 The Work We Do
Women in Construction has over 22 full-time employees working with the
company and runs 5-7 jobs at any one time. Michelle LeBeau and Kent
Schul head the company, each providing over 25 years experience
in housing development, estimating and construction managment. In addition
there are six experienced site supervisors and crew leaders that run jobs
for the company, each bringing 10-25 years of on-the-job experience in new
construction and renovation. Since 2000, the company has substantially
renovated over 97 units of affordable housing; built 16 units of new
housing (single family, duplexes and condominiums) and completed 50 remodeling
projects. In additon, WiCC runs a cabinet shop and builds kitchen cabinets,
vanities and furniture for clients.
Stories From Some of Our Projects
In July 2001, Women's Transitional Housing Coalition,
Inc. had a bad roof on one of their transitional housing
apartments. During the night on July 3rd, a storm with
heavy rains and wind did so much damage to the already
aged roof that 4 of the 9 families living in the building
had to be evacuated. The Red Cross stepped in the put families
up in temporary housing until the roof could be replaced
and all damage in the apartments (caused by the water)
could be fixed.
WTHC staff spend the next couple days trying to find
a roofing company who had the time to replace the roof.
Since we had a crew of women in the construction training
program who were anxious to try their hand at roofing,
we convinced a local roofing company to come in and replace
the roof using our crews. The company, while supportive,
had doubts that a group of totally untrained and unskilled
women could tear off and replace a roof on a 2 story 60'
X 120" building.
 Our agreement with the roofing contractor was that he
would send his crew up the next day, and they would utilize
our crews and work along side of them to train. We were
told that their crew would consist of 8 men who would work
with our women crews. After the first day, they sent all
of their men (except for a foreman and a carpenter) off
to work on other projects and our all-women crews continued
the work with just the two experienced male roofers.
The project took two weeks to complete, working from
7am to 7pm in temperatures that reached over 110 degrees.
All the women on the project were new to construction and
loved the experience and the accomlishment. Many of the
women were also single parents. At the end of the day,
instead of going home to relax and have dinner, those parents
went home to feed their children, put them to bed and get
ready for the next day of work. 
Duluth Duplex
(Full Story Pending)
 Katsangeo Project
(Full Story Pending)
For information about the Women in Construction Company
LLC or to find out more about hiring our crew, contact
Michelle LeBeau, 218-733-1451 or email michelle@womenworking.org.
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