John Barba's FloPro Blog

Did you catch that moon last weekend?  It sure hit your eyes like a big pizza pie, didn’t it?

Welcome back blog lovers!  It’s been a while, so let’s get back to business, shall we?

Taco rep extraordinaire Jim DePalma of Wales-Darby, New Jersey shared this tidbit online last week about a contractor who gets it.

Robert Heyrich, with his 2 sons and wife, operates  John Heyrich  Plumbing and Heating. I asked Robert how business was and he told me that this past heating season was excellent!  Robert does the most brilliant marketing that is so simple EVERYONE should do it.

All Robert does is simply call his customer after the job is finished and make sure the customer is happy. Robert’s been doing this for years and it’s done wonders for his business.  This simple gesture cements a relationship of trust, and Robert has become the “go-to” guy for his customers.  

Since they trust Robert, they ask him if he knows any roofers, electricians or painters he could recommend.  Those trades in turn recommend Robert for future jobs !!

How simple!

We left off our blog series talking about the myth of customer loyalty. But here’s a guy who understands that you never stop earning a customer’s trust and, in turn, his or her business.  All it takes is a phone call.

Jimmy D also reports that Robert kept himself busy over the winter selling outdoor reset controls to his “existing” customers.

Robert sent out letters to his customer base, offering OUTDOOR RESET (using a Taco SR501EXP relay & a PC 700 reset control) to their existing heating systems, which would save them 10-15% on their fuel cost. Robert knows where the 10 to 15 year old boilers are in his market ( he works on them !!) and he sold 25 Taco outdoor reset systems this past heating season. 

Jim says Robert also gets that these things don’t sell themselves.  Robert makes sure he can explain how outdoor reset works so simply that a 10 year old can understand it.  After all, if a customer doesn’t really grasp the concept, there’s no way he’s going to buy it.

We’ve discussed outdoor reset in previous blogs — check out some independent documentation of energy savings here, and how the PC 700 can make a cast-iron boiler as efficient as possible here.

That, my friends, is Amore…

Take it away, Dino…

He makes it look so easy.  The great ones always do…

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Gotta love today – everyone’s even, and in theory, everyone has a chance.  And John Fogerty’s anthem to the National Pastime is a rocker of the highest order…

And when Opening Day falls on the same day as Day 1 of the Master’s? Well, not much work gets done!

Been talking about customer loyalty lately.  If you think about it, there’s really no such thing.  You don’t own your customers.  They’re free agents, just like Albert Pujols  (you know Albert, all-star first baseman for the St. Louis Car… I mean the California Angels, or is it Anaheim Angels?  Or Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim?)

This may come as a shock, but plumbing, heating and air conditioning are not always on your customers’ minds.  Therefore, your company is not always on their minds.  You may have provided them with outstanding service, but it’s very likely that after writing the check they may never think of you again – even if they find themselves in need of your services again.

So how do you stay on their radar screen?

Lots of contractors make use of service agreements with their customers.  Had a very interesting discussion thread in Taco’s “The Neighborhood” a couple of months back.   Rocky Pavey – the pride of Fairbanks, Alaska – wrestles with the question of just what, in addition to what his company already does, would a service agreement provide:

Is this going to be a true service contract or a quickie inspection with the hopes of selling something as an “add on”?  My original thought would be to sell our normal annual tune and clean as a “service contract”.  But then I got to thinking, “What is the benefit to the owner above what we already do?”

Rocky concluded service agreements can help even out the workload in order to stay busy during the traditional “down” times (in Fairbanks, there’s apparently a  two-week stretch in mid-June that isn’t heating season).  In addition, service agreements provide an opportunity to offer efficiency upgrades, as well as lock out the competition.

In Rocky’s case, however, his company provides such aggressive customer service and communication that these particular benefits may seem redundant.  He’s already in his customers’ homes at least once a year, and he charges a premium for “in-season” tune-ups to help spread out the work load.

Curtis Reynolds of North Conway, NH likens his service agreements to insurance policies, covering specific parts and components within the heating system.

The biggest drawback was listing every part that we would cover.  Nowadays, with every manufacturer having unique parts, the covered parts list was becoming tremendously large.  So we made it simple.  Two policies; one standard policy that covered everything in the boiler/furnace and a premium policy that also covered the devices outside of the boiler/furnace.

And like insurance policies, sometimes you profit and sometimes you don’t.  It certainly provides the contractor with great incentive to make sure all parts are properly maintained.

And Dennis Foley of Somerville, MA offered what may be the ultimate benefit of service agreements – they provide substantial value to your business should you ever decide to sell it.

What are your thoughts on service agreements?  Would love to hear what the readership has to say!

And what better way to kick off another season than with this classic:

I’m asking YOU who’s on first… 

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This is one of my favorite songs of the late 70′s!

Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark and Chris Hillman were original Byrds, and hooked up for one last hurrah in early 1979.  ”Don’t You Write Her Off Like That” peaked at #33 on the charts in ’79, but if you’re not careful, it’ll stay with you all day.

Last time we discussed the myth of “customer loyalty” and the folly of banking on such a fickle entity.  It’s important to remember one fundamental truth – after each and every job, your customer is a free agent, free
to hire any contractor he chooses for the next job, for any reason that suits him.

After you’ve been paid, the customer owes you nothing.

You don’t earn loyalty, because there’s no loyalty to earn.  It’s not personal, it’s just business.

But don’t you write her off like that. There is some good news…

Doing a great job by providing top shelf service and quality at a fair price does earn you something very valuable.  You earn opportunity.

The opportunity to try to earn their business again the next time a job comes up.

That’s it.  No guarantees, no promises and no such thing as “loyalty,” just the opportunity to play again next time.

ONe big point in you’re favor is that you now have an established track record with said customer – you’re a proven commodity.  The customer has hired you before and the results were beneficial to him or her – you’re a known entity with very little risk involved.

It doesn’t mean you’re going to get the job no matter what, but it does mean you have “favored-son” status.  Another competitor is going to have to be awfully good to beat you out, as long as you don’t take that “favored-son” status for granted.

All too often you see a business – be it a contractor, wholesaler, rep or manufacturer – that is so concerned about getting new customers that they forget the ones they already have (shopped for  new cell phone provider lately?).  The attitude seems to be “those guys are already mine, so I can move on to the next challenge.”

But a customer isn’t a challenge, or something to be checked-off a “to-do” list.  A customer is a person and a person needs a relationship.  How well do you nurture that relationship?

Here’s a survey – let me know your thoughts:

1. How do you keep in contact with existing customers?  E-mail blasts? Newsletters? Mailings?
2. What information do you share with existing customers? Do you promote new products or services?
3. Do you offer service agreements to your customers?  What is included and not included?
4. Do your customers ask for service agreements?  How do you handle annual maintenance/tunes ups?
5. Do you offer discounts to repeat or existing customers?

Let me know your thoughts on the topic.

And from 1979, let’s turn the clock back another decade, and give a listen to one of The Byrds best of the 1968…

Tommy Smothers, but no David Crosby!

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Enjoyed watching the Peyton Manning sweepstakes the past couple of weeks.  His free-agent travels made me think of Ricky Nelson…

Ricky, like Peyton, is a Hall-of-Famer.  Ozzie and Harriet’s boy was inducted into the R ‘n R HOF back in 1987.

And Peyton’s travels got me to thinking about customer loyalty. About which I say:

Loyalty, schmoyalty!.

I hate the phrase “customer loyalty” because it implies several silly and dangerous ideas that can cost you business.

First, it implies that customers are non-thinking entities that should be blindly loyal to you, no matter what.

It also implies that once you feel as though you have “earned” a customer, that customer should stay with you forever and a day, forsaking all others, no matter what.

What’s worse, it implies you have the right to expect that of a customer, and that they – the customer – are bad people or “cheap” if they choose to use a different contractor in the future.

Look, no one signed a long-term, guaranteed contract, and no vows were taken at any alter.

This is business. You want loyal? Get a dog.

And even that’s not a sure thing.  Growing up we had a beagle named Sandy (after one of my favorite all-time Bruins, Derek Sanderson).  He was my pal through middle and high school.  When I left for college, my mother took over primary care of Sandy.  Coming home for Christmas I was expecting the royal welcome home from my faithful companion.  Sure, he wagged, licked and enjoyed the attention for a minute or two, but pretty soon he started following my mom around.  Mom, after all, had been the source of his food, water and attention for the past four months.

Sandy the dog, it seems, was loyal to the person who was tending to his needs.

Hmmm…..

Doing a good job for a customer, meeting and surpassing their expectations and providing them with excellent service at a fair price are all goals worth striving for.  Those should be the goals of any contractor.  They are the elements of success.

None of that, however, means ‘till death do you part.  Just because you did one job for a customer doesn’t guaranty you the next one with no questions asked.  Nor should you expect it.  You haven’t earned their business forever and a day.

Doing all those things merely earns you the right to try to earn their business again.

And that’s all it means.

Try thinking of your customers as Payton Manning – you know, a free agent.  After you’ve completed a job for them and they’ve paid you, you’re done.  The transaction is over.  Next time something comes up, they have the right to hire anyone they want, for whatever reason they want.

But that doesn’t mean you can tilt the scales a little in your favor. We’ll talk about that next time.

In the meantime, enjoy another Ricky classic…

Catchy, ain’t it?

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If this song doesn’t pick you up, I’m not sure what will…

Thanks for the music, Mr. Jones.

