PurPassionCity

Roofer

The pull to shield from harm

Protection · Vulnerable → Safe

The shape of the work

Pace
  • A hard push you keep up for a long stretch
  • A steady rhythm with room to breathe
What your week looks likeA bit of everything — hard to pin down
How much you move around at workOn your feet, using your body most of the day
Whether you can work from anywhereYou need to be there on location
How quickly you receive feedback on your workA few weeks before the picture clears
What you're actually working withOther humans, face-to-face — talking, teaching, treating, leading / Materials, organisms, land, equipment — things you can touch

Behaviours this work is made of

Core
  • Constructing from parts into a functional whole. Structural, assembled.
  • Diagnosing what's wrong and making it work again — whether with your hands or your mind.
  • Building systems that make safety structural, not reactive.
Also present
  • Quantifying what's happening so it can be reasoned about precisely.
  • Iterative diagnosis under uncertainty.

In words

A roofer installs, repairs and replaces roof coverings: tiles, slate, metal sheet, flat-roof membranes and shingles. The same job is called a roofer in the UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, though the materials differ by climate and building style, from asphalt shingles in North America to clay tile and slate in much of Europe and sheet metal in Australia.

The main pull is Protection. A roof keeps weather out of the building and everyone in it, and a good roofer makes sure water drains where it should and does not get under the covering. Creation matters on new buildings, where the roof is the final structure that makes the building usable, and Resolution on repairs, where a leak has to be traced from the stain on the ceiling back to a failed joint somewhere on the roof.

Working at height is the defining feature of the job. Roofers learn the safe use of ladders, scaffold and edge protection, and falls from height remain one of the leading causes of death in construction.

There's a guide here if you want one

Kitsune can talk through anything on this page — whether it might suit you, what to do next, questions this page doesn't answer. Everything here is yours to read either way.

Finding the cause of a leak is often harder than fixing it, because water can travel a long way along timber before it appears inside. Weather decides the working week, so income can be uneven, especially for the self-employed. Some roofing companies work door to door and push unnecessary work, so reputable roofers rely on repeat customers and recommendations.

Solar panels and green roofs are adding to the work, because someone has to fit the structure and keep the roof watertight underneath them. A roofer who understands both is increasingly in demand.

Most people start as a roofer's labourer or trainee and learn on the job, or begin a roofing apprenticeship of about two to three years that combines site work with college study. No formal qualification is needed to begin, but a head for heights and a safety training card or certificate are usually required on larger sites, and the specific card depends on the country. People move on to lead their own crew, specialise in slate, lead work, flat roofing or metal roofing, estimate jobs, or set up their own company.

Before you go