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MIKAELA MACKENZIE \/ FREE PRESS \t Anthony Antoine, with Pristine Siding and Roofing, works on installing eavestroughs on a house in Winnipeg on Friday, July 10, 2026. For Aaron story. Free Press 2026<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re always looking at ways that we can help our community out,\u201d says Don Fata, sales manager, who, along with Ash Boyd, started Pristine in 1998.<\/p>\n
In the past, that meant supporting local hockey teams, organizing a fundraising golf tournament and making regular contributions to Siloam Mission. For several years, Pristine \u2014 which takes on around 1,000 projects annually \u2014 donated $25 to the homeless shelter for every roof it completed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe community\u2019s been very good to our business, so I think it just kind of makes sense to look at ways that we can give and help wherever we can,\u201d Fata says.<\/p>\n
During a weekly staff meeting a few years ago, Fata asked Pristine\u2019s project managers to think of a different way the company might try making a difference.<\/p>\n
Rick Lavallee, a project manager who\u2019s been with the firm since 2013, pitched the pay-it-forward idea.<\/p>\n
It was a couple years after the COVID-19 pandemic and roofing costs had risen significantly. Lavallee says he was shocked at how many times he would visit a home to make an estimate and find the roof actively leaking. More than once, when Lavallee presented a homeowner with the estimate, tears welled up in their eyes because they couldn\u2019t afford it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, why don\u2019t we just give away a roof?\u201d Lavallee recalls. \u201cAnd not just give it away, but try to give it away to somebody who really deserves it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The inaugural recipients were siblings with mental health challenges whose parents had died. Their bungalow was in disrepair and the roof was leaking. Pristine employees showed up and fixed the roof in a few hours.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t MIKAELA MACKENZIE \/ FREE PRESS \t Don Fata (left) and Ash Boyd, founders\/owners of Pristine Siding and Roofing, with a house where their company is doing the eavestroughs in Winnipeg on Friday, July 10, 2026. For Aaron story. Free Press 2026<\/p>\n \u201cOur guys are (always) pretty proud of the work that they do,\u201d Fata says, \u201cbut they knew what they were doing that day and they felt good about it.\u201d<\/p>\n For Fata, the pay-it-forward project connects to what he finds most life-affiming about his work: getting to know people and lending a hand. The company\u2019s services go beyond simple roof repair, he says. Employees deal with complex issues such as insulation, ice damming and condensation problems, and many jobs require attic restoration work.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re helping people make good decisions on protecting their homes (and) adding value to their homes, and I really enjoy that,\u201d Fata says. \u201cYou get to see people\u2019s homes, how they live and (their) pain points. Coming up with solutions for that is pretty rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n Fata, 54, and Boyd, 51, developed a friendship while attending high school at River East Collegiate.<\/p>\n In 1997, Fata was a foreman at an asphalt company and Boyd worked for a roofing business. Boyd invited Fata to join him on weekends for roofing side jobs.<\/p>\n \u201cI started making more (money) on the Saturday and Sunday than I was all week and I kind of liked the work better,\u201d Fata recalls.<\/p>\n The duo started Pristine the following year, hiring two labourers and running the company out of their homes. In 2008, they moved to their current headquarters on Fleet Avenue, just off Pembina Highway. Today, the company has a dozen crews and a fleet of 16 vehicles. During peak season, around 60 people work at Pristine. Annual revenue is north of $8 million.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t MIKAELA MACKENZIE \/ FREE PRESS \t A Pristine Siding and Roofing sign in front of a house where the company is doing the eavestroughs in Winnipeg on Friday, July 10, 2026. For Aaron story. Free Press 2026<\/p>\n Most of Pristine\u2019s work takes place within a three-hour radius of the Manitoba capital, but Fata says the company will take on projects \u201cpretty much anywhere.\u201d Employees have been especially busy in recent weeks, following the intense storms that hit southern Manitoba in June.<\/p>\n Fata fields calls from first thing in the morning until well into the evening.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople get freaked out and panicked, right?\u201d he says. \u201cEspecially if you\u2019ve got water coming into your house, coming through the ceiling. There\u2019s been a lot of that.\u201d<\/p>\n That panic turns into relief when Pristine employees arrive, Fata adds, noting the company is \u201chyper-focused on doing very good, quality work.\u201d <\/p>\n Roofers receive ongoing training, a supervisor inspects the work before a crew leaves the job site and any issues are dealt with immediately.<\/p>\n Lavallee, who has worked in the roofing industry for close to 30 years, says Pristine\u2019s commitment to quality makes it an honour to be associated with the company.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not about the money,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s about making sure that at the end of the day, everything is done in a way that we\u2019re happy with and that the customer will be happy with.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t Beyond the pay-it-forward program, there are other new developments at Pristine. The company is experimenting with an artificial intelligence voice agent to answer phone calls; staff members have named the AI, \u201cPristina.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t MIKAELA MACKENZIE \/ FREE PRESS \t Ash Boyd (left) and Don Fata, founders\/owners of Pristine Siding and Roofing, with a house where their company is doing the eavestroughs in Winnipeg on Friday, July 10, 2026. For Aaron story. Free Press 2026<\/p>\n The company will also renovate its headquarters in the coming months. Fata and Boyd rented office space in the building \u2014 and shared it with the owner \u2014 for years until purchasing the property last September.<\/p>\n Now that they have the 4,000-square-foot building to themselves, Fata and Boyd plan to invest around $300,000 to upgrade the facility, including the warehouse behind the office. Employees found five or six leaks in the warehouse roof during the hailstorm on June 9, so repairs are in order.<\/p>\n \u201cWhich is OK,\u201d Fata says. \u201cWe know how to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n aaron.epp@freepress.mb.ca<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t Aaron Epp Aaron Epp reports on business for the Free Press. After freelancing for the paper for a decade, he joined the staff full-time in 2024. Read more about Aaron<\/a>.<\/p>\n Every piece of reporting Aaron produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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