“Buzzworthy Businesses” is a unique and cool talk show that showcases individuals and companies in the community that are making a buzz and giving back. Our goal is to interview guests that are doing great things in their business and in their community. Today our host, Steve Strum, spoke with Joseph Oldring.
Joseph Oldring
Director of Sales at River City Roofing
Website Address: rivercityroofingcorp.com
Short company description:
River City Roofing is a Northeast Florida roofing company built on consistency, clear communication, and long-term relationships. With decades of experience, the team provides reliable residential and commercial roofing solutions, including shingle, metal, tile, and flat systems. Their approach focuses on honest evaluations, practical recommendations, and high-quality workmanship designed to perform over time. Backed by disciplined processes, certified crews, and strong local accountability, River City Roofing delivers dependable results on every project, regardless of size or scope.
How has your business changed in the past 12 months?
We’ve become more intentional about how we communicate our expertise, particularly in commercial and industrial roofing. The work hasn’t changed—but how clearly we show our process, documentation, and long-term value has evolved significantly.
Describe a Failure in your Career
Early on, we underestimated how confusing roofing decisions can feel for customers. That taught us the importance of slowing down, explaining clearly, and never assuming knowledge. Today, guidance is just as important as installation.
What about your company makes you the most proud?
That people still call us years later—and we’re still here to answer. Longevity isn’t accidental; it’s earned through follow-through.
How do you motivate people to give their best?
By reminding them that every roof protects something important. When people understand the responsibility behind the work, pride follows naturally.
Transcript:
Steve:
Welcome back to another episode of Buzzworthy Businesses. I’m Steve Strum. I have an opportunity to sit here to talk to Joseph from River City Roofing. Good to see you, man. Thanks for joining us on the show.
Joseph:
Thank you.
Steve:
I know we were talking a little offset, roofing. Right. It’s clear what you do. You do roofs. What’s happened to be on top of the house? That, shingle roofs. And the other one, which is the tile. And of course, you know, roofing, not metal as well.
Joseph:
Metal roof.
Steve:
Okay. So that you can make it bulletproof against the meteorite.
Joseph:
Yes.
Steve:
And, Joe, you’re in charge of the sales for the roofing company. You all have been around for 40 years. So today, let’s talk a little bit about, like, you know who you are, what you all do. And you know what your experiences are. Because oftentimes you’re the first guy that somebody sees when it comes down to what might be the most expensive investment that one needs to make for the most expensive investment that one has in their house, with all of the other investments that they have underneath it. You guys.
So tell us a little bit about what you guys do and why you’re different.
Joseph:
What we do is we, we aim to basically be there for the customer whenever they have the biggest problem you can have in your house, which is a leaking roof. And, and the reason why it’s the biggest problem is because, you know, your roof protects everything else that you own in your house. If you got a leaking roof, trust me, you’re not sleeping good at night. You’re worried about that.
So when we when we come out, you know, it’s either because they have a leak and they notice a leak, and they want to, you know, of course, fix a leak or possibly insurance companies have, you know, gave them that, time limit to, you know, replace a roof or because they’ve basically, you know, put it off long enough that it just has to be done.
So we try to assess the situation. I like to go on top of the roof, assess everything, look and see what, what, you know, come down and just present all the options to the customer.
Steve:
So there are options. There’s lots of options. So, we’re living in Florida, right, northeast Florida, which you’re servicing the greater Jacksonville area. So Jacksonville, which also happens to be about the size of the state of Rhode Island, plus the communities that surround it, like Saint John’s and Clay County and Duval, Nassau, all the different areas.
But 2 million people, a lot of people, a lot of houses. We also live in Florida, it rains in Florida. It’s funny because everyone’s like, oh, it’s a Sunshine State. And it rains as much as it’s sunny.
But when you’re living in Florida, because a lot of people are moving here, right? There’s something like the neighborhood of 100 people a day moved to Jacksonville, and the number is astounding how many people are moving to Florida.
For people that are not in Florida, that are moving here and they’re like, well, to house and to roof, what’s the big deal? Wait, why is it living in Florida with regards to roofing such a difference when it becomes obviously protecting the house, but then also energy bills like walk us through.
Why? So someone’s watching this. They just moved here from Chicago. Why is this such a different thing in Florida?
