Blazing the Trail for Women in Roofing

By Cass Jacoby. 

RCS celebrates female role models in roofing, starting with the 2022 North American Female Roofing Professional of the Year Michelle Mulder. 

In a new Roofing Road Trips episode, Heidi J. Ellsworth meets with Michelle Mulder, owner of Nailed It Roofing in North Bay, Ontario, Canada and the winner of Beacon’s annual North American Female Roofing Professional of the Year competition. 

The Female Roofing Professional of the Year was created to shine a spotlight on inspiring women in the roofing industry across the U.S. and Canada. “It was such a huge honor and such an amazing award and I knew that I had made the right decision going into roofing,” says Michelle. “I think it's amazing to celebrate and recognize these women-owned businesses. It's inspiring and great incentive for other women. There might be some on the fence wanting to enter the trades and if they see these awards out there, that might just give them that extra push they need.” 

Michelle has enjoyed hands-on work since taking shop classes in high school, where she looked forward to a career in the trades. As a woman, she found it difficult to be hired in construction after high school, so she enrolled in the Renovation Techniques Construction Carpentry Program at Canadore College.  

“I took a construction carpentry class at Canadore College and there was an interior finishes class and we learned about shingles that day. And after that day I found myself looking at roofs and all that needed to be repaired in North Bay and I'm like, ‘This is something I want to do,’” says Michelle. “I really fell in love with roofing and had a passion for it.” 

In 2015 Michelle started her own business, Nailed It Roofing, which has been one of the top roofing companies in North Bay, Ontario for the past seven years. As the winner of Beacon’s Female Roofing Professional of the Year 2022, she is dedicated to being a role model for women looking to join the industry. 

“There's a ton of us out there. You have to look in the right places,” says Michelle. “There's definitely going to be the ups and downs. Definitely you want the more ups than downs. You just got to keep pushing and remember why you started. I always look at my children now and they're my why and I want them to know that hard work does pay off and to follow your dreams.” 

To learn more about Beacon’s annual Female Roofing Professional of the Year competition, the deserving finalists, and the official contest rules, visit go.becn.com/femaleroofpro. 

Listen to the entire podcast to learn more about how Michelle and her husband built Nailed It Roofing and for more insight on what it means to be recognized as an outstanding woman in roofing. 

Learn more about Beacon Building Products in their RoofersCoffeeShop® Directory or visit www.becn.com. 

About Cass  

Cass works as a reporter/writer for RoofersCoffeeShop, AskARoofer and MetalCoffeeShop. When she isn’t writing about roofs, she is putting her Master degree to work writing about movies and dancing with her plants.