MAC Daddy of Efficiency

Spray Foam Magazine – Summer 2026 – There’s a new land of milk and honey springing up in the desert valley around Las Vegas, Nevada. About 20 miles outside of the city proper, luxury housing developments are cropping up along the crystalline shores of Lake Las Vegas. These multi-million-dollar homesites are part of the Blue Heron Nexus, custom-designed communities featuring exteriors with razor-sharp architecture and interiors straight out of an art museum. Even the most modest community, Shoreline, boasts homes with flat roofs, sky decks, and floor plans upwards of 3,000 square feet.

MAC Roofing Services are no stranger to Vegas’s high-end custom home scene. Owners Chuck and Marilyn Kruse have over 30 years of roofing experience, and frequently work on homes with build budgets between $40 to $70 million. Today, MAC has nearly 300 individual projects in the works, including installing Ultra-Thane 230-2.7 closed-cell spray foam by General Coatings Manufacturing Corp. to the roof systems on the 86 homes at Shoreline. Many of their current projects are in partnership with their friends at Blue Heron. It’s a symbiotic relationship that’s served them well for over half their career.

“We’ve been working with the general contractor, Blue Heron Homes, for 15 years, and have done over 600 roofs for them,” said Chuck, adding that performing work of this nature at scale in a true “vendor partnership” with Blue Heron has allowed MAC to enter the process during the design phase and negotiate for all of Blue Heron’s projects.

“Our vendor partner system, which includes front-end help with design, must be working because MAC Roofing has had zero roof leaks reported ever on a Blue Heron home.”

This dynamic duo’s partnership has taken them both to some high places. Together, MAC Roofing and Blue Heron have completed five New American Home projects for the National Association of Home Builders. In 2027, they’ll complete their sixth New American Home project, all while grinding out the remainder of the Lake Las Vegas construction projects.  

A Bed of Roses

“Seems the billionaires are leaving California and coming here,” said Chuck, reflecting on the sheer volume of opulent residences he and his team have helped construct in recent years. And who can blame them?

Prices on a Shoreline build start at a cool $1.4 million, and even the base model has ridiculous curb appeal. Each home is two to three stories high, and the flat roofs on each floor doubling as balconies, with a sky deck on the very top. Flat roofs are all the rage in modern architecture, but they have a few quirks. Chuck explains that the flat shape is a sort of optical illusion backed by building code requirements:

“The homes are framed with a quarter inch per one foot of slope to prevent water from pooling,” he said. “The spray foam and coating system protects the roof for the building’s lifetime and only requires periodic maintenance touchups.”

The roof on each home receives a one-and-a-half-inch layer of General Coatings Ultra-Thane 230-2.7 closed-cell spray foam, and then two coats of General Coatings Ultra-Flex 1000. The foam and coating will keep the roof sealed, protected, and green. 

Gold-Standard Energy Efficiency

Each home is two to three stories high, with balconies on each floor and a sky deck on the very top. The single-family homes in the Shoreline community are a bed of roses, and they’re energy efficient to boot. The building envelope on these homes features an unvented roof assembly, also known as a “hot roof.” The term is fitting for the sleek and chic Shoreline homes, and unvented roofs are one of MAC’s specialties.

Traditional vented attics have vents on the soffit or gable end walls and insulation on the attic’s floor. HVAC ducts sit on top of the attic’s floor insulation, but the roof itself is typically uninsulated. Air leaks from the HVAC ducts and escapes through the roof, compromising the home’s overall energy efficiency.

Shoreline’s attics won’t have this problem thanks to the “hot roof” design. The exterior roof deck is insulated with air-impenetrable spray foam, which seals the attic’s interior from the hot desert air while sealing the conditioned air inside. Even if the HVAC ducts leak a little, the building envelope’s air barrier is so solid it will hardly matter. Plus, an unvented attic makes the most sense for a flat roof design.

Getting Up to Business

To access the roofs, the team typically uses a ladder on the second-story roof to get up to the third. Their heated hoses have 300-plus feet of length, and have no problem reaching from the ground to the roof’s highest point. The topmost roof has 40-inch parapet walls along the perimeter, which minimizes the fall hazard so the team doesn’t have to tie off while working. To be extra safe, they mark the roof’s edge with boundary flags in areas with shorter parapet walls. Their PPE arsenal consists of 3M respirators, gloves, long pants and sleeves, hard hats, and high-vis vests. Protecting the property around the home is another story.

The valley’s windy weather poses a challenge when spraying high up on an exposed roof. To make sure the foam only goes where they want it to, the helpers secure the roof’s perimeter with plastic masking. While foaming, sprayers keep tabs on the wind direction and adjust their positioning.

The team uses a Gusmer H-20/35 proportioner with a Graco Fusion AP Gun to install one and a half inches of the closed-cell spray foam.

After the foam cures, they install two coats of General Coatings Ultra-Flex 1000 using a Graco 733 and a 6/45 tip in a Graco Silver Gun. 

To quickly distinguish finished from unfinished roofs, the base coat is a brilliant white, while the top coat is a more subdued tan color.

No roof is complete until it has received a second and final coating of General Coatings Ultra-Flex, but this step occurs months later. After installing the base coat, the team pauses for about a month to give other trades time to complete adjacent work that may damage or scuff the foam roof, such as stucco, electrical, or painting. Because finished roofs are under warranty, slapping the topcoat on before the other trades get done would be wasted effort for MAC, and wasted money for the homeowner. So, they take a long break and revisit later once construction work on the roof is completely finished.

Upon returning to add the top coat, they start by quickly cleaning the roof, then make repairs to any small defects in the foam layer, paying close attention to the edges. Once they're satisfied with the roof's final condition, it’s time to add the finishing coat of General Coatings Ultra-Flex 1000. After that tan-colored topcoat goes on, the roof is considered finished and under warranty.

Occasionally, the team might end up back at a particular home later on down the line, such as in the case of solar panel installation. Because solar installations involve penetrating the roof and compromising the topcoat, Chuck prefers to coordinate with the solar company to make sure the roof and warranty remain intact. Incorrectly installed panels could damage the roof and void the warranty, but Chuck and his team avoid this sticky situation with responsive communication. It’s both a brand promise and a courtesy to their clients.

By the time MAC Roofing wraps up the 86-home Shoreline community in mid-2028, they’ll have foamed and coated around 242,000 square feet in this development alone. So far, they’ve completed just over 20 out of 86 homes. Business is booming and MAC currently has over 600 individual jobs in the pipeline. They’re still working alongside Blue Heron on six more projects, three of which are in the luxurious Lake Las Vegas area. In addition to its work with Blue Heron, MAC Roofing also partners with several other high-end custom home builders and operates a reroof division that serves both residential and commercial projects. Much like the city they call home, these roofing experts show no sign of slowing down anytime soon.  

Published by Spray Foam Magazine

SprayFoam / Spray Foam Insulation