When a plumbing contracting company wants to grow, it can expand its geographic area by opening a new location, adding a new trade, or buying out another business.

As a writer covering HVAC and plumbing, I was often the only woman in the room. But that's changing, and more women are finding success in these industries. As Judaline Cassidy said, "Jobs don't have genders."

Dive into 30 years of plumbing safety with the ICC! The code gurus celebrate their anniversary and sponsor "American Plumber Stories" to inspire future generations.

I reached out to some of the best coaches in the industry for some perspective on communicating clearly and effectively with customers and each other and best practices for how contractors should handle communication breakdowns.

Last month marked the second anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the most significant U.S. federal action on climate change. With over $369 billion allocated to energy and climate programs, the IRA has driven unprecedented growth in renewable energy, boosting solar, wind, and battery storage, while cutting greenhouse gas emissions and lowering energy costs.

Retaining skilled employees is vital for plumbing and HVAC contractors. High turnover leads to disruptions and decreased customer satisfaction. To address this, many are finding innovative ways to encourage retention, including unique approaches from new companies.

No tropical cyclones as of Wed, 13 Nov 2024 12:37:46 GMT

Amazon is doing well, though a volatile political climate threatens small businesses’ growth.

Infrastructure will continue to be an issue in 2018 and beyond.

Don’t make these seven sales mistakes.

If I can learn to be a planner, then you can, too.

Working with the media can help boost your company image.

All three of these elements must be in place for a business to survive.

Why we do what we do” is why I do what I do. My job is to “change behavior.

Direct mail hits on the high points that anyone would want from an effective marketing campaign: Print builds trust more easily than digital ads. 

By following the tips below, you can mitigate the negative impact of COVID-19 on your business and lay some groundwork that will make your company more successful in the long run.

No longer an optional form of advertising, digital marketing has become the norm. 

One of the toughest calls I receive as the owner of a public relations agency specializing in the home services industry is from a plumbing or mechanical business owner asking for my help after they find themselves, or their business, in the middle of a crisis.

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?

Let me clue you in on a poorly kept secret: Traditional advertising is expensive. I know, this isn’t exactly shocking. Depending on your market, a month-long rental of a billboard could cost five figures. A week’s worth of 15-second radio ads can run up to $8,000 — and that doesn’t include the cost of producing them. And television? Forget it.

Life in Ghana: The search for water.

Thanks, Fred.

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? 

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

Not long ago, Ray asked the Wallies who post daily on The Wall at HeatingHelp.com what advice they would give someone just starting out in this business. Here’s some of what they had to say. There’s a lot of street-smart experience here.

Hello, old friend. I’m writing today to say thanks, and to say farewell. This will be my last column.

Most readers are familiar with the common phrase, “The errors of our ways.“ So why am I talking about the intention of our ways -- not errors – in this article?

Safety professionals work diligently to engage both leaders and employees. But there is often a challenge: leaders wish their employees would just "be careful" without doing diligence to hazard identification, assessment and control. The result: workers claim leaders are only concerned with productivity and budgets.

Deloitte (2014) describes the modern learner in its infographic, “Meet the Modern Learner.” The infographic shows multiple constraints employees face when developing necessary skills. Many writers and training professionals interpret this to say that people today learn differently. Learning has evolved with the office.

Our company has been roofing/remodeling injury-free since inception in 2004. The behavior of people is the predominant cause of accidents and the variable that is most easily changed. Although this article is based on our roofing experiences, the principles are easily applied to any industry, especially those that involve hard labor, high turnover, or dangerous conditions.

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?

Today’s workplaces look far different than they have in the past, taking on many shapes, sizes and settings. As a result, more workers from multiple employers are working side-by-side at the same locations, increasing the shared responsibility for worker safety among employers.

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

People distracted by their cellphones are tripping, falling and hurting their heads and necks more often, with such injuries increasing “steeply” over a 20-year period, a new analysis has found.

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.

ISHN Magazine sat down with Joe Boyle, CEO of TRUCE, to discuss strategies for eliminating workplace distractions. The following are excerpts from that conversation.

Accidents happen for millions of reasons, but the truth is, they are all preventable. Three major causes are common in almost all accidents; not using the right tool for the job; using a damaged tool that hasn’t been inspected; and not following the basic safety guideline for that tool.