Prince Rupert’s own Mark Rudderham and his business Rupert Wood N Steel were included in an edition of Renovation Contractor in past months, a magazine that has readers all over the country.
Renovation Contractor magazine was created by Jim Caruk, a well-known name in the contractor industry. After spending 37 years in the industry, Caruk decided it was time to create a trade publication written by and for Canada’s renovators. Caruk is most famous for his television series on HGTV.
Rudderham was featured in the September/October edition, in an article titled “Mountain Men; Living and working in Canada’s Wild West”, a feature that looked at contractors from the north coast. The piece was written by the magazines’ managing editor, Allan Brittnell.
Although Prince Rupert isn’t located on a mountain, Rudderham’s business was included in the article, as it seemed appropriate with the community begin surrounded by mountains.
Brian Hunchuk, owner of Home Hardware in Prince Rupert nominated Rudderham and his business to be written about in the magazine.
Rudderham told the Prince Rupert Northern View that he felt great to be picked out of such an immense crowd of talented tradesmen in the area.
“A lot of people tend to think that all the good tradesmen are working in the Lower Mainland and in bigger areas, but [when you look at] the good tradesmen that work in the northwest, there’s an outstanding amount of them,” said Rudderham, explaining that a reason for this is because tradesmen in the northwest don’t tend to specialize in just one area.
“All the tradesmen up here are really well rounded,” he concluded.
Rudderham has been the proud owner of Rupert Wood N Steel for the past 25 years, with his company running strong through this year, keeping busy working on a variety of different projects.
Rudderham and his employees from Rupert Wood N Steel are general contractors that work from the ground up, from small projects worth a few hundred dollars to jobs worth several millions.
In the article, Rudderham discussed the variety of jobs Wood N Steel has done over the years in communities around the province such as Prince Rupert, Haida Gwaii and Vancouver. The article talked about projects Rupert Wood N Steel has done such as building Prince Rupert’s cruise ship terminal and customs station, constructing an interior retrofit project on the museum of Northern British Columbia, and building banks.
“We’ve had a real range of jobs over the years,” commented Rudderham.
Rudderham was born and raised in the community, with his family having roots here since the beginning of Prince Rupert’s history.