Rami Zarifa – B&M Roofing

When a 2017 hailstorm severely damaged the roofs of the Gold Crown Foundation’s baseball stadium and main building, Rami Zarifa and his teammates at B&M Roofing sprang into action. They wanted to get the Colorado youth nonprofit back on its feet as quickly as possible, so it could continue offering basketball, volleyball, golf and other sports as well as enrichment and educational programs to the nearly 15,000 children it annually serves.

Rami Zarifa | President | B&M Roofing

As president and co-owner of B&M, Zarifa received ongoing updates from the project manager overseeing the replacement of the entire roof on the nearly 50,000-square-foot facility after the storm damaged the standing seam metal roof. For the new installation, the B&M team chose to retrofit the sports building with a membrane roof, which creates a watertight covering protecting the foundation’s complex.

The project included a complete reroof of the low-slope roofs of the baseball stadium, which is a three-quarters scale replica of the 76-acre Coors Field baseball stadium for the Colorado Rockies with a capacity for well over 50,000 people. According to Zarifa, project costs reached close to $1 million. In just a few months, employees ensured the facility was ready to function at full capacity, he recalls.

“GCF is the hub for our community, so it was an honor to work on this and get it fully restored with minimal interruption as quickly as possible for parents and children alike,” Zarifa says.

When it’s elementary

One of Zarifa’s favorite projects in his three decades with B&M, a commercial and residential roofing contractor for Colorado and surrounding states, is another baseball stadium, the full-scale version of the one at Gold Crown Foundation: Coors Field.

In 1995, he and his team installed over 110 roofs in the home of the Colorado Rockies Major League Baseball team. He recalls the stadium, located in Denver, was being built for the team as it was gaining popularity and steam. Despite the challenging nature of the project, he enjoyed it immensely—even spending hours scrutinizing rolls upon rolls of blueprints. This helped him determine how many roofs for concessions stands and restrooms were needed as well as where other low slope roof areas were located.

The project was complicated, requiring various materials, such as membrane roofing, rigid insulation and sheet metal components, but B&M completed it on schedule.

“It was a truly fun project because it allowed us to put our years of expertise and skills to use for this brand-new stadium and create the best experience for baseball fans,” Zarifa says.

While an elementary school may not be as high profile as a multi-million-dollar stadium, he gives it equal importance. B&M is currently working on the roofs at Lyn Knoll Elementary School in Aurora, replacing the existing building with a new, more functional one for the school district.

Zarifa and his team have been involved in this project for almost two years, from budgeting and estimating to completion, which is expected to be by the end of August 2023.

From the beginning of the project, he has overseen the installation of the entire roof, including finishing the low-slope roof area, which took approximately six months. When speaking with Blueprint in June, the B&M team was installing wall panels, which will bring the project to around 90 percent completion.

“We hope to make the elementary and other schools in the district and state legacy clients,” Zarifa says. “With B&M in charge, teachers and students can focus on education instead of leaks and other roofing issues.”

Lasting roofs and legacies 

Legacy clients are a major part of B&M’s portfolio and history—and future.

“B&M has been supporting clients for nearly a century, and we’ve developed a reputation as being one of the best in the industry,” Zarifa says. “Legacy clients aren’t just a way for B&M to build its revenue and reputation—more than that, they and even one-time clients give us a chance to connect with the communities in which we work to better understand their needs.”

B&M gives back to the community as often as it can, completing at least one home a year for Habitat for Humanity and working on Housing for the Homeless projects through B&M’s membership with the Colorado Roofing Association.

Zarifa adds, over the past years, B&M has worked hard to build a positive and family-like culture. The company strives to be a full-service contractor providing preventative maintenance programs, repairs, new installations and roof restorations; services include an on call full-service department, able to respond to emergency calls no matter the day or the hour.

“We’ve made it a point to bring on people with excellent skills and great work ethic as well as those who are respectful towards each other, clients and partner vendors,” he says.

Zarifa loves every aspect of his role, though his original career plans were quite different. He’d always planned on starting a business after graduation—and that’s exactly what he did in 1991 after earning his bachelor’s in architectural engineering from University of Colorado Boulder. He hadn’t, however, planned on impressing B&M’s previous ownership. After collaborating on selecting a roof system for a personal client, the company’s leadership offered him a position to support the B&M project management team.

He accepted and was hired as a project engineer and estimator in late 1992. By 2009, he was a vice president—and became one of the owners as he and four other partners took the opportunity to purchase the business.

“We are thankful that B&M had a business continuity plan in place,” he tells Blueprint. “So, when the owner wanted to retire, the new ownership could step in and keep the business operating.”

This year, 2023, marked two major milestones for B&M: the company celebrated its 75th anniversary and Zarifa’s 30th year at the company.

“Our motto at B&M is ‘quality has no substitute; depend on us,’” Zarifa says. “I’ve stayed true to that for the past 30 years and looking forward to tackling many interesting and challenging projects as we continue to install quality roofs and preserve customer’s assets.”