018- Gary Selleck
One of Those Guys
A profile of Gary Selleck, Founder, C&C Family Roofing and Siding
Portrait of Gary Selleck at C&C’s shop in Hatboro, Pennsylvania in July 2026. Shot on 35mm Kodak Tri-X 400 film with Leica R6.2.
Gary Selleck started C&C Family Roofing and Siding more than 32 years ago with his wife, Rhonda. The name came from their two kids.
"C&C became C&C because my son's name is Cole and my daughter's name is Chelsea. We started this business over 32 years ago with a little desk in our basement and a little answering machine. And it grew from there over the years with a lot of hard work, dedication, and trying to change the perception of what a contractor should be."
Honest Work at an Honest Price
Gary got into roofing straight out of high school.
"I started working for a company right out of high school and I loved the business. I loved working outside. I wasn't an inside guy. I loved working with people. I loved talking to my customers. I loved explaining to them what I was going to do."
When he started his own company, it was with a specific goal.
"I set out opening up this company to prove a point that all contractors and all roofers aren't shysters, that there are some good guys out there. Contractors in general, they have that aura about them that they're crooks. 'They're this, they're that, they have a bad name, they can't be trusted.' I wanted to eliminate that, and I did that by giving the people honest work at an honest price."
For Gary, honesty includes telling people what they don't need.
"It's very highly unlikely in this day and age that somebody will say, 'Hey, you know what? I can fix that for a few hundred dollars. You don't need a whole new roof.' We do, because we're going to be here 5 years, 10 years, 20 years down the road."
Family in the Name
The "Family" in C&C's name was always meant to reach further than the Selleck kids, and the company looks for more than skill in the people it brings on.
"It's not just somebody who knows how to do the job. It's somebody that can get along with everybody here. The reason why I called it C&C Family Roofing and Siding is everybody that works here is like family to us, and that's how we treat them, like family."
A lot of the guys have been with him close to 20 years. When they need him, they don't have to wait for Monday.
"If one of my guys need me and it's on a Saturday or a Sunday or it's on a night, they can call me on my cell phone. If I don't answer right away, they can leave me a voicemail and I'll call them back within a half an hour, because I care about the employees."
Without Them, There Is No Me
Summer on a roof is a different kind of hot. It's hotter up there than it is on the ground, and there's no level footing to stand on. The crew works at height, on pitches that range from fairly flat to very steep, carrying their own weight and their materials across all of it. It's brutal, physical work.
"In the summertime, we're up there when it's 90 and 100 degrees, and we have to take breaks. We'll start at 5, 6 o'clock in the morning, whenever the customer will let us, and we'll stop at around 2 o'clock in the afternoon. We don't want anybody getting sick. We don't want anybody getting hurt. And so that's why we start early and end early, because I respect the guys that work for me, and tomorrow's another day."
Gary doesn't separate the company from the place it works.
"We're the community. We feel that we're in the community, we want to help the community out. We try and just do the best for the community, because without the community there is no us. Without the guys putting 10, 15, 20 years into working here and caring so much about the customer, there would be no C&C. I get that, and I understand it, and that's why I treat them so good. Because without them, there is no me."
Done Well
A house, Gary says, is the biggest investment most people will ever make. The roof is what protects it.
"If the roof isn't done right, your investment really falls. And when I do the job and I am done [with] the job and I walk away and I look up at the roof, I go, 'You know what? That is done well.' And for these people, they work hard every day, they go out, they pound the pavement. A lot of these people live week to week, some don't, but the roof is one of the most important things on their house, and their house is the biggest asset that they have. Without that, they have nothing."
He's proud enough of the work to put the company's name out front.
"Every single job gets a lawn sign in their yard, because that's how proud I am of the job."
Getting into roofing is easy. Gary's problem is with the ones who start a roofing company and don't last.
"There's a lot of roofers out there because somebody can just buy a truck and a ladder and put an ad in the paper, and they're going to go to these people's houses and they're going to be in business for 2 or 3 years and they're going to give them a warranty, and they're going to go out of business or open up under a different name. And it's a shame, because these people are in our community and they won't have any type of warranty or guarantee because the people went out of business."
After more than 30 years, C&C's work comes back around. Some customers are calling 25 years later to put another roof on their house. Ask Gary his favorite thing about the work, and he talks about running into old customers at the Wawa.
"Going into a Wawa with my C&C roofing shirt on and somebody coming up to me and saying, 'Hey, you're Gary. You were at my house 20 years ago. You guys did my roof and I haven't had a problem and I'm so happy. I recommended you to friends, to family, to neighbors, to relatives.' That does my heart good to hear that. It's all worth it when you hear somebody saying, 'Hey, you did my roof 20 years ago and I love the job that you guys did.' There is nothing better than that."
He knows how all of this might sound coming from the man at the top.
"It all comes from the heart. It comes from the way I feel about the business, the way I feel about my employees, the way I feel about the secretaries answering the phone. The way that I made it my business to not have that bad contractor vibe. I do it right and that's the only way I know how to do it, the right way. When you cut me, I bleed C&C."
As for how long he'll stay involved: "I hope until I can't do it anymore."
Carried on My Shoulder
What does it take to start a business and keep it running for more than 30 years? Gary goes back to the beginning.
"When I started this business, I worked from 6 o'clock in the morning till 8:30 at night in the summertime, when it was getting dark. I worked on holidays. I worked on Christmas. I worked on New Year's. If the people needed a job, I worked. I was young back then. I had young kids. We had to feed them and you just worked. There was nobody going to knock on my door and give me money. I had to go out and I earned that money every single day. I was the one that was up there on the roof stripping the roof off by hand. I was the one putting the shingles up on the roof before they even had the conveyor belts, before they even had these machines to hoist the shingles up on the roof. I carried them on my shoulder."
Those years shaped how he sees the men on his roofs today.
"I know what my guys do day after day after day. I know what they go through. I've been there. I just didn't open up a company and drive around in a nice car with air conditioning. I know what it was to be in 100 degrees. I also know what it is to do a job in the wintertime because people's roofs are leaking. When it's 25 degrees out there and the wind chill factor is 10 degrees, I know what that feels like. So that's why my guys are treated like they are, because I was one of those guys. I did the work. I had the blisters on my hands, and that's why I can appreciate what these guys do for me now. Now that I'm getting up in years and I can't do that anymore, I appreciate those guys, because I was one of those guys."
Portrait shot on 35mm Kodak Tri-X 400 film with Contax T2.
Gary Selleck is the founder of C&C Family Roofing and Siding, based in Hatboro, Pennsylvania.
