From afar, Calgary’s downtown skyscrapers provide an impressive view. The tall towers, of all different shapes and sizes, are the anchor of the city’s business sector, standing strong to withstand the tests of time. They and their occupants represent the growth and endurance of the city.
That the towers are kept clean, shiny and in good repair is no small feat. Rather, it is more often through the professional and safe work of Rope-A-Dope Windows Inc., Calgary’s leading window cleaning, building maintenance and inspection services company. It is Rope-A-Dope’s reputation as the best in the business that has seen it grow from a one-man operation 20 years ago into Calgary’s leading rope access experts today.
“We’re doing really well, busier than ever,” says Adam Gaulin, owner. “2025 has been our busiest year to date. Every year just gets busier and more interesting as far as the type of work that comes our way. It’s very exciting.”
Gaulin, who was born and raised in Calgary, started window washing as a summer job in his late teens/early 20s. It was the perfect job to do when he returned from traveling abroad. “It was a great job to make money so I could go back to traveling,” he reminisces. “Eventually I was so busy, window washing got in the way of my traveling!”
An affinity for climbing and ropes was evident in Gaulin as a child: “I was always climbing everything. The school gym equipment, trees, whatever. I would climb the school itself to hang out on the roof and collect lost balls. I have the record at St. Jude School for climbing the rope the most amount of times! I think it still holds today.”
He launched Rope-A-Dope in 2007 after realizing he could and should go out on his own. “I had a sandwich board that I would just go and put outside buildings downtown, make it look like I was working there,” he recalls. “Eventually I got a job.”
The name, he says, was conceived of because it sounded catchy. “I thought it sounded good, rolled off the tongue,” he laughs. “It also comes from the boxing term ‘Rope-A-Dope’ coined by Mohammed Ali. I used to enjoy boxing when I was younger.”
Rope-A-Dope’s first contract was with the Calgary Parking Authority building on 9th Avenue downtown. “And then, right after that, I got hired to do the Plains Midstream building!” he says. “I couldn’t believe it!”
At that time, as a one-man operation, Gaulin would use his ropes and bucket and wash the entire building himself. Those first jobs took him about a week to two weeks each. “I’d work from sun up to sun down, seven days a week,” he says.
From there, Rope-A-Dope’s growth was organic and through word of mouth. “It just kind of snowballed,” he says. “Clients would refer us to new clients. I’ve never had to go out searching for jobs, they come to us.” Eventually he realized he had to hire employees.
It was in 2015 that he met his future wife, and Rope-A-Dope’s current administrative and sales manager, Stephanie Halifax. “I had moved here in 2011 with my family from Toronto,” Halifax recounts. “When we met, Adam was already doing the business, and I was working another administrative job. After some time, I started helping him with the processes, putting the hiring package together and different paperwork. It just went from there.”
In 2020 the couple officially started working together, despite warnings from some. “But many others supported us,” Halifax notes. “It turned out to be a great thing!”
They planned to marry in 2020 but had to postpone the wedding due to COVID. The couple eventually married in 2021. “I always say if we can survive working together and planning three weddings, I think we’re rock solid!” jokes Gaulin.
Gaulin is quick to give his wife credit for much of the business’ success: “Stephanie is the brains of the whole operation. She does so much. I couldn’t do this without her. She deserves so much credit. Since she joined the business in 2020, she has taken over the back end with incredible skill. That support has allowed me to spend my time in the field, and this has been a major factor in our continued growth.”
Today, Rope-A-Dope has 10 employees, including washing crews and administrative staff. “As Rope-A-Dope grew, my leadership style had to grow with it,” Gaulin reflects. “Early on, I was on the ropes every day – taking on the toughest access points, setting up rigging systems and solving problems on site. But as the company expanded, I had to learn to step back, not because I didn’t trust my team, but because they had earned that trust. Everyone who works with us has been handpicked and trained within our tight circle. Letting go of being on the ropes every single day wasn’t easy, but once I did, it gave the team room to grow. And it gave me the ability to lead the company with a wider view.”
These days, Gaulin’s focus is on preparing the team for success and making sure equipment is ready, planning jobs thoroughly, ensuring safety procedures are followed, and stepping in on the highly technical or complex projects where his experience makes the difference.
The company’s bread and butter remains window cleaning, though it offers a range of other rope access services. “Our high-rise window washing keeps us busy from when the weather warms up – typically March sometime – through November,” Halifax explains. “Many clients get one wash per year; some get it twice per year. We have a range of clients from major corporations, property managers, condominium towers, hotels.”
