By Emma Peterson. 

Explore the articles that generated the most interest this month. 

In the last month, over 250 articles have been published on RoofersCoffeeShop.com. That’s a lot of reading to keep up with, especially for busy contractors who are going between the office and the field. To make it easier to keep up, we’ve looked at those hundreds of articles and picked out the most popular ones to showcase.  

In this list, there are a couple of articles authored by Heidi J. Ellsworth, the president of The Coffee Shops™. In one article she highlights how the National Roofing Contractors Association (NRCA) is expanding mental health support through suicide prevention training, made possible through a collaboration with LivingWorks. The other article dove into the importance of awards and recognition during the current artificial intelligence boom.  

Our friends over at Cotney Consulting Group also contributed a few articles on our top 10 list, including one about crystalline silica exposure and another about creating an operational preparedness plan to navigate the current global political environment.  

Our number one article of the month showcased FMI Corporation’s 2026 Q2 North America Construction and Engineering Outlook Report and was written by Emma Peterson, senior content developer for The Coffee Shops™. This was not the only article of Emma’s that made the list, as her articles about turning data into business strategies, taking on leadership roles and the development of the metal roof retrofit industry were also featured. 

July 2026’s top articles 

10 - Eagleview warns emergency managers: A below average hurricane season is not a safe season by Eagleview. 

9 - NRCA expands mental health support with free suicide prevention training by Heidi J. Ellsworth. 

8 - NRCA Gold Circle Awards: Why recognition matters more than ever in the age of AI by Heidi J. Ellsworth. 

7 - When global events reach the rooftop by John Kenney, Cotney Consulting Group. 

6 - Building the metal roof retrofit industry by Emma Peterson. 

5 - Finding opportunity in every position by Emma Peterson. 

4 - ARCA’s Lotería Night brings fun and connection to the roofing community by Alex Tolle. 

3 - Connecting the dots between data and strategy by Emma Peterson. 

2 - The silica citation nobody sees coming by Cotney Consulting Group. 

1 - Construction growth expected in the next year by Emma Peterson. 

Company releases 2026 Atlantic hurricane season preparedness briefing, urging full readiness despite below-average forecasts from NOAA, Colorado State University, and AccuWeather.

Eagleview, an industry leader in geospatial intelligence (GeoAI) delivering AI-powered property intelligence solutions, today released a 2026 Atlantic hurricane season preparedness briefing with a direct message for emergency managers: a below average season does not equal low risk. Despite projections from NOAA, Colorado State University (CSU), and AccuWeather pointing to a below-average season, the company warns that seasonal storm counts are a poor proxy for understanding community-level risk and that every landfalling hurricane demands full preparedness regardless of the forecast.

The case is grounded in history. The 1992 Atlantic hurricane season produced just six named storms, well below the 30-year average of 14.4, yet generated Hurricane Andrew, a Category 5 storm that destroyed more than 63,000 homes in South Florida and caused $27.3 billion in damage (equivalent to approximately $67 billion in 2026 dollars). Andrew remains among the most destructive natural disasters in American history, and its season ranks among the quietest on record.

“It only takes one storm to create a catastrophe. The agencies that respond most effectively after a hurricane are those that prepared before the first advisory was ever issued,” shared Robert Locke, president of Eagleview’s Government business unit.

Fast Facts: 2026 Hurricane Season at a Glance

The following data points are drawn from publicly available forecasts and historical records.

• 2026 forecast (NOAA, May 2026) - 8-14 named storms, 3-6 hurricanes, 1-3 major hurricanes
• 2026 forecast (CSU, July 2026) - 9 named storms, 4 hurricanes, 1 major hurricane
• 30-year average (1991-2020) - 14.4 named storms, 7.2 hurricanes, 3.2 major hurricanes
• 1992 season storm count - 6 named storms, well below average
• Hurricane Andrew (1992) - Category 5; 63,000+ homes destroyed; $27.3B in damage (~$67B in 2026 dollars)
• El Niño effect on hurricanes - Historically produces ~40% fewer Atlantic hurricanes than La Niña years
• Pre-event baseline coverage - Eagleview’s 96% of U.S. population coverage helps agencies access pre-storm high-resolution imagery of impacted areas for comparison and documentation
• Post-event capture - Eagleview’s high-resolution aerial imagery is rapidly captured and delivered to clients once airspace safely opens

Why below-average forecasts still demand full readiness

Three compounding factors ensure that any landfalling hurricane in 2026 will be more consequential than a comparable storm a generation ago:

