What 48 Years on the Roof Teaches Us About the Value of Skilled Trades
Some of the best lessons in construction do not come from a textbook. They come from decades on the job, from someone who has watched a city rise floor by floor and learned every mistake worth learning. That is the story behind Domingos Figueiredo, a 78-year-old construction supervisor at Bothwell-Accurate in Mississauga, who has spent 48 years supervising roofing and cladding work and still has no plans to stop.
I have spent enough time on job sites to know that this kind of career is rare, and it matters more than people realize. Figueiredo joined Bothwell-Accurate in 1970 and was promoted to foreman within a year. Since then he has supervised work on major buildings across Toronto, including the Eaton Centre and the Macdonald Block Complex at Queen’s Park. He has even returned to some of those same roofs decades later to replace what he installed the first time around. That is a kind of quality control you cannot manufacture. It is earned.
What strikes me most is how much the trade has changed under his watch, and how little his standards have moved. Materials, safety codes, and site practices have all advanced since 1970, and Figueiredo has adapted to every shift while holding onto the fundamentals that make a roof or a cladding system actually last. That combination, willingness to learn plus respect for the basics, is exactly what separates durable buildings from ones that need constant patching. It is also exactly the kind of knowledge the industry is at risk of losing as experienced tradespeople retire faster than they can be replaced.
He cares about the company, and he cares about the people he works with.
George Vassallo, CEO of Bothwell-Accurate, put it plainly when he called Figueiredo a legend in the industry. Contractors specifically request him because they trust his judgment on site. For homeowners and building owners reading this, that trust is the entire point of hiring skilled trades in the first place. A supervisor who has seen a roofing system fail, get repaired, and fail again over forty years knows things no manual can teach, and that knowledge shows up in fewer callbacks, fewer surprises, and buildings that hold up the way they were meant to.
Figueiredo’s family has stayed close to the trade too. His son and two grandchildren work at Bothwell-Accurate, and his younger brother is still with the company. That kind of generational continuity in a skilled trade is worth paying attention to, especially now, when the construction industry is short on experienced hands and long on demand. Companies that hold onto people like Figueiredo, and that build pathways for the next generation to learn directly from them, are the ones positioning themselves for stronger, safer, longer lasting work.
At 78, Figueiredo still takes brisk walks every evening and shows up on Saturdays. He says he stays because he likes the work. For an industry built on craftsmanship, that kind of dedication is not just a nice story. It is a reminder of what quality construction actually depends on.
Source: insauga.com
