ASHTABULA — Wayne Senita always has known he was going to own his own roofing business.

“At around age 11, I wanted to help my dad, and he kept shooing me off the ladder,” he said. “By the time I was 13 and 14, I would ride my bike to the job and work with my dad for a while, then ride back home to do my paper route.”

In 1946, John Senita began a predominantly home insulation business in Ashtabula, eventually expanding into roofing.

“Insulation and roofing naturally go together because the roof protects the whole house,” said Wayne Senita, who has owned Wayne Senita Inc. since 1995.

Wayne Senita said the insulation material used by his dad more than 60 years ago is the same product used today: blown-in rock wool.

“Rock wool is a fire-resistant material made out of limestone. They melt it down and then whip it up like cotton candy,” he said.

After John died, Wayne Senita and his brother Steve, of Senita Roofing and Insulation, carried on the business together from 1985 to 1995. The brothers parted ways, and each formed his own company because there was so much work.

“Steve and I are not competitors. We look at each other as an asset; we can be as small or as big as we want,” Wayne said. “On big projects, we can team up and work together, utilizing each other’s manpower and equipment.”

Wayne Senita Inc. also offers insulation and roofing services.

“I am just as happy doing either. I really enjoy the work. It is an outdoor activity, and I like solving problems and meeting new people,” Wayne said.

Senita owns a top-of-the-line insulation machine that allows for better control of the insulation pressure in the walls so the blown-in material does not settle down inside the walls over time, he said.

“The beauty of rock wool insulation is that it stays put, so your house remains properly insulated,” Senita said.

Plus, when the insulation is complete, there are no unsightly “buttons” on the outside of the house to tell the tale.

“We remove certain sections of siding, blow in the insulation into the existing side walls and then replace the siding when we are finished,” he said.

Senita admits that his method of insulation is expensive but the point is to lower the homeowner’s overall heating bills.

In fact, with the reduced heating costs, the payoff for the insulation job is about four years.

The other service Wayne Senita Inc. provides is roofing systems.

“A roof covers 100 percent of the assets you will own in your life. Why would you want a cheap one?” Senita asks. “My system completely protects my customers from start to finish, whereas with other roofers, you don’t know what you are going to get.”

The CertainTeed Integrity Roof System, of Valley Forge, Pa., is the system that separates Wayne Senita Inc. from its competitors.

“CertainTeed is a certified roof system. We offer a select shingled roof that comes with a warranty that covers 100 percent of the roof for 15 years. There is also a 50-year warranty if customers choose,” he said.

Senita has four employees who are all CertainTeed factory-trained and certified installers.

“CertainTeed has been in business for 103 years, and we have to install to rigorous inspections by the manufacturer.”

Senita may be more expensive, but his employees work hard to be detailed and accurate, he said.

“CertainTeed offers to qualified buyers manufacturer-sponsored financing,” Senita said.

“Our objectives are threefold: to make sure the customer understands what they are buying; that our customers feel confident that their roof is being installed properly; and we are clean, neat and respectful to our customers,” Senita said.

Julie Senita, who helps her husband with bookkeeping and scheduling, said: “The difference between Wayne and other roofers is that he is extremely dependable and only does the highest quality of work. We have never had a complaint.”

Seventy percent of Wayne Senita’s work is roofing, and 90 percent of his company’s business is in Ashtabula County.

“We have done work for whole families here. We are proud to invest in this county,” he said.

For further information, call Wayne Senita Inc. (440 992-7881).