BCICA Welcomes New QAC Member Wilmat Services Inc.
Wilmat Services Inc. was founded in 2005 and completes commercial, institutional, and maintenance mechanical insulation work on hospitals on Vancouver Island. With a strong word of mouth network and an impeccable reputation, the company could easily expand beyond the Island, but owner Matt Erwin has a deliberately small crew of eight that takes on just the right amount of work.
“We quote conservatively,” he says. “Most want us to work for them, but we stay conservative so we can have work and a life.”
Besides that, his son and son-in-law operate mechanical insulation companies in Vancouver that he helped them establish.
“My son-in-law Owen (Shield Mechanical) and my son Seth (Erwin Thermal Solutions Inc.) have Vancouver,” he says. “I set them up over there and have stepped away from the Lower Mainland market.”
Erwin has spent 50 years in the industry, starting at 17 with his dad in Alberta. Since journeying in 1986, he’s worked on projects such as Vancouver airport and UNBC in Prince George, and installed tens of millions of dollars in insulation in Fort McMurray during the boom years. If one were to tally all the projects he’s worked on in his career, they’d find his stamp in at least one major addition to nearly every Canadian province. That diversity is just one reason Erwin loves the mechanical insulation industry.
“Insulation has always been steady work,” he says. “I have never needed a change. I like going from job to job, and I like working with my hands rather than at a desk or on a computer,” although he admits doing a lot more office work now that he is semi-retirement from field work.
Erwin decided to join the BCICA’s QAC program when Wilmat started working with PLM Professional Mechanical Ltd. on the BC Cancer Centre in Nanaimo, which requires QAC membership. Beyond this job, Erwin says belonging to the QAC program is valuable because it helps ensure top quality insulation work on every job.
“The QAC program sets a good standard for insulation projects, and there is long-term benefit in good insulation,” he says. “The BCICA continues to produce a good standard. It can be a problem when companies start bidding jobs at half the price. So, having a standard people are set to is helpful and important for the trade and helping businesses survive.”
Key to the company’s success is cooperation with mechanical contractors and other trades, making sure each employee is a team player—the team being the entire site.
“We train our workers to be helpful and a team that other trades can work with,” he says. “We help them out, and that is why they want us to keep working with them.”
