Dead wrong

Dead wrong

It never hurts to perform your own inspections. I was revisiting a boiler bid with customers for whom we’ve done other work in the past, and we were going over the two-year-old bid to replace their aging beast in the basement. The boiler was really a bandit...
Making radiant work on a budget

Making radiant work on a budget

How to get your “foot in the door.” Let’s be honest: More than a few customers have champagne tastes but exist on a beer budget. I’ve encountered it on multiple sales calls — where a potential customer has read about the outstanding comfort and health benefits of...
ABS or PVC?

ABS or PVC?

Better to be on the safe side. Forty-eight years ago, as a plumbing apprentice, we used ABS schedule 40 piping and fittings for DWV work. At that time, only cast iron pipe and fittings were permitted for use below grade. Transition from cast iron was made using a...
Legionella in HVAC

Legionella in HVAC

Taking a deeper look. In 1976, while attending an American Legion Convention at the Bellevue Stratford Hotel, 211 people became ill and 34 of them died from what was thought to be a previously unknown type of bacterial pneumonia.  After this outbreak and...
6 COVID-19 business tips

6 COVID-19 business tips

Capitalize on a cooped up population hungry to enhance safety, comfort and peace-of-mind. This past week, I experienced my first virtual doctor’s visit. First time for everything, right? Before I was permitted to meet with my doctor, I had to first pass a Zoom test...
Believe it or not

Believe it or not

A story of poorly specified products in a mismanaged ER. My dear, sweet 95-year-old mother-in-law fell and cracked several vertebrae last year. A few days later, she was having extreme pain and her doctor told us we should take her to the ER at one of our two local...