Southland’s 2025 Award: Best Roofer
What a Local "Best Roofing Company" Award Really Reveals About Community Trust
When a business wins a community-voted award, what does it actually mean? Looking beneath the surface of the 2025 Southland's Best Roofing Company poll reveals how local trust is truly built—and why it matters more than technical certifications.
Understanding Reader's Choice: Why the Voting Method Matters
The Southland's Best Reader's Choice Award, run by the Southland News Group, covers the Chicago Southland area including Frankfurt, Mokena, and Orland Park. The "Reader's Choice" designation is crucial—this isn't an industry panel judging technical specifications or business models. Instead, actual residents cast votes based on their experiences.
This distinction transforms the award from a technical certificate into something far more valuable: a direct measurement of local popularity, customer satisfaction, and long-term community trust. Winners aren't just following rules—they're demonstrating they've earned the confidence of the people they serve.
The 2025 Winners: Who Earned Community Confidence
Three companies earned top recognition in the roofing category:
Third Place: Proac Roofing (Bridgeview)
Second Place: APEC Inc. (New Lenox)
First Place: Hamstra Roofing (Frankfurt)
Hamstra Roofing's first-place finish provides a blueprint for understanding what it takes to win community-voted recognition.
The Foundation: Nearly Five Decades of Consistency
Hamstra Roofing has operated since 1978—nearly five decades in an industry known for high turnover. This longevity provides the foundation for trust, especially when the company focuses on high-stress situations like complete roof replacements and storm damage restoration.
What "Better Than Code" Actually Means
Judy Mayer, Hamstra's office manager, describes their commitment to work that goes "better than code." But what does this phrase mean beyond marketing?
Building codes represent the legal minimum for safety. Working "better than code" means upgrading materials, using more rigorous nailing patterns, and adding elements like synthetic underlayment that aren't strictly required but vastly improve roof longevity. These investments often remain invisible to homeowners but build lasting reputations through superior performance.
Becoming an Advocate, Not Just a Contractor
Perhaps Hamstra's biggest differentiator is their expertise in navigating insurance claims. When storm damage occurs, homeowners often face difficult negotiations with adjusters. Hamstra steps in as an advocate, ensuring clients receive fair settlements.
This transforms the company from a contractor into a partner who reduces stress—the kind of experience that earns decades of loyalty and turns one-time customers into families they serve across generations.
The Numbers Behind the Promise
Over 45 years, Hamstra has accumulated impressive institutional knowledge:
Over 100,000 roof leaks repaired
24,000 full roof installations completed
But volume alone doesn't guarantee quality. How they manage that volume reveals their true competitive advantage.
The Subcontractor Decision: Quality Over Easy Scaling
With 50 employees on staff, Hamstra makes an unusual commitment for residential construction: they never use subcontractors for residential jobs. While subcontracting enables faster scaling, it sacrifices control over quality, training, and scheduling.
Using only long-tenured Hamstra employees guarantees that every person on a customer's roof follows their specific "better than code" procedures. This direct accountability proves vital to maintaining consistent standards.
Vertical Integration: Controlling the Weak Points
Hamstra operates in-house metal fabrication, bending all their own flashing and decorative metalwork—custom vents, chimney caps, and accent panels—on demand.
Why does this matter? Metal components, particularly flashing and seals, represent roofs' most common failure points. Controlling this metalwork quality is huge. It also eliminates waiting on third-party vendors, allowing crews to fabricate custom pieces immediately when they encounter unexpected roof conditions.
Additionally, warehousing shingles in bulk provides wholesale pricing advantages while maintaining quality control—delivering both better products and cost efficiency.
Specialized Credentials That Provide Real Protection
Hamstra holds elite certifications from GAF and Owens Corning, two of the industry's largest manufacturers. These certifications require factory training and vetted installation methods, but they provide something far more valuable: access to the best manufacturer warranties available—50 years or longer.
These aren't just promises from a roofer; they're guarantees backed by multi-billion dollar manufacturers.
The company also maintains unlimited licensing for multi-family projects like condo associations, handling the complex logistics of managing multiple residents while minimizing disruption.
The Service Department: Sending the Best to the Smallest Jobs
Hamstra dispatches veteran leak specialists—often the same people who train their installers—to handle emergency repairs. This strategic decision sends their most experienced personnel to solve the most complex small problems.
Solving it right the first time builds immediate, lasting trust. A leak is a high-stakes, reputation-defining moment, and Hamstra treats it accordingly.
Community Investment Beyond Business
Beyond technical excellence, Hamstra invests directly in their community. They source materials locally and use their skills for charitable work, like providing a complete new roof for Roseland Christian Ministries, enabling the organization to expand services for Chicago's homeless community.
These tangible contributions resonate with voters when casting ballots for community awards.
What Customer Testimonials Reveal
Customer reviews consistently highlight reliability and honesty. Clients name specific staff members—Jim, Tyler, Joe, Adam—for transparency and helpfulness. This personal recognition drives people to actually cast votes.
One story exemplifies Hamstra's approach: When Joe Hamstra inspected a roof, he could have pushed for a lucrative full replacement. Instead, he made minor adjustments, offered simple recommendations, and saved the existing roof. Honesty over profit.
The Christmas Eve Roof
When one client needed work completed before Christmas and asked to be placed on a cancellation list, Hamstra's crew performed the entire replacement on Christmas Eve. These are the stories neighbors share for years.
Customers also praise impeccable cleanup, stress-free processes, and incredible efficiency—all supporting the promise of craftsmanship that exceeds expectations.
What This Award Really Measures
The Southland's Best Reader's Choice Award isn't fundamentally about technical prowess. It's a metric of community trust—a direct reflection of it.
Hamstra Roofing's win demonstrates that their philosophy of exceeding minimums, controlling quality, avoiding subcontractors, and advocating for customers is seen and validated by their community. "Reader's Choice" is simply another way of saying "deep-seated community confidence."
A Question That Extends Beyond Roofing
Building codes originated over 3,000 years ago in ancient Israel with a simple wall requirement—setting minimums to keep people safe. When companies dedicate themselves to exceeding those minimums while maintaining ethical transparency in difficult situations like insurance disputes, it raises a broader question:
Is this combination—dedication to exceeding bare minimums coupled with ethical transparency—what truly builds lasting public trust across any industry? Not just visibility or price, but consistent commitment to doing more than required?
It's something worth considering as you evaluate the trusted staples in your own community.