And with Rope-A-Dope’s crews, a job that used to take Gaulin a week on his own takes less than a day today.
A few years ago, to facilitate easier and safer window cleaning, Gaulin invented a bucket harness. Today, the company sells the harness through its website all over the world. “It was just a simple thing that made sense to us,” he says. “It’s quite popular now.”
Though Calgary is headquarters and where most of the jobs occur, Rope-A-Dope often gets solicited from cities across the country. For example, it has clients in Edmonton, Red Deer and Saskatchewan where the same level of specialty rope access isn’t available. “We’ve been flown out to Vancouver to do that hotel that overhangs over the ocean,” Gaulin says. “We’ve been approached for various special projects in the U.S., but we’re happy here. Calgary is home and we have more than enough work here!”
The company also offers Building External Visual Assessments (BEVA), as mandated by the City of Calgary. “We go up and make sure everything is secure and safe,” Gaulin explains.
Related to this are building maintenance services. “I like to say we are the Swiss Army Knife of work at height,” he explains. “We can really do anything needed in a high-up, hard to access spot. Typically, this is repair to cladding or caulking, leak detection and repairs, that kind of stuff. Our window cleaning clients know to call us for that.”
“And it’s either me or Adam who answer the phone,” Halifax adds. “We know all our clients. They can text or call us, and we always answer. It’s not some random voice on the other line. We answer the phone and then Adam goes out to do the quote. We are fully involved.”
Given their specialized services, Rope-A-Dope gets called for all sorts of interesting jobs. “We were hired to hang a 1,600-square-foot banner on the old BMO Tower,” Gaulin says. “We assisted in the installation of the Calgary sign on the soccer dome, and our rope access techs were called in to assist in removing the famous 5,000-pound Norsman plane from the Suncor lobby atrium.”
The company answers calls for emergency rope access too. “For example, a broken window on the 30th floor of a building,” Halifax says. “Or some broken cladding. Stuff like that that needs to be dealt with immediately. Our clients call us right away.”
Rope-A-Dope’s teams also perform anchor inspection services.
Safety is the first priority for Gaulin and Halifax as Rope-A-Dope is committed to upholding its perfect safety record, and something they train rigorously for. “There are a number of rope safety certifications offered in the city, and we have them all,” Gaulin says. “We make all our new employees take those courses, and then we do intensive training. It really takes two to three years of training, both in class and on-the-job, to become a senior technician.”
The company is COR certified (Certification of Recognition for safety in Alberta) and is a member of various safety programs required by property management groups such as Safe Contractor or Avetta.
“We are also a five-time top choice award winner for commercial window cleaning services in Calgary,” Gaulin notes proudly. “We are nominated again for 2026.”
Finding new employees is also taken very seriously. “We don’t hire just anybody,” Gaulin explains. “A lot of people think they want to go up in ropes along the buildings, but when they get there, it’s a different story. We run all of our new hires by everyone on the team. We have to trust each other with our lives, so it’s so important that we are all good with each other.”
Rope-A-Dope hires attitude over aptitude. “We look for people with the right mindset, willingness to learn and respect for the reality of rope access,” Halifax says. “Technical skills can be taught.”
“We literally put our lives in each other’s hands,” Gaulin continues. “There are times when you’re not in a position to rig for yourself, so someone else is the one clipping you in. That trust has to be absolute.” Because of this, Rope-A-Dope has become a tight-knit community, where technicians communicate, work seamlessly together and look out for one another every moment they’re on a building. It is a crew built on both teamwork and competence.
The team often celebrates successful jobs with lunch out together. They give back to the community with discounted or free window washings and sponsor clients’ non-profit events.
“We started our own dodgeball team for after hours and are playing for third place this Monday,” Gaulin says, “it’s only our first year!” The team’s name – RAT PAC – stands for Rope Access Technicians.
“Our success is just as much a reflection of our amazing team,” Gaulin concludes. “Their hard work and commitment to safety allows us to operate at the level we do. Any recognition we receive as a business we share with whole Rope-A-Dope team that shows up every day and gives their best.”
Looking forward, the husband-and-wife team are looking at launching their own safety training course to fill the gap between basic fall protection and advanced rope access training. There is a need for this type of training,” Halifax notes, “so we figure we might as well provide it. We’re excited about this for the near future.”
With a unique and specialized skill set, a professional team and a reputation for excellent work, Rope-A-Dope is the go-to company in town for accessing hard-to-reach spots. The sky is literally the limit for this Calgary success story.