The Overnight Contractors

In April 2011, more than 750 tornadoes reached down from the clouds to cut paths through the landscape between Texas and New York; they caused billions of dollars in damage to homes, offices, and other structures. Luckily for many, Chris Wiedenhoeft, owner of Champion Roofing Services, Inc., who had moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, in 2003, was there and ready to handle repairs. His company already had decades of experience in Florida, but he jumped on tornado damage throughout the Volunteer State almost as soon as he moved, and he has since recently expanded Champion’s reach, diversifying services to include gutter, window, and siding trades.

Now, in the year and a half since the tornado outbreak, Champion has earned more revenue than it did in the previous six years combined—including the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, one of the most active in recorded history. And, the company’s additional work and services have become so integral to profits that it’s reincorporating as Champion Construction. “If I see an opportunity, I move full-speed ahead,” Wiedenhoeft says. “We became general contractors overnight.” Wiedenhoeft is a GAF Master Elite roofing contractor, a distinction reserved for the top three percent of qualified professionals, but it is additionally his and Champion’s knowledge base and expertise in navigating insurance claims that has led to the company’s recent explosion in growth.

For a recent high-end project—a storm-damaged waterfront home on the Tennessee River worth more than $5 million—insurance adjusters recommended $180,000 in repairs. Champion examined the house and determined that fixing the slate roof, copper gutters, gas lanterns, and other substantial damage would cost 10 times that. Relying on a dispute-resolution clause in the homeowner’s policy, Champion expects to succeed in obtaining the additional repair funds.

“Most contractors would not be in a position to handle restoration work of this magnitude,” Wiedenhoeft says. “Working with the insurance company to come to an agreement like this—it’s a very lengthy process. We’re the only general contractor in the area with that kind of expertise on staff.”

Champion pays the same attention to detail on less profitable projects. Following an insurance assessment of $4,000 of damage to a modest house in Knoxville, Champion visited the site and identified repairs totalling $51,000. The home’s 75-year-old owner, whose parents built the house when she was a child, lives there with her 101-year-old mother—a woman whose late husband had covered the original wood siding with vinyl nearly 15 years before, after which she refused to speak to him for a week. With the additional insurance money, though, Champion was able to restore the home’s original wood exterior. “Our customers appreciate those efforts,” Wiedenhoeft says. “We often find what the insurance companies have overlooked.”

Wiedenhoeft will maintain the company’s Jacksonville and Knoxville operations and open new offices elsewhere in the immediate future, and he is confident but cautious about sustaining company growth. The biggest challenge, he says, is in hiring additional employees with the same level of loyalty, integrity, and dedication as the project managers currently on staff.

“Storm chasers don’t care about workmanship; they get out of town as soon as the work slows down,” says Wiedenhoeft, whose company donates $100 per customer to charities such as Habitat for Humanity, the Wounded Warrior Project, and the Knox Area Rescue Ministries. “We act like local contractors with ties to the community, wherever we go.” ABQ