• Rapid intensification: Research published in Nature Communications and the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society documents a significant increase in rapid intensification events, defined as a gain of 35+ mph in sustained winds within 24 hours, since the 1980s. A tropical storm at 8 AM can be a major hurricane the following morning, compressing warning timelines for coastal communities.
• Rising sea levels: Mean sea level along U.S. Gulf and Atlantic coasts has risen measurably over recent decades, per NOAA tide gauge data. Storm surge now rides atop a higher baseline, meaning a Category 2 hurricane in 2026 can produce surge impacts equivalent to a Category 3 in 1990.
• Coastal population growth: U.S. coastal county populations have grown substantially since 1970 (NOAA). More people, more structures, and more critical infrastructure are now concentrated in hurricane-vulnerable zones than at any point in history.

Pre-event preparation as an operational necessity

Eagleview maintains the most comprehensive library of high-resolution aerial imagery in the United States and Canada, covering 96% of the U.S. population with multi-angle oblique and orthogonal captures. This imagery provides the pre-event baseline emergency managers need to conduct rapid, defensible change detection after a storm.

The company’s dedicated Weather Team monitors tropical development throughout hurricane season and coordinates with Eagleview’s Disaster Response Team to pre-position aerial capture assets ahead of anticipated impact zones enabling post-event imagery delivery to clients typically within days of landfall.

Post-event AI-powered damage classification enables side-by-side pre- and post-storm imagery comparison at scale, supporting Preliminary Damage Assessment (PDA) workflows, FEMA Public Assistance documentation, and resource allocation decisions at a speed ground teams alone cannot achieve.

Availability

The full white paper, “Below Average Does Not Equal Low Risk: A 2026 Atlantic Hurricane Season Preparedness Briefing for Emergency Management Professionals,” is available for download here. Emergency managers interested in pre-disaster agreements for rapid post-event imagery and analytics can contact Eagleview’s Disaster Response Program directly.

About Eagleview

Eagleview is an industry leader in geospatial intelligence (GeoAI), delivering AI-powered property intelligence solutions that enable customers across a broad range of industries to accurately explore properties and structures, identify and implement solutions today, and find tomorrow’s opportunities. For more than 25 years, Eagleview has built proprietary property imaging technology earning more than 300+ patents and generating over 3.5 billion high-resolution images resulting in a library that encompasses 96% of the U.S. population. With Eagleview’s trusted insights, customers can make business decisions that matter.

The resolution brings the matter to a close and allows both companies to focus fully on their respective business priorities and customers.

Eagleview and Nearmap have reached a settlement resolving their litigation pending in the United States District Court for the District of Utah dating back to 2021. The parties have agreed to mutually acceptable terms that conclude a dispute relating primarily to roofing measurement patents and other intellectual property matters. The resolution brings the matter to a close and allows both companies to focus fully on their respective business priorities and customers. As part of the settlement, all pending disputes between the companies are resolved. The specific terms of the settlement are confidential.

“We are satisfied that this matter has been resolved,” said Piers Dormeyer, CEO at Eagleview. “We look ahead to advancing our mission and serving our customers.”

“This resolution allows both companies to focus on what matters most — delivering innovative solutions to our customers,” said Andy Watt, CEO at Nearmap. “We are pleased to put this matter behind us and move forward.”

About Eagleview

Eagleview is an industry leader in geospatial intelligence (GeoAI) delivering AI-powered property intelligence solutions that enable customers across a broad range of industries to accurately explore properties and structures, identify and implement solutions today, and find tomorrow’s opportunities. For more than 25 years, Eagleview has built proprietary property imaging technology, earning more than 300+ patents and generating over 3.5 billion high-resolution images, resulting in a library that encompasses 96% of the U.S. population. With Eagleview’s trusted insights, customers can make business decisions that matter.

About Nearmap

Nearmap is a global property intelligence company redefining how organizations understand and act on the built environment. By owning the entire intelligence value chain — from high-recency geospatial capture powered by patented camera technology to accurate AI-derived analytics and guaranteed building materials data — Nearmap delivers a single, trusted source of truth for property decisions.

By SRS Distribution.

Do the math once. Never do it again. That’s the power behind Custom Measurements in Roof Hub.

Every contractor calculates differently. Some build waste into their measurements while others layer it on top. Some markets require ice and water on valleys only while others include valleys and eaves. And for many teams, those rules live in spreadsheets, notebooks or tribal knowledge in someone’s head.

