ROOFTOP ROAST

By Shanna Hogan
Photo by Ross Mason

W hile most of us spend our workday in air-conditioned comfort complaining about the heat, the real warriors are outdoors cooking in the blazing sun. This summer, The Times is taking a closer look at some of the Valley’s hottest jobs.

Throughout the summer you can normally find Jeff Brown sweltering atop a roof at a Valley jobsite. His sun-baked face speaks to his years of working under the Valley’s intense summer sun. He’s not only warmed by the sun, though; most of the hair on his arms and legs has been singed off from the 500-degree blowtorch he operates.

Brown is the owner and operator of Valley-based roofing company The Good Roofer. Whether he’s tearing the shingles off a roof or spreading tar on a 118-degree summer day—there’s no denying that he has one of the hottest, sweatiest gigs in the Valley.

“I drink lots of water, lots of Gatorade,” he says. “Dumping buckets of water on my head and sticking my head in the hose—just trying to bring my body temperature down anyway I can, really.”

For Brown, staying out of the heat during the summer is simply not an option. Most of the time, he’s just trying his best to avoid catching on fire.

“I do a lot of torch work, which is roofing you melt with a torch,” he says. “You have a 500-degree torch in your hand and it’s blowing out a flame about five-feet long, melting the roll roofing right to the deck. Needless to say, a lot of the hair on my arms and legs isn’t there anymore from torching. It literally gets burned off.”