Your home isn't just four walls and a roof: It's a treasure trove of memories, a meeting place for your nearest and dearest, a collection of lovingly selected and generationally passed-down items.

When structural repairs are necessary, you want to trust your beloved home with contractors who will also regard it with the respect and love it deserves, which is the philosophy at the heart of every job East Coast Roofing, Siding & Windows proudly puts its name on.

In fact, every member of East Coast's more-than-200-person team treats each client like they're owner Larry Stiteler's mother and every house like they're guests in her home, according to East Coast President Jeff Kay.

"We typically leave a property better and cleaner than we found it," he says while describing the award-winning customer service that East Coast has unfailingly offered for more than 40 years.

A "detail technician" will start the project with a free on-site assessment that includes taking measurements, preparing material orders and staging the worksite. When it's time for the work to begin, a dedicated installation team takes over, headed by a projected manager who will also serve as a client's constant point of contact.

"That's how they get that personal attention, and that level of organization is what makes the process a painless one," Kay says. "Sixty percent of our business comes from referrals, and I think that speaks volumes to the customer experience."

East Coast hasn't just earned recognition and rave reviews for how it treats clients, though. For more than 10 consecutive years, it's won Best of the Press awards in roofing, siding, windows and contracting. "That is voted on by the residents of Atlantic County," Kay points out. He adds that East Coast has also won the nationally ranked Best of the Best Award for three years in a row.

To maintain those demanding standards, potential employees are painstakingly vetted to ensure their personality and professionalism meet the company's expectations for customer care. Once they're on the team, installers go through additional training to be certified as GAF Master Elite Contractors in roofing, CertainTeed Master Craftsman and 5-Star Contractors in siding, and ProVia Certified in windows and doors.

That additional education ensures they deliver manufacturer-specified results to ensure proper installation, as well as offer guarantees like the "Golden Pledge" warranty on every roof they do. That 25-year workmanship and leak-free guarantee and 50-year warranty is not only 100% pro-rated but also an offer only Master Elite Contractors can extend.

"We take our installation teams to GAF headquarters in Parsippany once a year to be retrained and certified: half the day's in the classroom, the other half is hands-on," Kay explains. "Only 2% of contractors achieve GAF Master Elite Contractor status, and we're also in the President's Club. Of the 2% of contractors who do reach the Master Elite status, only about 10% reach the President's Club."

That diligent professional training is paired with local, home-grown talent, all of whom keenly understand how the region's seasonal extremes can impact the lifetime and effectiveness of their products.

"We're able to easily identify the most vulnerable areas of your roof, your siding, your windows, your doors based on the seasonality," says Kay. "There are installation techniques we follow that are specific to the Northeast."

East Coast takes its community responsibility just as seriously as the quality of its work. Their doors have stayed open all throughout the pandemic because homes didn't stop needing repairs, even when it felt like the rest of the world stood still. Working through the pandemic inspired the Economic Relief Rebate Program, a springtime promotion that helps make the cost of crucial repairs easier to absorb.

"If you hire us for your projects, we offer you no money down—no payments or interests are due for 12 months—and we lock you into last year's pricing," explains Kay. "You don't owe any money until next year. Then when we're done with the project, we will send you a rebate check for up to 15% of the total price of your project."

The pandemic directly inspired the program, as it was another way to provide local assistance when "people need help now more than ever." It's the newest way the team is able to step up and give back: Longstanding outreach efforts include giving away roof repairs to locally active homeowners in need every holiday season, and Stiteler is personally involved with the childhood hunger nonprofit MANNA Worldwide, in addition to building dental facilities in Guatemala.

"At the end of the day, we do what we say we'll do, and we go above and beyond to help people," says Kay. "We live and come from a place of service."

East Coast Roofing, Siding & Windows
6090 Danenhauer Lane #9, Mays Landing
(609) 266-7766
EastCoastRoofing.com

Published (and copyrighted) in House & Home, Volume 23, Issue 11 (September 2023).
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