Our Story
The chemistry on your roof has nearly a century of family history behind it. Here's where it came from, and where we fit in.
It started in a garage in 1927.
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1927
It started in a garage
Harry Conklin starts making vehicle lubricants in his garage.
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1977
A coating made for barn roofs
Conklin turns that chemistry toward the farm. A tougher coating for barn roofs becomes one of America's first elastomeric roof coatings, made to stretch and move with a building instead of cracking against it.
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1979
Judy joins Conklin
Judy Herbster becomes a Conklin distributor. She goes on to be the first woman in the President's Club, the first female Director, and the company's first and only woman president.
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1992
A family owned company
Charles and Judy Herbster buy the company. Charles still runs it today.
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Today
Protecting roofs coast to coast
Over 2.2 billion square feet of roofs protected across America, installed by a network of over 1,700 installers nationwide.
Behind the Chemistry
Healthy roots.
Charles grew up on a family farm in Falls City, Nebraska, that began as a homestead in 1847. Judy was a big believer in health, and you can see it in what Conklin makes: products for farm animals, for plants and soil, and for people's health and homes, right alongside roofing. Judy passed away in 2017. She was instrumental in building the company, and her drive still shapes it today.
The liquids are still made in Conklin's own factory in Shakopee, Minnesota. Many of the installers who put them down come from Amish families: do it right, do it once. We love keeping roofs healthy too.
Where We Come From
“Son, get up, let's go to work.”
I was seven the first time my dad said that to me. Seven words that would solve most of America's problems. My five siblings and I all grew up in the drywall business right alongside him.
Drywall is the craft of making walls smooth and seamless, with every fastener set so nothing shows through. Turns out a flat roof asks for the same hands. I've worked construction full time for 43 years, and today our crew brings well over 40 years of construction experience combined.
How We Work
Experience isn't the same as wisdom.
Years on the job make people feel calm, and our crew has them. But a roofer can spend 30 years repeating the same mistake, following old habits. Wisdom can come faster, from other sources. A crew's skill at solving problems on the job site isn't measured by how many years it's been trying.
So even though we might be a newer company compared to some, don't take that as a limitation. We love solving unique problems. Right now we're tying a vinyl membrane into an industrial heat stack that runs over 200 degrees around the clock. That meant tracking down a furnace adhesive built to take constant heat. Every roof hands us its own puzzle, and that's the fun part.
Our Network
Not alone.
We're one of about 17 installers across the Midwest who meet in Chicagoland every six months. We sharpen each other and share crews on larger projects. You get your local guys, with a bench behind them.
Your local, factory direct, certified installer for Lake, Porter, LaPorte, Jasper, and Newton Counties.