How one roofer’s frustration sparked an industry shift

By Jesse Sanchez. 

Anchor Products founder took matters into his own hands and transformed rooftop safety. 

In this episode of Roofing Road Trips®, Anchor Products founder Joel Stanley sat down with Heidi J. Ellsworth in Grapevine, Texas, to share the story behind his 15-year mission to solve a stubborn problem in the roofing industry: unsecured rooftop equipment. “It’s always the HVAC guy’s fault or it’s always the plumber’s fault or the safety guy’s fault,” Joel said, referring to the need to point fingers when things go wrong. “But you can complain about it or you can actually do something about it.” 

So, Stanley did just that. 

Driven by years of witnessing costly and dangerous rooftop damage, Joel founded Anchor Products with one goal: to develop non-invasive, watertight solutions that secure rooftop equipment without compromising the roof system itself. What started with a revelation at a trade show in 2008, watching Isoweld and RhinoBond demonstrations, turned into a patented product line that’s now recognized by many major roofing manufacturers. 

“We figured out a revolutionary way to do things and make attachments,” Joel said. “We didn’t have to penetrate all the way down to the decking. We could get away with doing minimally invasive surgery, arthroscopic surgery for roofing, we’ll say.” At the center of the innovation is the U-Anchor, a simple yet powerful device that enables secure, watertight rooftop attachment without compromising the integrity of the roofing system. But what sets Anchor apart isn’t just the hardware. Joel expressed the philosophy behind the brand. “We sell trust more than anything,” he emphasized. “People have to say, ‘I can rely on that.’” 

Resiliency, Joel argued, is the new benchmark in roofing, and it's not just about materials. “It has to do with the appropriate roofing contractor, a good quality product and good design,” he explained. “It doesn’t do any good to have a great product and a great contractor and an architect that screwed it up.” 

He illustrated the critical importance of resilient rooftop systems by referencing facilities like agricultural plants and data centers that can’t afford downtime. A leak over a production line, he warned, can bring entire operations to a halt, with ripple effects that can’t be solved overnight. 

Joel’s frustration turned into a blueprint for change, and he doesn’t just talk about solutions; he brings them on the road. In this conversation, he introduced Anchor’s new mobile product showcase, a traveling demonstration unit that gives contractors, architects and manufacturers a hands-on look at their full lineup of attachment systems. 

Listen to the podcast or Watch the conversation to learn more about Joel’s origin story, the engineering behind the U-Anchor and how Anchor Products is pushing the roofing industry forward!