Meet Bob Robitaille: Answer Me This! Winner

By Karen L. Edwards, RCS Editor.

Each week someone wins a prize for answering a question, next week’s winner could be you!

At RoofersCoffeeShop®, we love giving away prizes and then learning about the people who win! Bob Robitaille was a recent winner of the Answer Me This! question of the week. Answer Me This! is sponsored by The Gibraltar Building Accessories Division as part of their ‘Construction Solutions’ campaign designed to supply feedback from contractors to help them continue to innovate.

Like many of the contractors that I talk to Bob got into the trades almost by chance. “I started a summer job when I was in high school working in a wood shop,” Bob said. “For a young fellow I was making an awful lot of money.”

That wood shop went out of business a few years later and that’s when some relatives who owned real estate asked Bob if he would be able to do some work on their properties since he wasn’t currently employed. That is how Bob became the owner of Robitaille Remodeling. “I didn’t set out to work in the trades, but I was young and had just gotten married,” explained Bob. “It was a good way to make a living.”

His company has done a lot of roofing work over the years and he has enjoyed the work, but it’s becoming less appealing as he nears retirement age. “There is enough other work that I can do, and I don’t need to be on the roof. I’ve got some young studs who handle that for me,” laughed Bob.

Bob visits RoofersCoffeeShop to stay up to date with new products and says he really enjoys seeing the photos of other contractors’ work that are showcased in emails and on the site.

I asked Bob what advice he would give to a young person considering a career in the trades. “If you like to work hard, it’s a great way to make a living. If you don’t want to work hard you should probably go to college.”

Want to try to be next week’s Answer Me This! winner? Find the link to our latest question in our Forum here.