At SRS Distribution, we recognized that manual math takes valuable time away from the pro. Custom Measurements was built to solve that. It allows contractors to embed their own rules directly into ordering templates, so calculations run automatically across every estimate and order. Instead of rebuilding formulas on every job, your business logic applies consistently in the background.

Bring your measurements in and let the system work

Custom Measurements works seamlessly with the measurements you already rely on. In Roof Hub, you can pull measurement reports directly from partners like Eagleview, HOVER and GAF QuickMeasure or enter your own measurements manually. Once measurements are in place, your custom rules automatically calculate quantities across the template with no extra steps.

The result is a streamlined workflow that starts with trusted data and ends with accurate estimates and orders.

Build once. Scale everywhere.

Estimating should not mean repeating the same math. With Custom Measurements, you define your calculation rules once and apply them everywhere. Whether based on total roof area, hips, valleys or other job-specific factors, calculations run automatically within your templates.

This drives consistency across teams, improves speed and reduces costly mistakes.

Your workflow. Your standards. Built in.

No two contractors run their business the same way. Custom Measurements gives you the flexibility to build templates around how you calculate, price and execute jobs. By embedding your standards directly into Roof Hub Estimator templates, every estimate stays aligned with your process while scaling accuracy across your operation. The result? Less math, fewer mistakes and faster execution.

Start customizing your templates now.

By Jenny Yu.  

The MetalVue Roadshow is set to provide contractors with the knowledge, resources and confidence to develop metal roofing businesses that last. 

Before the Florida Roofing and Sheet Metal Contractors Association (FRSA) Convention and Expo officially begins, attendees have an opportunity to get the party started early by attending a special Sherwin-Williams MetalVue event! Titled “MetalVue Roadshow: Grow With Metal,” this experience is free of charge and takes place on June 9, 2026, from 12:00 to 5:00 p.m. at the Gaylord Palms Resort in Kissimmee, Florida. 

The focus of this event is to help contractors unlock new business opportunities by demystifying metal roofing. Attendees will have the opportunity to learn about the resources available to them through MetalVue, Sherwin Williams’ comprehensive program that helps both manufacturers and contractors sell more residential and commercial metal roofs.  

Attendees will gain the knowledge and tools to build long-term, sustainable metal roofing businesses. Industry experts will share insights on how to train installation crews for high-quality installation and customer satisfaction, as well as techniques for selling metal roofing with more confidence.  

One key resource that attendees will explore at the MetalVue Roadshow is Roofing Passport, the industry’s only fully automated roofing software platform for both estimating and ordering. Roofing Passport, applicable for both residential and commercial roofs, integrates seamlessly with Eagleview for precise aerial property measurements of existing structures and with Roofing WRX for estimation derived from drawings for new construction.  

MetalCoffeeShop is proud to be a partner of the MetalVue Roadshow. Other partners include Watts Removal Products, GiddyUp Roofing Software, Sheridan Metal Resources, Uplevel Digital and The StoneGate Group. With this full suite of industry leaders providing resources and support, the MetalVue Roadshow is set to be the pre-FRSA event you can’t miss.  

Register now to secure your spot for the FREE Metal Vue Roadshow before FRSA begins!

The company that captures nearly every residential and commercial property across the United States is bringing two-plus decades of property intelligence to the Agentic AI revolution to solve the real challenges of working with properties and structures; targeting a $1 trillion+ market across insurance, construction, government and property management.

Eagleview, the only company whose fleet of 100 aircraft has spent over two decades imaging nearly every property in America, today announced the launch of Eagleview HorizonTM, an agentic geospatial intelligence (GeoAI) engine. Eagleview Horizon leverages the company's unparalleled property data and aerial imagery platform, Eagleview OneTM, to supercharge the capacity for construction, insurance, government, infrastructure and property management firms looking to solve real world challenges. Further, Eagleview Horizon’s agent-to-agent capabilities enable external AI systems to directly integrate Eagleview’s comprehensive analyses and geospatial data. Eagleview Horizon represents an entirely new interface that allows customers to leverage AI agents to explore properties and structures, identify and implement solutions today and find tomorrow’s opportunities.  

