Paul E. Fisher started the firm as an individual enterprise on a $1.00 bill. This covered the cost of a used 55-gallon oil barrel, 3 used tractor sleeves to sit the barrel on and a mop head. He attached the broom handles to the mop head and dipper. His first ladder was made by splitting a 2 x 6 and nailing 1 x 4 rungs on it. The old homemade ladder and barrel lasted for several years. The rest was acquired by credit from the local lumberyards.

Paul would fire up the kettle (barrel) before daylight and work until dark, often only making enough to pay for the materials. He only hired helpers when he couldn’t do all the work alone. After all, labor was going at 25 cents per hour and this often represented his potential profit.

Asphalt was available at the local lumber yards in only 2 or 3 melting points. The melting point represented the degree of temperature the asphalt would melt on the roof. It was not uncommon for some roofers to put on the wrong melting degree of asphalt and the first hot day see his roof dripping and sliding off the lower end of the building.

At the job site the kettle would be fired up using scrap lumber and occasionally quite smelly old tires. There was no thermometer so the roofer would spit in the pot and know from the crackle of the spit when the asphalt was too hot and was about to catch on fire or blow up. A hand dipper was used to put the asphalt into buckets to be hand carried to the roof. Everything had to be hand carried up the ladder.

Over sixty years ago our equipment was a pickup truck and a homemade kettle. Today, our roofing equipment has advanced along with technology. Most of the back breaking work has been eliminated by the use of conveyors, pumper-kettles and scissor lift trucks. This equipment has made it more attractive hire and keep quality employees.

In 1985, David and Shelley Knutson purchased Fisher Roofing from Paul and Delores Fisher. Since then David and Shelley started Fisher Restoration.