Many plumbing contractors ask the question: “What is the best way to advertise my business locally?”

According to a white paper authored by venture capital firm ARD Ventures, each fleet vehicle, on average, receives between 30,000 -70,000 impressions daily. 

There’s no question that the demand for home improvement projects is red hot. 

Plumbers and their customers are living in a digital age, which means more potential clients are finding a plumber online via Google searches. If more customers are finding plumbers on Google, then it is important that you take the right steps to ensure you are the plumber they find. 

By now, you may have heard that by July 2023, Google Analytics is shutting down for good, as Google replaces the analytics service with GA4. Why is this happening, and what does it mean for tracking my website analytics?

Life in Ghana: The search for water.

Despite not having electric tools, these young plumbers make it work.

Thanks, Fred.

From Roman baths to modern water-saving showerheads, plumbing has come a long way.

Thermostatic mixing valves and common sense can help prevent injury and litigation.

Third-party listing helps protect you and your customers.

The code-writing organizations are currently finalizing the 2021 edition of the Plumbing Code, which may be adopted in your state or local jurisdiction by 2023. That is how far in advance hot subjects that are being discussed now wait before becoming law.

As a backpacker, the most important item I carry in my backpack is water. I start each morning of a hike with three liters of water; two in my bladder and one in my bottle. The water bottle looks like any typical water bottle that people carry.

Elegance is the name of the game with modern bathrooms. To keep up with the demands of the public, the plumbing codes and standards have changed regarding modern bathrooms. Some changes are for the good; others, well, we will have to see.

The baby boomer generation is reaching retirement age, and many are planning to age in place. As the body ages, the use of plumbing fixtures changes. The aging body no longer has the strength and flexibility of the younger body.

I was wondering about boiler chemicals and how many contractors (if any) were using them on brand-new systems. Do we need them? 

Have you ever had one of those times when you’re trying to figure out some problem and then suddenly the solution comes to you as if by magic? 

This one goes back a bunch of years. The contractor was a good steam man, but he had run out of ideas with this job. It was a typical, five-story, New York City tenement building. Its one-pipe steam system had served generations of tenants for more than 100 years.

October, being the month for ghosts and goblins, seems like the perfect time to reminisce about those tight spots few want to visit, but many must.

How’s that for a title? I’ll give you the answer right up front: Everyone!  And the best part is you don’t have to know what you’re doing; you just have to show up.

A young guy who was about the size of Bruno Mars came to my seminar once, and we were chatting during a break. I asked him how long he had been in the business. It’s good to see young people getting involved.

In March 2010, a nine-month-old boy rolled off his sister’s bed in Jersey City, New Jersey, and got stuck between the bed and a cast-iron, steam radiator that was as hot as it’s supposed to be. The radiator delivered third-degree burns to the infant and left him with permanent scars.

A homeowner posted a question on The Wall at HeatingHelp.com about a drumroll sound that was coming from his brand-new steam boiler. What could it be? He included a video so all could hear, and sure enough, it sounded like a snare drum.

Frozen steam coils always seem to happen at the worst of times, don’t they? You’re busy because it’s cold enough to freeze coils. The place with the frozen coil contains people who are doing things that are so important they can’t possibly be without that particular coil. Not even for a minute. They’re on the phone, and they’re not being reasonable.

My neighbor, Tony, loves his house. We live in a low-crime neighborhood on Long Island but Tony is always on guard against miscreants. He has a Ring camera on every side of his house, mounted high so they’re protected from spray paint. Some of the cameras turn on klieg lights and alarms if I step outside at night to toss the trash in the can. 

In the city of Worcester, Massachusetts, which snuggles into the center of the state, you will find Mount Saint James, and upon that steep hill, you will find The College of the Holy Cross.

My shop teacher was a wiry man who loved hand tools. We spent a week making a buzzer base. He taught us how to saw, sand and varnish. He introduced me to a Brace & Bit hand drill and went on and on about how this was better than an electric drill. “Can you feel the wood? It’s alive!” he said, and I could.

Some years ago, a wholesaler hired me to do a seminar in a New England hotel for about 100 of his contractor customers. After the seminar, the owner of the company invited me and a bunch of his employees out for a nice dinner. There were about 15 of us.

