YOUR DAY IN THE SUN

Kevin Taylor, Marley’s Training & Technical Support Manager, will be offering his advice and opinions on all things roofing related every month in Professional Builder. This month, he looks at the opportunities that solar PV offers installers

Kevin boasts over 40 years’ experience in the roofing industry having first started as an apprentice in his father’s firm in Doncaster. With a very ‘hands on’ approach, he enjoyed working outdoors with a variety of different materials and techniques including concrete interlocking tiles, natural slating, clay pantiles, vertical tiling and even cedar wood shingles.

Nine years on the tools and a City & Guilds Craft Certificate later, Kevin became a contracts manager and estimator, as well as lecturing part time at Leeds College of Building – where he had studied.

Enjoying the educational environment, Kevin switched to full time lecturing, finding himself the youngest lecturer at the college and leading his apprentices to success in the National SkillBuild competition on several occasions.

Later, Kevin was approached by the National Federation of Roofing Contractors (NFRC) to advise on slating and tiling and head up technical, training and competitions. During his 12 years there, he worked to reduce roof failures via a series of joint seminars to drive the dry fix agenda, was part of the biggest revision of BS5534 for many years and trained all slating and tiling members on the new British Standards when major changes came in 2014.

Kevin is also author of the roofing bible – ‘Roof Tiling and Slating – A Practical Guide’ – an easy to use, practical manual which is widely used in training centres and colleges across the UK.

Kevin said: ‘I’m looking forward to working with Marley, it will be great to be part of a team again. Having worked in so many different areas of the industry, I appreciate what’s needed to achieve a good quality roof – and that’s everyone working together.’