Paul Priest
Paul started his journey in construction at a young age with the guidance of his older brother who was a builder in Atlanta, Georgia. At the age of 12, he flew to work with him for the summers, where he gained a great deal of experience and knowledge about the process of building a home. After many years of learning from his brother, he started his first business at 19 years old. They distributed and installed a new product, called a moisture and air barrier, that was used in the construction process of building new homes. After a few years, he was able to buy his first work truck, trailer, and a skid steer tractor. With these assets, he began his next venture of learning how to be a general contractor in remodeling, dirt work, concrete, landscaping and irrigation. In 2005, he was introduced to the roofing industry and made a living in sales and project management. After five years of gaining experience in sales, sales training, and project management, he left to help a friend with his new company in Dallas, Texas. In his first year, he took on the general manager position and brought the company three times the revenue they had produced in their previous two years of business. After learning the in’s and out’s of not only how to build a good sales team and train project managers to do quality work, he also learned how to market, hire and train good quality employees to work for their team. After several years in Dallas, his wife became pregnant with their first child so they decided to pick up their lives and make a life changing move back to Houston to start their new family and create their own business. In 2013, they started their first roofing company called Katy Roof Leak Repair. They based their company’s focus on taking care of their customers’ needs versus their competitors who were more focused on storm damage repairs. Not only did this allow them to build their name quickly, but it also taught them how to provide quick roofing services to handle massive amounts of roof leak calls. After several years, he decided to change the company name to Texas Roofing and Leak Repair and now they have four locations throughout Texas. Through quality work and a drive to provide the best services possible for their customers, they have created a space for Texas Roofing & Leak Repair to excel in the roofing industry. With almost 18 years of experience, they have accumulated the best roofing credentials, contacts, and quality installers to maintain success throughout the coming years.
In 2020, Paul’s venture into the sheet metal business started with some discussions he had with Thomas Fojtik, who was the owner and operator of Fojtik Sheet Metal fabrication shop since the 80’s. With over 40 years of experience, Fojtik had amassed a huge collection of heavy duty machinery and equipment that can create and fabricate just about any product possible out of metal including welding. He has trained his fabricators and subcontractors to produce top quality work that Paul has valued and used personally since 2013. Thomas approached Paul several years ago about wanting to retire and thought he would be the best candidate to take over his business. After several years of preparation and the knowledge that Paul had employees, with over 20 years of experience that Fojtik trained himself, to help him, he was finally ready to purchase Thomas’ shop located off of a major highway on 2.25 acres.
Once Paul was able to purchase the property and business, he thought of his metal roofing installer Francisco Perez, the owner of Cisco’s Sheet Metal, as the only candidate to become his partner in this new venture. Upon meeting Francisco and witnessing his massive team on countless job sites, Paul began to notice Francisco’s attention to detail and the amazing leadership skills he displayed with his employees. After learning about his work history and getting to know him personally, Paul knew he was the best fit to help make this new sheet metal venture succeed. Francisco agreed to take on this new journey and Texas Sheet Metal Services LLC was created. Now with over 30 employees and numerous top notch sub contractors throughout Texas,Texas Sheet Metal Services is on its way to becoming one of the leading fabrication and installation companies for sheet metal roofing and fabrication.