My iPhone pinged a text: “Hi, Dan. How are you and Marianne, and the family? I’m sorry to bother you. I can’t get my steam heat to go on. I can’t get a plumber to come quickly. I guess they’re busy with the weather. Can I call you later to ask you something about the burner?”

I called the plumber because there’s an immediacy to plumbing; and I’m old enough to know that it’s best for me not to touch pipes. To each his own trade.

Most hydronic systems have the boiler running up to 180° F with water returning from the system at 160°. This rarely happens in real life, but it’s the traditional way we do things.

I have heating (plumbing, fire suppression, etc.) shops in New York and New Jersey. This is very much steam country, and we repair and replace steam boilers and systems all week long and have been for decades. All that is fine, but what I find incredibly odd is the polarized perception of the automatic water feeder.

I began my career in the HVAC business in 1970 as a truck driver for an AC/refrigeration wholesaler. I stayed there just six weeks because my father — who worked for a manufacturers’ rep — told me there was an opening for a clerk at the rep. It paid $110 a week, which was $10 more than I was getting driving the truck. Plus, I’d get to work with him as my boss.

I love all the advances taking place in the world of hydronics, but I’m still seeing plenty of steam systems out there in our older cities, so knowing about dry steam will help you if you’re replacing a steam boiler. The dryer the steam is, the better you’re going to look to your customers.

People who knew Capt. Montgomery C. Meigs said he was occasionally pompous, but when the job was done to his satisfaction, he said, “This was the most difficult piece of engineering and construction that I have yet to undertake.”

In 1885, when you could still buy a milk cow for $29.70, Albert Butz, a Swiss immigrant living in St. Paul, Minnesota, invented what he called the damper-flapper. He patented it the following year. The flapper opened a damper that allowed outside air to enter a coal-fired home furnace. This increased the oxygen in the furnace and made the fire burn hotter. When the temperature rose to a desired point, the damper closed.

Morris had me on the phone. It was 1974 and he was calling from Brooklyn, New York. I had a waxed handlebar mustache that year, and my workmates at the manufacturers’ rep were calling me Rollie Fingers because he was pitching for the Oakland Athletics in the World Series.

It was one of those days at HeatingHelp.com when the old guys had the floor. One of the regulars, a retired (and understandably crotchety) fella from Canada had this to say:

Over the years, I've had many homeowners read my books and then write to tell me they knew more about their system than the contractors that came to their houses. This was particularly true when it came to steam heating.

Another photo appeared and this one had a woman in it. She was holding a long wrench and the business end was attached to one of the risers to the boiler’s drop-header.

Kids have a way of dragging us old folks back in time. My grandson, Brendan put me back on the road, 40 years ago, when I was spending most of my time teaching tradespeople about the joys of steam and hot-water heating.

Google “safety culture” and you get about 1,600,000,000 results in 0.95 seconds. Safety and health managers have long known the importance of culture – the organization’s values, beliefs and leadership - on safety, morale, productivity, engagement, presenteeism and absenteeism. Culture has been at the top of safety and health issues for the past ten years at least.

Nondairy milk may have begun as a lactose-free alternative for vegans or nondairy eaters, but the rise in popularity can be attributed to much more than being a must-have swap. The options are endless: almond milk, soy milk, hemp milk, rice milk, and more.

Cannabidiol (CBD) has been recently covered in the media, and you may have even seen it as an add-in booster to your post-workout smoothie or morning coffee. What exactly is CBD? Why is it suddenly so popular?

Obese teenagers can have certain brain differences from their thinner peers -- changes that might signal damage from inflammation, a new, preliminary study suggests.

This is a voluntary consensus standard. It uses recognized management system principles in order to be compatible with quality and environmental management system standards such as ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001.

Material handling consists of the moving, handling, and storing of materials in a facility using manual force, employee-operated equipment (forklifts), and automated equipment (conveyors). The handling and storing of materials inside a facility includes activities like:

This article is really about putting all of the concepts in the previous articles together to come up with what will hopefully be the most significant change in thinking so far.

Thousands of ISHN subscribers voted online for today's top safety products in ISHN’s 2014 Readers’ Choice Awards. The results are in and ISHN is proud to share the second-annual list of winning entries.