Raising The Roof | Meridian Roofing

By LISA LOEWEN | Photos by BRIAN PETERS

“Meridian” — a word for the lines of longitude that run north to south on maps — is not a term most people use every day. But the founders of Meridian Roofing Solutions chose it as their name after realizing it was the perfect way to sum up their business philosophy. '

“Meridian lines are connecting points,” said co-owner Keith Richards, who founded the company with Nathan Morris in 2013. “We want our company to be a connecting point between custom roofing solutions and happy customers.”

Nathan grew up in the roofing industry and joined the family business when he turned 18, having never considered any other career. He eventually discovered that his work in the roofing industry was an opportunity to bring new ideas to life.

“From a young age I was fascinated by the construction of new buildings,” Nathan said. “The idea of creating something where there was once an empty space was mind-blowing to me.”

Meanwhile, Keith had graduated from Kansas State University in 2005 and was working in marketing. Nathan and Keith were strangers until their wives, who taught at the same school, introduced them.

The two became fast friends. Soon after, Nathan brought on Keith to join the family business in a marketing capacity.

CONNECTING THE DOTS

Nathan and Keith knew that when it came to work, they had something significant in common: both wanted to bring a more personalized touch to the industry.

“So many times, roofing solutions take a cookie-cutter approach that requires customers to settle rather than giving them exactly what they want,” Nathan said. “We believed the Topeka market needed a roofing company that could offer custom work, and all types of roofing products instead of just one. Becoming experts in many different roofing materials allowed us to provide more solutions than what Topeka had before.”

Since neither of them were the final decisionmakers at Nathan’s family business, they knew they’d have to take a risk and start their own company if they wanted to achieve more.

For them, “achieving more” meant providing design and consultation services, as well as infrared scanning, inspections, repairs and custom architectural metal roofing. They now run their own sheet metal fabrication shop, where they can manufacture in-house custom parts for any roofing job.

Meridian handles both custom and commercial roofing projects, but specializes in flat or “low slope” roofing. Low slope roofing is far more complicated.

“The Topeka market already had great step slope roofers, so it didn’t make sense to compete in that space,” Nathan said. “The market had a need, and we had the knowledge to meet that need.”

Over the past decade, they’ve completed projects throughout Northeast Kansas that include government buildings, schools, hospitals and apartments.

The company’s biggest project to date has been the Stormont Vail Events Center, which was completed two years ago. Other notable jobs include the south tower of Stormont Vail Hospital, the new Kansas Turnpike Authority building in South Topeka, the Topeka Center for Advanced Learning and Career building and the new Ashburn-Washburn Middle School.

While they only market to customers within a 100-mile radius of Topeka, Meridian’s reputation often takes them farther afield to places like Hutchinson, where they’re about to begin their next undertaking.

MAPPING THE COMPANY CULTURE

Nathan and Keith said they’re proud of the reputation they’ve built with Meridian over the past 10 years, but won’t take all of the credit for the company’s success.

“Our team is amazing,” Keith said. “All of our employees have a problem-solving mindset, so we’re constantly working together to come up with solutions to complex problems.”

For Nathan, teamwork has always been the secret to bringing projects to life. “The older I became, the more I fell in love with leading teams of people to create,” he said.

That doesn’t mean everything always goes according to plan. Meridian had to adapt to the challenges of workplace shutdowns during COVID-19, and is still working through lingering supply chain shortages and a tight labor market.

“Growing a business can be a difficult but fun challenge,” Nathan said. “You have to design the roadmap, but you must also be willing to pivot.”

Meridian made one of the company’s biggest pivots in 2017 after buying the former Coca Cola building on Kansas Avenue. The original plan was to renovate the building and move their offices inside, but they soon realized it wasn’t going to work.

“Even though we couldn’t do exactly what we wanted with the building, we kept it as warehouse space and eventually turned it into what’s now our sheet metal shop,” Nathan said. “That’s how we survived the 2021 material shortage. At the time, the supply chain was backed up a year or more. We needed a place to store what we had until all the other materials for the project had shown up.”

Keith added that their other secret to survival has been fostering a company culture that rewards hard work, while seeing mistakes as golden opportunities to improve.

“People shouldn’t dread going to work,” Keith said. “We want our team to enjoy working here, not only because it’s a great career but because we also value their input. There is no such thing as a bad idea. Sometimes the ‘worst’ ideas are the ones that get the creative process started.”

Keith and Nathan said it’s the reason why Meridian has minimal staffing turnover. Their crew superintendent, vice president of sales and project manager have each been with the company for eight to ten years.

BRINGING THE COMMUNITY UNDER ONE ROOF

Growing a successful roofing company takes more than hard work and a great product. The Meridian Solutions team said they wouldn’t be where they are today without the support of the community where they live and work.

The first job they landed happened after a chance meeting with one of their contacts at The Dugout Sports Bar and Grill.

“It was the south tower of the Stormont Vail hospital campus. The building had a concrete deck and they needed a way to install the roof without drilling into concrete and disturbing patients,” Nathan said. “We proposed an idea to tear off the existing roof and glue down the new roofing products. It could be done with very little noise or interruption to the facility.”

“They loved it,” Keith said.

The business owners said they put the same care and attention into how they give back to the community.

In 2015, Meridian donated a roof to Habitat for Humanity. They perform yearly maintenance on the Ronald McDonald House, where Keith oversaw a new roof installation in 2019 and previously served on the board for four years. He also spent eight years on the board of Project Topeka.

Nathan founded the TEDxTopeka event series in 2014 and chaired the 20/30 Club of Topeka’s 2019 Gala.

“Our business is only as good as our reputation,” Keith said. “We hope people view us as more than just a company that does business with integrity. We want them to see us as a company that really cares about our community because we live here, too.