Philippe Pollien Brings His European Roofing and Sheet Metal Business to Shoreline.

Philippe Pollien has made a home in Shoreline far from his original home in Valence, a little town in the South East of France.  He moved to Shoreline six years ago and opened European Roofing and Sheet Metal LLC last August, bringing 20 years of experience installing and building European traditional stone roofs to many houses in the Seattle area.

“My company specializes in metal roofing – copper, zinc and slate tiles. I try to use European techniques,” Pollien states.

He also installs copper gutter systems and is a very skilled metal artist. In his spare time he’s built a copper replica of the Space Needle that sits about seven feet tall on the corner of his Shoreline property.

Pollien got into this business in the late 1980s after he finished school in France. He didn’t know what career path he wanted to follow until met a roofer and talked with him for over two hours. At the end of their conversation Pollien had found himself a job. He went on to have seven years of training throughout France and England with the renowned Les Compagnons du Devoir.

“They offered to help me learn roofing techniques and required me to change towns every six months. In France each roof is different and I learned the technique along side people who had done this work for years,” he claims.

After he arrived in the States he worked for Jove Roofing.

At the time Pollien could not speak English very well. His employer told him they didn’t have to speak much but wanted him to prove with his hands what he could do. He proved he had a true talent and some of his co-workers mentioned he should open his own business, specializing in his European roofing.

He took on the challenge and has been working successfully on his own, doing what he loves. He hasn’t hired anybody yet but hopes to in the future.

“I want to build a good foundation and after that maybe hire somebody,” he states.

Pollien also would love to hire a French roofer who had worked one year with the association "Les Compagnons du Devoir" to give a young French roofer a chance to know the American culture.

During his time with that association, Pollien lived in five French cities and ended up in London in 2000. While there he built a dome made of copper and went on to do a similar ornamental dome in Haiti in 2003.

Here in the states Pollien hasn’t built any domes but uses the intricate designing techniques and the same materials he used while in France.

He has clients all over the surrounding area. His last project is a curved copper bay window for the contractor Charter Construction in West Seattle. He also has a project to be a VM ZINC instructor, where he’ll teach other roofers how to install French metal properly in this climate.

“We use a lot of copper and zinc,” he states.

Unlike copper, zinc can be soldered. The finishing lasts longer, since Pollien can make smaller pieces to closely fit each piece together and guarantee waterproofing.

When asked what the most difficult aspect of his job he thinks hard for a few seconds and then replies, “nothing, I love what I do.”