Roof Raise Business...?

[Jay Brand]

I grew up on a bus conversion business. We raised the roofs on Silver Eagles. It wasn't the only thing we did to the bus though.
We raised the roofs re glasses the front and rear caps, rolled out custom fiberglass sides so the bus was seamless all the way around and then gave it a full custom RV style paint job.
It was the package deal that brought on the business. If we only raised the roof it wouldn't have been as successful.

[james77]

I also think that you need to connect your business not only with raising roofs, maybe you need to add some tuning

[sportyrick]

I eliminated the front door so my girlfriend can ride comfortably next to me, she gets motion sick if not watching the road. Also we have the bed up front (only one at Skooliepalooza) so when it's made we don't have to crawl over it to get in and out. Most of the rest of you usually put the master bedroom in the rear but you can't haul anything back there then.

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by sportyrick

Most of the rest of you usually put the master bedroom in the rear but you can't haul anything back there then.

Au contraire. Of course, it helps to be single!

[HazMatt]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

Au contraire. Of course, it helps to be single!

Yup!
I realized THAT l'il factoid after about a decade of weeded blis(ter)...

[Mobobaddon]

I would hire you for a roof raise
6192104471

[mmoore6856]

my wife and i raised our schoolie 16 inches. it was decided to only go 16 so even with solar panels we would just be under 12 ft tall. the 4 inches of insulation really makes a difference on the roof . i dont know how we could survive i it without the raise and i realize that without some of my prior metalworking skills it would have been hard and we might have not done it. so if you want to start a oof raise buisness i think it would be great as more people could enjoy a higher ceiling.

[t1gress]

Originally Posted by Corl

DISCLAIMER: first post, sorry if in wrong thread.

Should I start a roof raise business?

Would you, as a person looking for a bus to convert, prefer to raise the roof yourself, or would you prefer to buy a pre-raised bus?

How much would you be willing to pay, for such? For example: two busses available; both are 40ft, dog-nose, 2000 Thomas builts, with similar mileage, both have complete service records and recent engine overhauls. One is a stock bus, seats in place; the other has had the seats and insulation removed, the roof raised by 16-24 inches, and sheet metal over where the windows used to be (allowing you to cut your own windows). If the first one is worth $10k (or any arbitrary value), how much is the second worth?

In my head, I'd offer two different services:
A) pre-raised busses, for sale. These would be busses that I have personally bought, raised the roof myself by a given height, then posted on ebay/craigslist/here/elsewhere, for sale. I'd deliver anywhere in the continental US, and Canada.
B) Custom roof raises, in which I take my own bus to your property, raise your roof with my own equipment, and make sure that you're satisfied with my work.

Context: I've raised 4 school bus roofs, all for good friends, and all for "pizza and beer", essentially. I've been a welder and fabricator for ten years, and the entire process was really rather straightforward; but I can understand why some people might not want to do it themselves, and I couldn't find many people offering roof raises as a service, though there were some.


TL;DR: Should I start a roof raise business?

Hey there, did you ever start your business? Or at the least are you taking jobs? I need a welder in general for skoolie projects
614-664-3317

I think you are too far away from me though

[Inner Love]

Bodywork is definitely something a lot of people don’t understand the amount of equipment you need to have or acquire to do a decent And time efficient job. Lots of people buy buses with varying degrees of rust, and are looking for someone to do a good enough job remediating it.

Customers may have roof leaks, window leaks, broken bus window panes, bent or misaligned bus doors, missing access panels, or busted rear lights. Customers may need seam sealing, window replacement, weather stripping replacement, body straightening, small steel panel fabrication, turn signal light replacement.

Then there’s the nasty parts: moldy & crumbling subfloors, rust remediation and fiberglass removal, fiberglass may or may not contain asbestos. Then cleaning the inside skeleton up in preparation for insulation.

Then there’s doing a great insulation & paneling job, which may require multiple Load Locks depending on the method employed.

There are so many little things that aren’t thought of in a bus build until you’re faced with them. The very small things you could include in your services, which will make your customers rave about how thoughtful you were. Little things like moving the bus wiring through the skeleton or relocating speakers.

Electrical, plumbing and HVAC is something you don’t have to offer as a service but will be a limit on the amount of leads you get.

Structural additions to the bus like roof rack (which I would call it as, not as a roof deck for insurance reasons), underframe platforms or hanging tanks, hitch additions, rear deck, side door additions, and roof raises (you could possibly get around personal liability by making your customer sign a waiver / hold harmless contract, with a part stating they are choosing to go without an engineer’s signature, and the subsequent liability protection that offers) is something people want.

Knowing how to contract out elements you aren’t qualified to do, like A/C removal can bring you revenue for arranging that work so the customer doesn’t have to.

Lots of people don’t want to drive their bus to a shop, where they can’t see it. If you live full time in your rig, you could show your work to customers (if you built your rig yourself) and live on their property as you work on their bus. Shops also have big overhead (figuratively and literally) which they have to include in their prices, and may be 1000 miles away from the customer. Some customers can’t legally drive their bus because they are still have the previous owners commercial title.

The best part is, unlike other mobile businesses, is you don’t have to find a new customer every day. Each customer may need a week to a month worth of work on their bus.

You could store all the tools and equipment needed under your floor like I plan to do or you could have it all inside of a large enclosed cargo trailer. If you have a towed vehicle, you could use that to go into town for parts and supplies.

By showing past quality work (document everything!), and daily communicating with your customer, you are offering a better service than 90% of contractors in any specialty.
Customer service is the new marketing, and showing quality work will cause your lead flow to fill up fast!

[closequarters]

Corl,
We are located in Raleigh, NC and in the market for a bus for a skoolie conversion. We will definitely be doing a roof raise.. we have decided it is a non-negotiable on our list as we want to do spray foam insulation & will be doing bunks in the back for our girls; we want them to have comfortable head room
We would be interested in hiring your services when we've got our bus!

[Ace418]

This is the one job I wouldn’t want to do. Also I think having a professionally modified structure done but a business with its own insurance would make it easier to insure the bus for your customers after.