"We've spent more than twenty years building the most comprehensive property dataset in the country. Eagleview Horizon is transformative; it leverages our proprietary imagery and property intelligence at a scale we know no competitor can replicate," said Piers Dormeyer, chief executive officer of Eagleview. "Eagleview Horizon represents unrivaled advancement in a geospatial intelligence engine. It helps power more trusted decisions. And, because every answer traces back to verified data built on our industry-leading, high-resolution imagery, Eagleview Horizon can be trusted with every business decision that matters. " 

How this impacts core industries 

With Eagleview Horizon, 

• Roofing contractors can request a color-coded canvassing map of every roof over 15 years old within two miles of last night's hailstorm, filtered by roof type, roof area, roof age and roof condition.  
• Insurance claims managers can now ask which properties in a storm-affected region should be inspected first, ranked by damage likelihood and claim severity.  
• Property managers can identify which assets in a 50,000-unit portfolio are approaching maintenance risk and can prioritize and schedule maintenance and repairs.  
• Residential solar installers can enhance their sales effectiveness by leveraging Eagleview Horizon as a virtual geospatial analyst to help improve solar site prospecting, enhance lead qualification and enrichment and prioritize prospect outreach. 
• Government assessors and planners will be able to utilize Eagleview Horizon to predict areas that might be more severely impacted by weather, growth or complex logistical challenges.  
• Commercial roofers will more easily pinpoint structural changes, more safely and efficiently complete annual inspections and more quickly and confidently identify prospective projects. 
• Infrastructure managers will better manage their assets by analyzing and reviewing changes over time to more effectively identify and manage needed maintenance or upgrades. 
• GIS professionals will accelerate their interactions with geospatial intelligence to perform more sophisticated and comprehensive analyses. 
• Users with non-technical backgrounds will also be able to take advantage of geospatial analyses due to the democratizing power of GeoAI. 
• Architecture, Engineering & Construction (AEC) professionals will search parcel characteristics at scale across geographic areas to optimize site selection, even screening for historical weather impact or intersection with flood zones.  
• Landscapers and other home services firms will be better able to prospect for new customers, more rapidly and accurately deliver project estimates, and better identify and conduct ongoing maintenance. 

Eagleview Horizon includes multiple Model Context Protocol (MCP) integrations and more than 20 tools enabling agentic workflows that span property identification, filtering, scoring, and export in a single session. Unlike generic AI platforms, Eagleview Horizon is designed to identify opportunities users didn't know to look for. The proprietary aerial imagery and property intelligence found in Eagleview One are fused with curated and trusted external data sources, and customer-owned datasets into a single agentic experience. 

The platform is designed to empower industries that collectively represent more than $1 trillion in annual US economic activity: 

• Property and casualty insurance, where US direct premiums crossed $1.05 trillion in 2024 and where homeowners’ insurance losses surged more than 30% in the first half of 2025 alone as catastrophic weather events accelerated. 
• Roofing and construction, a $28 billion US market served by more than 100,000 contractors, the overwhelming majority of whom currently rely on manual workflows to identify storm-damaged leads. 
• Property management, a $120 billion global industry overseeing more than 45 million rental units, where the median occupied home is now over 41 years old.  
• Government and tax assessment, where $797 billion in property tax revenue depends on assessment accuracy that aerial change detection can materially improve. 

Eagleview Horizon combines both superior geospatial AI agents and extensive property intelligence derived from the company’s proprietary imagery library. The company generates aerial imagery that is among the highest-resolution available for North American properties with verified measurements, property intelligence and machine learning-generated condition signals now available. Change detection across the entire country will be available in the model shortly.

"Eagleview Horizon is not just a natural language-based search engine. It is a powerful agentic partner transforming how our customers will be able to work with geospatial intelligence all along their workflows," said Tripp Cox, chief technology officer of Eagleview. "And as a result, Eagleview Horizon delivers high-confidence operational efficiency and improved business outcomes. These are real results based on accurate and verified data and actual property intelligence." 

Bert Hess, CEO of Florida Roofing and Gutters, shared, "Identifying prospects for roofing projects used to take hours and required bouncing between three or four different tools and technology platforms. Eagleview Horizon does this in one place and does it better. It delivers those qualified prospects in just a few minutes. The targeting and time-saving capabilities are a game-changer for more effective canvassing." 

Availability and access 

On June 1st, Eagleview Horizon will be available by invitation only through Eagleview One, the company's unified customer-facing platform at www.eagleview.com/eagleview-one. Interested parties should visit www.eagleview.com/horizon (not yet live) for more information and to join the waitlist for early access. 

About Eagleview 

Eagleview is a leader in geospatial technology, providing solutions that transform the way our customers work. Eagleview is renowned for its geospatial data and its 3.5 billion+ imagery library which encompasses 96 percent of the U.S. population. Eagleview’s unique technology portfolio comprises more than 300 patents, enabling it to offer highly differentiated software, imagery and analytics products for multiple industries.

