- Wrap-Up 2018 Video – Coming Soon!
- Annual Company Kick-Off Meeting in February.
- 50th Year Festival for our team and their families
- NRCA’s National Roofing Week
- + So much more.
Presented by CEI Group
CEI Group has earned a reputation as one of the country’s most progressive roofing firms. They pioneered single ply roofs in the late 70’s and 80’s, were one of the first roofing companies to maintain their own sheet metal shop, and today, they are leading the way in green roofing projects, sheet metal, and composite wall panel projects.
As a union-shop, CEI is also known for their trade craftsmanship. Some of the lost art and techniques for working on architecturally-challenging or historical elements have been preserved and passed down from veteran roofing pros.
CEI customers appreciate the company’s disciplined project management, communication during the project, and ability to consistently meet challenging deadlines.
“We take the stress and uncertainty out of your toughest roofing challenges.” Eric Cook, President, CEI Group
Founded: 1969
Focus: Challenging Commercial Roofing Projects
Specialties: University & Historical Roofs, Slate Roofs, Multi-Level/Multi-Roof System Projects, International Government Work
Services: Leak Hunting & Repair, Extended Roof-Life Service Agreements, Coatings, Waterproofing
Proactively maintained roofs last an average of 8 more years than reactively maintained roofs.
Annual roof maintenance cost only 1% to 3% of the cost of a commercial roof replacement.
Building owners and facility managers who inspected and repaired their roofs routinely were able to identify potential problems before they happened. As a result, they spent an average of only 14¢ per square foot annually for maintenance. On the other hand, owners and managers who reacted to problems spent an average of 25¢ per square foot annually.
How can you proactively maintain?
Schedule a fall and spring inspection. We have maintenance and inspection programs that are designed to help your roof last longer.
You can learn more about our maintenance programs at ceigroupllc.com
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The weather is going to be getting extremely hot in the upcoming month. Being informed on how to properly work in the heat is more than important. The weather in the following weeks is looking to reach record high’s. Roofers are placed out in the sun high up with often times nothing to cool them off, no shade and a hot roof. This can make for an even hotter environment. Being informed about taking care of yourself and your crew in these conditions is important for making a safe and productive job site.
June’s photo of the month was sent in by Sheet Metal Foreman- Darrell Perez. The picture is from the Oakland University Student Housing Building in Rochester Hills.
Workplace stretching programs are on the rise and a new hot topic for the construction industry. Roofers and other construction employees are often subjected to routine movements, heavy lifting, and strenuous body positions. This daily wear and tear can leave employees with pain and discomfort. After years of being in the industry, this can result in soreness and injury. A 2018 goal for CEI was to craft and implement a Stretch and Flex Program for our employees. Our program was recently launched, checking that goal off of our list!
Most of the benefits of stretching come from developing better flexibility. Being flexible and having long and lean muscles can result in prevention of injury and can reduce pain. Athletes do it all the time, they focus on muscle groups specific to the sport to stretch and strengthen the ones that are actively used. Our workers do just as much as most athletes, they bend, lift, climb carry and so much more. Why shouldn’t they have the same routine of stretching? The answer is that they should! Stretching before doing physical work can only help.
As a new add-on to our safety program, all field and service crews are required to perform a daily stretching routine every morning before getting on the job. This is to length and strength there muscles before getting to the physically demanding part of their day. Most of the crews enjoy it and believe they feel better after doing it. Each morning on the job, the foreman host a huddle with the crew. In this huddle, they talk about the day’s event and go through there checklist together. Before this program, they would head onto the roof after that was complete. Now that this has been put in place the foreman leads the stretching session with the entire crew. Every day he goes through the same stretching checklist and signs-off that the crew participated in the Stretch and Flex program. Since this has gone into place, office staff have also taken to doing the stretches. They believe that it helps them stay loose and not get sore from sitting or working on a computer all day. It also allows them to break up there day and add some movement.
CEI’s Stretch and Flex Program-
Source: https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/the-importance-of-stretching
National Roofing Week is coming to a close today! CEI wanted to close out the week with a blog post on the main topic of the week, which is to stress the value of a professional roofer for any project.
