches, furnish material to d.i.y. and contractors, sell and service siding and gutter machines.

Q. Do you do any sort of continuing education to stay up on the latest developments in your field?

A. Yes, we are required to take 7 hours of continuing education each year to maintain our license, including one hour of energy. We also were required to take lead training and are an EPA lead safe certified firm. We also attend various seminars regarding osha and insulations and proper use of weather barriers and keep up with the latest technology on all of our products we offer for sale either wholesale or retail. We are always searching for new or better products that last longer or save energy.

Q. What are the latest developments in your field? Are there any exciting things coming in the next few years or decade that will change your line of business?

A. Solar has been around for some time but it has come a long way from where it was. You can now generate electricity from solar panels and create enough that you can service your own needs and sell the excess to the power company who furnishes your electric service. I see this as a way of becoming less energy dependent on fossil fuels required to generate electricity today and would appear with recent events to be much safer than
other methods of generating electricity.