Marcus Holloway

Marcus Holloway grew up in Kings Park, enlisted in the Marine Corps at 18, and spent eight years as a combat engineer — building forward operating bases, clearing roads, handling things that needed to be handled correctly the first time. He completed two deployments to Iraq and came home in 2004 with no particular plan except to take a year and figure out what was worth doing.

“I had bought a house on the GI Bill. It needed a new roof. And the whole experience — the roofer, the adjuster, the runaround — told me exactly what kind of business this should be and what it should not be.”

A nor'easter in the fall of 2004 lifted two courses of shingles off the back slope of his house in Smithtown. The roofer he called quoted eight thousand dollars. The insurance adjuster called it pre-existing wear. Marcus, who had been trained to write accurate damage assessments under considerably more stressful conditions, found the ambiguity unconvincing.

He spent the winter getting his contractor's license, reading insurance claim methodology, and talking to every roofer and adjuster he could find. By spring of 2005 he had Heritage Roofing open in Smithtown with a single crew, a used truck, and a very clear idea of what the business would not do.

The company is larger now — four full crews, a project manager, an office coordinator. Marcus still does most of the initial inspections himself. He finds that homeowners want to talk to the person who is going to be accountable for the work, and he finds that most of the time they are right to want that.

“A roof is not interesting until it fails. My job is to make sure it doesn't fail before it should, and to be the one who answers the phone when it does.”

Heritage Roofing has completed over 900 residential and commercial roofing projects on Long Island since 2005. The company works extensively with insurance carriers on storm damage claims — Marcus has found that accurate documentation, done early, is the single thing that most consistently gets homeowners the settlements they are owed.

Marcus lives in Smithtown with his wife and two kids. He coaches youth baseball in the spring and spends as much time as possible outside. He does not have a lot of patience for complicated answers to straightforward questions.

Marcus Holloway — Smithtown, NY