Joseph:
Well, Florida, we have some of the I would say, harshest conditions for a roof. We’ve got, you know, sun beating down on it, you know, for 16 hours sometimes in a day. You know, you got UVA, there’s just baking on the roof nonstop. It does a lot, you know.
Then you add wind damage, which we get a ton of wind damage around here. From high winds, hurricanes, storms, even a nor’easter storm can produce enough wind to blow shingles off your roof and cause damage.
So those are the kind of unique problems that we face in Florida that maybe people from Chicago might not have to deal with. So it’s important to stay on top of the roof and make sure that, you know, if there is an issue, you correct it, you keep it dry. You know what I mean? Keep it tight.
Steve:
And, yeah, that’s basically so the hurricanes obviously they’re the summer in the fall. The nor’easters can be winter and spring. So we’re talking about something that’s literally a year round assault on the top of your house.
Joseph:
That’s a good way to put it.
Steve:
And you know when we look at that right. You know people don’t realize because, you know, you look at the hurricane trackers, it’s something that, you know, Florida’s always in the news about, in the fall because we don’t usually get one.
But it’s not it’s not just the hurricane, the red part of the hurricane that people watch on the news passing through you. You know, some of those things are the size of the state of Texas, and wind damage is, you know, obviously not just the center of that hurricane.
So you’ve got these storms that are the size of the third of the United States just rolling right on by. And even though Jacksonville may not get hit directly with hurricanes a lot, it doesn’t mean that there’s not a lot of the cursory impacts that obviously would blow shingles off a leaky roof equal to the house integrity starting to be destroyed.
So all right. Thank you. Everybody. Got it.
When you guys go out there when you do an assessment you talk about the options. What are some of the options that you provide? It’s not always a new roof because it can be 2530 grand. That’s a lot of money. But what is it? What are some of the options? And people going oh I need to get around to that. I want to have you come take a look like, what are you what do you what do you give those people as far as what they can do.
Joseph:
There’s a few options. You know, if it’s a if it’s a, if it’s lessen middle age roof, say you got a roof that’s ten years or less. You know, typically you can repair it. You know, you can fix that if there’s, you know, a little leak here or a damaged shingle there, just anything. You know, it’s still what we call pliable, which means we can, you know, manhandle the shingles and they’re going to be fine.
When you get over, you know, 15 years of age on a roof. And because of the UV, because of the sun, it dries them out and they become extremely brittle. So for us to fix one small area, you know, it doesn’t always work out. You know, you’re causing further damage at the same time.
So you know, those are two options. And then the third option is if they have legitimate wind damage and you got a legitimate claim for insurance, you know, there’s that route you can take also.
So about three options for either repairing it or a reroof or, you know, going the insurance route.
Steve:
And everybody thinks about those shingles. Right. You go to like your Home Depots and of the world and you know, they’re bendy. And when you say they’re brittle like the tar, I guess the right the tar dries out because it is like a tire. Right. The heat from the sun.
Joseph:
It’s brittle like a potato chip. I mean, you can just like that.
Steve:
Right. Yeah. So as we take it away, what we’re going to do is we’ll put all of your information on our website, which is the Daily News network.com, where people can come check you out, request a quote, and maybe look at some of those options.
And it’s not just like random a person that’s going to be calling them. It’s jokes that you just make, like you’re going to be like, hey, hey, Steve, you know, I saw you’re on my website and, you know, we got to come inspect your roof. Hey, by the way, that’s me. And I’m going to be there.
And so it’s not a, it’s not a I, it’s a human. And then that human is actually you.
Joseph:
Yeah.
Steve:
So you guys have the personal service plus the professional experience of 40 years in Florida, in Florida. So that’s the whole nother thing. And, you can help people protect their largest investment, and it doesn’t necessarily have to cost them the second largest investment.
Now, if it’s new roof time, it’s new roof time. But you try to do whatever you can to help keep the cost low, for that client and customer. Well, when it does come time for the rest of it all, they’ll think of you kindly.
Joseph:
Absolutely.
Steve:
So thank you so much for joining us. I appreciate you. And as great as you are, we can’t do it with these people over here.
Guys, thank you so much for joining us. Please come check out Joseph and his team on our website, which is the Daily News network.com. If you like the episode, share the episode. Remember to always live with gratitude.
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