Here's a copy of a newsletter that I wrote for customers, but never got to send. Unfortunately the original formatting wasn't saved so it's a bit difficult to read.
Sunrise Exteriors Home Improvement newsletter mid-summer 2008 edition
You have received this newsletter because you have had roofing or siding work done by us or we have given you an estimate on some work.
Sunrise Exteriors LLCSteve Fisher, Managing Member5860 Old Phila PikeGap PA 17527SunriseExteriors.com
sprtseagles@aol.com717-330-8989
Welcome to the mid-summer edition of the Sunrise Exteriors newsletter. As I write the olympics are in full swing. Michael Phelps is setting records, my St. Louis Cardinals are in the wildcard race for playoffs, and my Philadelphia Eagles are breaking camp. There is also lots of things happening on my end of things. We’re surprisingly busy for a supposedly down economy. We are bidding on building porch roofs, one garage, and a small roof cleaning project. We have a couple pretty big roof jobs, a window replacement job, and a fiber cement siding job coming up. One thing we haven’t much of lately is flat rubber roofs. We always enjoy doing these roofs and I think they’re a good value as well.
I guess for people who have been conservative and didn’t max themselves out still have money saved up and can still get things done as they need to be done. It’s actually not a bad idea getting things done now, as I expect prices to continue to rise. I read somewhere that the time to spend money is when times are tight and the time to save money is when times are good. This is one of the ways I believe the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. People who could hardly afford gadgets and toys now have to get rid of them in a down economy, thus selling at a discount.
One of the things on my mind is power fans to vent attic spaces instead of ridge vent. The fans have thermostats that turn it on when it gets to hot and force air exchange in the attic. This is in contrast to ridge vent that just passively allow air to flow. In one case it made a noticeable difference in the temperatures on the floor beneath the attic. Thus the air conditioner didn’t have to work so hard. But there’s something else that I think makes this even better. You can get fans that have a solar panel on it. So therefore it doesn’t take ANY electricity and still saves energy for the air conditioner. I haven’t figured out exactly how much energy and dollar savings that would be, but I would think the solar fan would pay for itself. If anyone has any idea how you would figure that I would like to hear from you. I would like some actual statistics to prove it.
I still haven’t forgotten about recycling shingles. It seems the buzzword these days is “Green” and I’m afraid it’s probably overused. Probably by me too. But if we focus on the facts, like if a solar fan actually does save money, instead of incentives by the government because its popular. So that is one of the reasons I think shingle recycling has so much potential. Supposedly its not a “Green” roof, but since there’s so many of them around if we could recycle them we would make them sustainable. I’m thinking we could use ground up shingles for pothole repair or something like that. I would like to make a small driveway with ground up shingles to show to people and to test it.
Maybe this winter my brothers and I will buy an investment property to fix up since it won’t be to nice to be working outside. This way we could experiment with solar power, roof gardens, and anything else we could think of. Not sure if it will happen though.
Another thing I probably should promote more is the 50 year roof. The only extra cost in those is the cost of the material. It doesn’t cost any extra labor. So instead of replacing your roof twice in 50 years and paying for labor twice, you would only have to pay for labor once and maybe 40 percent more for the materials.
[insert cost per year chart for asphalt shingles]
I guess most of this doesn’t help those of you who have already had their roofs or siding done by us. But that’s why we are working to add more services, so we see more of the people we already have worked for. Also if you know of anybody who is considering any home improvement projects we would appreciate if you would pass along our name and number. We’d love to have a chance to serve your friends and family.
A couple people responded to my last newsletter. Thanks! Its always good to get some feedback, what to do different, and just some good old encouragement, something that sometimes seems in short supply in a seemingly cynical world. Speaking of cynical though, it seems we have a right to be so. I read a book by Ron Paul who was sort of running for president a while ago. Anyway according to him we have been fooled by our politicians for way to long. I found it a fascinating book.
So anyway I was talking about feedback and comments on the newsletter. Some of the feedback was on the telephone, some was email, and some was good old postal mail. It is my observation that everybody loves getting “mail”. If you are going down the road and the mail carrier just went through especially semi rural areas you see people going to their mail boxes or walking back in the drive with their heads down, already opening and perusing the days mail. So thanks to all who responded. I will post a copy of this letter at roofing-studio44.blogspot.com. You will be able to post comments and suggestions there.
Peace to allSteve FisherFor Sunrise Exteriors and brothers Paul, John, Elmer, Daniel.
P.S. We are working on a completed jobs/testimonial book. Preferably we would have before and after pictures and testimonials. So, we would greatly appreciate if you would send us a note with a brief testimonial describing your experience with Sunrise Exteriors. If you happen to have before and after pictures of the job we did for you send those along as well!