This was Community Roofing's first project in Summer, 1974, for David Bostrom.  The roof just the east of Oakland on Newberry Blvd. is still serving the home.

This is a torch down modified bitumen product we installed for Dr. Kane on Newberry Blvd., just west of Lake Dr.  Some roofers call this material "rubber" because it is asphalt chemically modified to make the membrane capable of stretching a bit.  The industry term for this is "elastomeric."

This is one of Wisconsin's great cedar shake shinglers, Tom Grossman, on one of my favorite projects for the Jamison's home, one block east of Lake Dr. and about 4 blocks north of Silver Spring.  We installed this in phases, one quadrant per year.  Tom has his own company now, but is part of our network.  Sometimes he works on our jobs and sometime we work on his jobs.

This is the Johnson's home on Belle Ave., a block east of Lake Dr., one of our first "dimensional" projects, a GAF Timberline we installed in the summer of  1975.  Then in 1998 we removed just this top layer of  shingles and installed another dimensional shingle, this time an Owens Corning Oakridge II.  

I was hired by Globe Industries in the early 1980s to help them out when their shingles did not properly seal.  The tabs that don't seal are made right with a glue gun.  This "callback" for Globe is at the Oconomowoc Country Club in 1986.

Here I am, back turned, working on my own home and the corporate headquarters at 3354 N. Gordon Pl.  With the tutelage of one of Milwaukee's top slaters, Chuck Schwindlein, I am nailing firring stips and lathe to the roof deck, on top of 2 layers of 30 lb. felt.  The tiles are then hung on the horizontal lathes plus nailed.

Schlindwein installing the Van de Hey/Raleigh concrete tiles on my Gordon Pl. property.  This roof transformed my modest English cottage on a bluff overlooking the River.  Go to Humboldt and Concordia, east on Concordia, north on Gordon Pl., to 3354.  Check it out!

This is an addition to the original American Club in Kohler, Wisconsin.  I and Community Roofing helped David Millen "felt" and slate this roof back on 1981 or 1982.  I've gained about 30 lbs. since this picture was taken!

Notice that these shingles are not laid straight but rather staggered.  It seems that we humans like texture and a kind of structured irregularity or "ordered chaos."  Consider spending some of your money for roofs that are art objects as well as protection from the wind, rain, ice, and snow.

This is a picture of an Irish thatcher.  It would not be all that problematic to get a few of his buddies over here to begin a thatch division within Community Roofing, providing we could find clients sufficiently off-beat and financially endowed.

Here I am helping install a dimensional shingle on UWM's Johnson Hall, back in the mid 1970s.  This was especially fun for me, given that I had been a doctoral candidate in Political Science in the early 1970s.  After returning from a year's worth of dissertation research on a Fulbright Fellowship to Tunisia in 1972, I was a bit to politically radical and very much to hyper-active to handle the challenges of academic life.  I taught for a year at UWM's Spanish speaking outreach Institute and Alverno College, before escaping and starting Community Roofing.  

This is me and my partner of 23 years, Shedd Spring, posing in our office at 3275 N. Oakland, back around 1978.  I tended to do more of the sales or organizing work.  Shedd was more the hand-on production leader.  I don't know if anyone on the planet could work as hard as Shedd Spring did (and probably still does!).  

Here is another picture of Dr. Kane's house on Newberry, the steep roof  comprised of green tile.  At this time we were unable to help out with repairs to the steep roof.  With David Millen linking up with us again we are hoping to be able to handle repairs to some of our historic homes covered with slate and tile.  

This was a project Jim Schettl and I did as subcontractors for Millen Roofing, in Racine, along the lake, in Fall of 1980.  We used dimensional shingles after removing several tons of old, soft, and b brittle slate.  This roof is still working and I would not be surprised that it last until about 2010.

Here I am shingling the turret on this Racine mansion.  Notice the flashing procedure on the edges of the vertical metal  spines.  Roofing cement is spread about l/4 inch thick and 4 to 5 inches wide, and the shingles are then set into the cement.  We have used this basic approach, which the Millen family taught us, one hundred and hundreds of roofs when metal flashing shingles are not appropriate.  Today we also install a bead of modern caulk, called Solar Seal, after the shingles are installed, to further flashing the shingles in.  

This was one of the few times in my life that I was priveliged to install Spanish tile, under the      tutelage of David Millen, probably the finest roofer I have ever worked with.

Here we are getting set up to work on St. Anne's church and rectory, located on 37th St. in Milwaukee.  This is where three of my children, Megan, Joey, and Bridie were baptized.  Fr. John Baumgartner later hired me to do a lot of work, which involved removing lots of tired old slate and replacing it with 3 tab slate grey shingles.  

Another church being done by CR. This is a prime example of how great MR. GODSIL's work is!