New York City. Times Square. Today.

We've been working on something — something we truly believe will change everything. And we're not just sending an email about it.

We're announcing it LIVE, from the heart of NYC. 

📍 Times Square, New York City

📅 Today - Tuesday, April 21st

🕑 1:30 PM ET

💻 Watch Live, Anywhere in the World 

Get notified when we're live on Facebook!

By Jenny Yu. 

Renoworks Pro helps contractors present design options and pricing in one seamless experience. 

In this episode of Roofing Road Trips®, Karen Edwards spoke with Jenni McMorran of Renoworks to discuss how Renoworks Pro’s Instant Estimator is helping contractors present designs and pricing together to streamline the sales process and improve closing rates.  

Within the platform, contractors can generate a design report that showcases multiple product and color options alongside pricing tiers. “In the visualizer, it has a design report which allows the contractor to create different versions of that design,” Jenni explained. “Within that design report, they can now have a design with a ‘good’ price, a design with a ‘better’ price and a design with the ‘best’ price.” The report can be emailed, printed or shared digitally, allowing for quick and easy proposals.  

Alongside the convenience and flexibility these reports offer, accuracy has been a key focus in the design of the tool. Powered by Eagleview data, the tool delivers measurements that Jenni said are highly reliable. “From our internal testing, we found it’s no more than 3 to 5% off, so around 95% accurate,” she said, noting contractors can also pull a more detailed measurement report within the platform if needed. 

Designed to integrate into any contractor’s existing workflow, the instant estimate is generated in less than a minute, helping contractors close deals in one call. “You can show the design, talk through the materials and give that price all in that same visit,” Jenni said. For contractors that use a two-call close, the instant estimator can help build trust and confidence. “It can help set expectations early, so instead of the homeowner sitting in suspense, they get a realistic sense of what things might cost. That way, the final quote isn't a shock. It's a continuation of that conversation.” 

Looking ahead, Renoworks plans to expand its reach beyond the roof. “We’re working on expanding the feature to cover the entire exterior of the home,” Jenni shared. “Our goal is to give contractors a way to price out the full renovation project in real time while they’re sitting with the homeowner.” 

Read the first article in this series and Listen to the podcast to learn more about Renoworks Pro’s Instant Estimator.

There’s a difference between staying busy and staying profitable. We’re breaking down how $10M contractors actually manage cash flow behind the scenes. Join us with Breakthrough Academy and JobNimbus.

Register now!

By Jenny Yu. 

Sherwin-Williams' Roofing Passport brings speed, accuracy and confidence to custom metal roofing bids. 

As metal roofing continues to gain ground in the residential market, Sherwin-Williams is equipping contractors with tools to compete more effectively. In this RLW®, Karen Edwards spoke with Junny Lee and Heather McGinnis of Sherwin-Williams about how the company’s Roofing Passport program is helping contractors streamline metal estimates and grow their businesses. 

Junny pointed to durability and longevity as key drivers behind metal’s rise. “We know that a metal roof is two, three, maybe four times longer than the lifespan of an asphalt roof,” Junny stated. Still, contractors face barriers when adding metal to their offerings. “We’ve narrowed it down to three things: lack of training, the cost perception or the uphill battle of upselling.” Through its MetalVue program, Sherwin-Williams addresses those concerns with training, sales support and data-backed performance metrics.  

Furthermore, their Roofing Passport program tackles one of the biggest hurdles: estimating custom metal jobs quickly and accurately.  

“As far as going into the home and bidding, the thing that we heard over and over again was the fact that it was hard, because it’s a custom product, to deliver on a bid for metal,” Heather said. “So, what we did as a company that just wants to get another piece of metal on a roof was to say: we need to simplify this estimating process. We need to make it easy. We need to be able to compete alongside with asphalt.”  

From there, Sherwin-Williams created Roofing Passport, a cloud-based software that ingests Eagleview reports, blueprints or XML files and generates a detailed takeoff report, including panel layouts, trim, accessories and fasteners. “It provides fewer errors and delays, it’s accurate and it’s an automated turnaround,” Heather shared, adding that estimates are typically within $200 of final costs. 

Notably, Sherwin-Williams does not charge contractors to use the platform beyond third-party report fees. “This is just something we wanted to do for the contractors to help get more metal up there,” Heather expressed. 

Read the first article in this series, Listen to the conversation or Watch the presentation to learn more about Roofing Passport and see the software in action.