CEI is a member of the NRCA. This gives us access to leading industry education, safety information, and programs to keep our company serving at high-quality standards. The NRCA is one of the construction industry’s most respected trade associations and the voice of roofing professional. They are a large source of information for CEI and we are proud to be a member. CEI is a lead company in the commercial roofing industry in the mid-west. Yet, the NRCA has a focus on both the commercial and residential roofing industry’s. It is important to search out a quality roofing contractor, no matter what your project is so that it gets done right the first time. Often times our blog post are more suited for a building owner looking for information but when it comes to selecting a contractor the guidelines can be followed by both home and building owners.
NRCA has consumer-focused resources. Their main source is a blog that is focused on helping consumers be educated on there roof and roofing contractors (everyoneneedsaroof.com). Through their resources, they touch on a hand-full of things to look for in a roofing contractor. To help spread awareness, CEI has compiled the resources for customers on the Roofer Madness Blog. As a company, we want to provide customers with the quality resources to help them make their contractor selection. The following list of qualifications that your roofing contractor should have according to the NRCA’s consumer advisory bulletin.
The video below was created by the NRCA to help explain these points. You can also read more from the NRCA here or visit http://www.everybodyneedsaroof.com/
For 3 years, CEI has helped sponsor the Hudson Mills Old Power Club in their annual tractor pull. With the sponsorship, the company gets entry into the pull. Nick Bosworth- a CEI foreman and member of the HMOPC participated in the pull this year. Last year, CEI’s employee Ron Skrzypek competed and won the pull in CEI’s name. Coming back as defending champions from 2017 pull, CEI came in and won the pull for the 2nd year in a row.
An exciting and fun sponsorship for CEI! They received a plack to hang in the office next to last years.
Happy National Roofing Week to everyone! Yesterday we kicked off with a wonderful employee appreciation day! All of the CEI team had got pizza or breakfast delivered to them as a token of our appreciation. It was a great start to an exciting week.
Every day this week has a theme or focus to be talked about. Today’s (Tuesday) focus is on Employee Training!
A key part of being a quality roofing professional is ensuring that all members of your team are properly trained. CEI focuses its training efforts in two major areas; safety training and job skills training.
CEI started a bigger push on safety about 7 years ago.
“We had a couple of tough safety years before that and there was also a big push from our Consumers to step up safety. It had always been something we did, but we started to make it something we live everyday.” -Kristine Cook Lindsey, Vice President
CEI always met safety regulations but after those couple of years, they decided it was going to be one of their main goals to excel in safety. They posted a large board that read “Days since an accident”. The goal was to publish what was happening in regards to safety and make everyone responsible for safety on the job.
Joe Fulton- CEI Safety Director
In 2011, they added a full-time Safety Director to there team. He was tasked with keeping up with regulations and revamping the training program.
Jacob Rosiek- CEI Safety Manager
CEI safety standards started to grow and in 2016 they added another full-time position to the Safety Department, a Safety Manager.
In 2017, CEI was awarded the NERI safety excellence award for there efforts. Today, CEI’s safety training looks like this.
The other focus area for training is skills training. CEI as a union contractor is supportive of apprenticeship programs that serve to develop skilled professional Roofing and Architectural Sheet Metal Journeymen. Some of the ways that CEI supports skills development are-
CEI has asked their staff to send in picture and videos of the job sites and happenings around the company. These help us build content for social media and our website. Each month we will be sharing the best or most interesting photo that was sent in by one of our employees. This is also an edition of our company newsletter that goes out internally to all of our employees.
May is the first month that we are starting to add the photo of the month contest. You will be able to view all the monthly photos in our gallery on the Roofer Madness Blog.
May Photo of the Month-
This months photo was sent in by Kristine Lindsey who is our Vice President. She often attends the monthly safety meeting to connect with the foreman and crews on extra safety training. She snapped this (and many more) photos from May’s safety meeting. CEI was visited by Guardian Fall Protection who showed off some different safety equipment and gave a couple short demonstrations.
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