Local. Hands-on. Owner-operated.
Colum Smyth has been installing metal roofs across Simcoe, Grey, and Dufferin counties for fifteen years. Not a franchise, not a sales team — Colum quotes your roof, his crew installs it, and Colum walks the finished job before sign-off. Every time.
Built on a handshake with Canada’s oldest roofing manufacturer.
Colum exclusively installs products from Ideal Roofing — a fourth-generation Canadian family manufacturer approaching one hundred years in business. Founded in 1929 by the Laplante family, Ideal is still family-run today. Every panel installed on your roof is made at their Brampton, Ontario plant. No imports, no middlemen.
This isn’t a vendor relationship on paper. Colum knows Phil Laplante — the grandson and current owner of Ideal Roofing — personally. That relationship has been built over years of working together, and it shows in the ways that matter to homeowners. When Colum has needed emergency material deliveries to keep a project on schedule, Ideal has come through. That kind of trust doesn’t come from a purchase order.
“The relationships I’ve built over the years and the trust I have in the company — that’s what it comes down to.”Colum, Owner
So why Ideal? Colum chose them for the reasons that matter most on a roof: product quality, aesthetics, colour selection, paint coatings, gauge of steel, and rust resistance. The flagship Wakefield Bridge steel shingle carries a PVDF Kynar 500 coating, Miami-Dade wind certification to 241 km/h, UL 2218 Class 4 hail resistance, and a 50-year transferable warranty that stays with the house — not the homeowner.
When you choose Select Metal Roofing, you’re getting Canadian-made materials backed by a manufacturer who picks up the phone when your installer calls. After fifteen years working with Ideal, Colum knows the product lineup inside and out. He can tell you exactly which profile, coating, and colour works for your home, your budget, and your climate.
One principle: no surprises.
That means you know what you’re getting before work starts, and you see exactly what was done when it’s finished. Colum personally does a final inspection on every single job. Not a foreman, not a site supervisor — the owner of the company, walking your roof line, checking every detail.
“I don’t love surprises. Customers don’t like surprises. That’s my responsibility as a business owner.”Colum, Owner
- i.
Personal final inspection on every job
Colum walks every completed roof himself before signing off. Your project isn’t done until the owner says it’s done.
- ii.
Honest about what he will and won’t do
If a job falls outside his expertise — like chimney masonry — Colum refers you to the right subcontractor rather than attempting it and doing a poor job.
- iii.
Your property is protected
The crew builds platforms over garden beds and bushes to keep your landscaping intact. A dedicated ground crew handles cleanup and safety.
- iv.
Small crew, same team every job
No revolving door of subcontractors. You meet the team that does the work. Colum is on every job site.
- v.
Metal-only specialist
Select Metal Roofing doesn’t sell asphalt, rubber, or siding. Metal is all we do — and we do it better than generalists who treat it as an add-on.
- vi.
Only sells what he’d put on his own house
Colum won’t recommend a product he wouldn’t install on his own home. Quality materials, proper underlayment, no shortcuts.
Seventeen years in pharma, fifteen years on roofs.
Before roofing, Colum spent seventeen years as a project manager at a large pharmaceutical company, coordinating fibre-optic cabling and networking installations across multiple locations. One standout project took him to Canadian embassies around the world — working with a small team and local contractors in each country to deliver fibre-optic infrastructure. Different languages, different cultures, different working conditions. That experience made him highly adaptable and sharpened his ability to coordinate people, manage logistics, and communicate across any situation.
Eventually, corporate life ran its course. Colum felt he had the right skill set from those years of project management to build something of his own. Through a friend in the roofing industry in Toronto, he started doing sales and roof measurements — discovering a knack for roof geometry, material lists, and job costing.
What followed was a deep education. Colum worked for three different metal roofing companies simultaneously — one high-end aluminum, one budget steel, and one mid-range metal shingles. Each had completely different products, installation methods, and price points. That gave him knowledge across the full spectrum of metal roofing that most installers never get.
He also spent time learning the craft hands-on — showing up to job sites, bringing the crews coffee, sitting on rooftops watching how they installed metal roof systems. Learning the details of difficult flashings around skylights, chimneys, and sidewalls. He educated himself on every aspect of how the systems came together.
“Once I started Select Metal Roofing and wrote my first contract, I was off to the races. My connections with customers became a lot more real, honest. Rather than push or sell a product, I could give them several different options and allow the customer to choose what works best for them.”Colum, Owner
The embassy story isn’t just a fun detail — it’s why Colum is good at what he does today. The communication skills, the crew coordination, the ability to adapt on the fly — none of that came from roofing. It came from coordinating international projects across cultures and continents. The roofing world got the benefit of a project manager who’d already learned to work with anyone, anywhere.
Three crews, one product each.
Select Metal Roofing runs three specialised crews, each trained and certified by Ideal Roofing on a specific metal roof system. The crew installing your roof doesn’t just know metal roofing — they know your specific product inside and out.
- i.
Wakefield Bridge crew — interlocking steel shingles
Colum’s longest-standing team — a sixteen-year working relationship. Specialists in Ideal’s flagship interlocking steel shingle system.
- ii.
Heritage Series crew — standing seam
Trained on Ideal’s hidden-fastener standing seam system. Clean lines, no exposed hardware, built for longevity.
- iii.
Ameri-Cana crew — barn steel & sheet steel
Experienced with corrugated and sheet steel profiles for agricultural buildings, cottages, and homes wanting the classic look.
Every crew shares the same qualities: they arrive early, they communicate with homeowners throughout the day, and they never rush. They ask about pets and bathroom schedules before the first day. Job sites are organised at the end of every day, with tarps covering materials overnight.
Cleanup is thorough. The crew runs a leaf blower across decks and walkways for granules and debris, pulls magnets around the entire property to catch screws, nails, and metal pieces, and goes through garden beds by hand for anything that might have fallen.
“We want it to look like we were never there.”Colum, Owner
Five principles, in practice.
Colum doesn’t shy away from difficult projects — he shies away from cutting corners on them. Select Metal Roofing has tackled churches, barns, and steep-pitch roofs with turrets and angles. Five principles he holds no matter what:
- No. 01
One price, given upfront. “When I give a quotation, I give my best price initially.” No haggling, no inflated quotes with negotiation room baked in. The first number is the real number.
- No. 02
Every step that should be there, is. Every roof system needs synthetic underlayment — manufacturer recommended. If Colum can’t install and warrant it properly, that step doesn’t get skipped to save a dollar.
- No. 03
Realistic timelines, kept. Colum commits to dates he can hold, and gives his crews the time the work actually needs. Nothing gets rushed; corners don’t get cut.
- No. 04
The right product for your roof — even if it’s not from us. If a profile isn’t right for your specific roof complexity, Colum will tell you. Sometimes that’s a different product; sometimes a different installer.
- No. 05
A good fit, both ways. The best installs come from a clear conversation and shared standards from day one. Colum trusts that instinct early — yours as much as his.
“I’m not the most expensive company, and I’m definitely not the least expensive company. If you want really good quality material and you want your job installed correctly, there’s a price associated with that.”Colum, Owner
Complexity welcomed. Compromise denied.
Talk to Colum directly.
Have questions about your roof? Call Colum — he answers every call personally. Or get a free estimate online and we’ll come back within twenty-four hours.