From medical sales to roof company owner

By Emma Peterson. 

Elliot Emann shares his roofing journey on the Stories from the Roof podcast. 

Through our Stories from the Roof podcast series, we get the chance to sit down with roofing professionals from across the industry to talk about their businesses and careers. And in a lot of them, we’ve had the opportunity to hear all about how they unexpectedly fell in love with the roofing industry. One such story comes from Elliot Emann, the owner of Washington Roofing & Construction in Missouri, who recently joined us on Stories from the Roof to share his journey.  

Elliot originally graduated from McKendree University with the plan to work in medical sales. He explained, “Out of college, I lived in Omaha, Nebraska, for a year working at Cardinal Health. There, I basically helped independent pharmacies compete with bigger competitors.” 

Later, he found himself moving back to Missouri where he got involved in construction. This was actually a return to the industry for Elliot, as he worked at the same company his dad retired from (Heavy Highway) during the summer breaks while in college. It was while he was working there that a friend started a holiday lighting company that eventually branched out into the roofing industry. Elliot recalled, “He really started taking off with lighting and then got to start in the roofing because the two trades kind of complement each other. And he would call me like every two weeks while I was busting my butt in the construction industry to tell me how he's just killing it.” 

His friend’s great experience in the roofing industry is what piqued Elliot’s interest in going into roofing full-time. So, in 2021 he put in his two-weeks to jump into roofing. He started out as a salesperson, learning the ropes. He explained, “I worked with another contractor, I was with them for about three years. And in the last two years that I worked there, I did a lot of new business, closer to 10 million in new business.” Eventually, Elliot felt he was ready to take the next step and started building a network of subs and other professionals to work with him. And, in 2024, Washington Roofing & Construction was born. 

Looking back at his entire journey, Elliot couldn’t be happier to have ended up in roofing. He shared, “I started the company only five years after being in the industry. I was a field engineer for heavy highway construction prior to that, and I love roofing so much. I like the work, it's easy to spend long days, long nights just putting everything into this. It's a great industry, full of great people.”  

Learn more about Elliot and his company by listening to the whole podcast episode!