This question was posted in response to last week’s blog post.  Now that I’ve stopped daydreaming, it’s a question worthy of further discussion:

Is there ever a situation where running this common higher temperature would cause hot floors in hard surface areas before the thermostat is satisfied? I’ve had some bad experiences in the distant misty past when I did my first few floor heat jobs. Put another way, in higher load conditions, say -20F ambient, where a little longer run times are needed to satisfy the heat requirements, how warm would the surface temperature get before the air sensing stat closes the actuators?

Put another way – is there a “lag” between the radiant floor reaching a certain temperature and the thermostat actually shutting off?

First, a fundamental we’ve repeated here often: radiant gives off heat based exclusively on its surface temperature.

Remember that a radiant panel is a big, flat radiator. Consider an old cast iron radiator – it’s obvious the hotter the radiator surface, the more BTU’s the radiator will give off.

When the zone is satisfied, flow of hot water through that radiator stops and the surface temperature of that radiator has pretty much peaked.  Without flow you’re not delivering additional energy to the radiator, so any changes in surface temperature at that point would be minimal and insignificant.

This happens regardless of the supply water temperature.  Flow stops and no more heat is delivered to the radiator.

A radiant panel is no different.  In fact, since it’s so large and has so much more mass (even a low-mass radiant installation is relatively speaking high mass), it’s uniquely able to handle influxes in energy without changing surface temperature.

Here’s a quote from the book, Modern Hydronic Heating by John Siegenthaler (buy it here):

“The greater thermal mass of the heating distribution system allows it to temporarily absorb some of the surplus heat output generated by the heat source and spread out its delivery over time….the greater the thermal mass of the system, the more stable the room temperatures will remain…

“This thermal mass (in a concrete slab) could absorb about 20,000 BTU while increasing its (surface) temperature 1 degree F.”

What John is saying is the mass of a radiant system acts like a damper – absorbing pulses of energy while providing a steady output.

How does this apply to the posted question? Is it possible for a floor in a room controlled by a t-stat to overheat before the t-stat is satisfied?

Taking Siggy’s passage into account, it’s highly unlikely.  Many blog posts ago we discussed how to determine the required panel surface temperature based on heat load (click here to review). Here’s the formula:

(BTUH/SF load ÷ 2) + Set Point Temp = Panel Surface Temp.

Take a 300 SF room with a max load of 7,500 BTUH.  That’s 25 BTUH/SF.  Using the formula, the Panel Surface Temp would need to be 82.5 degrees under design conditions.

If the floor temp reached 85 degrees, that would be 30 BTUH/SF of heat delivery.  For that to happen, another 1,500 BTUH (an additional 20%) of output would have to steamroll through the floor and into the room before the thermostat shuts off and stops flow to the panel.

What do you think?

If a concrete slab can absorb 20,000 BTU’s while raising its surface temp only 1 degree, how much could a low mass radiant system absorb? Considering even a low mass radiant system is a high mass system, it’s very likely the mass would absorb and “store” a sizable amount of energy while gradually releasing it to the room. When radiant floors overheat, it’s almost always a zoning issue.

If that’s a daydream, then, my friends, you better believe it!

And here’s another toe-tapper to get you through the weekend…

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It’s true that sometimes “was” or “used to be” is confused with “ought to be,” but it’s very hard to argue with The Kinks’ efforts to save the Village Green…

“Village Green Preservation Society,” from the similarly titled masterpiece of an album – an ode to simpler time.  Village Green kinda got lost in the shuffle though, due to bad timing – it was released the same day as The Beatles White Album.

So far we’ve looked at two “simple” solutions to this particularly vexing radiant design problem:

The single biggest goal of a simple solution is to actually solve something.  With that in mind, let’s review our options.

Option 1 (click here to review):  145-degree water with one zone – uses the simplest control strategy and the fewest parts (read: least expensive), but just doesn’t cut it.  Some rooms will be too hot, some rooms will be too cold and the one area that has the thermostat will be just right.

Fine for Goldilocks, but no matter how much you try to manage customer expectations, my gut feeling is your customer won’t be singing the praises of radiant comfort.

And “tweaking” the flow through each loop in hopes of “balancing” it all out?  Good luck with that.  It’s simple to say, but impossible to do, for several reasons:

• Any flow adjustment will take hours to show any impact
• Any flow adjustment to one loop affects flow to all the others
• How much time are you planning to invest in “tweaking?”
• “Tweaking” is another word for “guessing”
• “Guessing” is another word for “hoping”
• “Hope” is not a viable control strategy

Option 2 (click here to review): three separate water temperatures – works.  It provides the right water temperature to each area, and each area is its own zone.  However, now you’re dealing with three tempering valves, three manifolds, three relays, three circulators…

It’s like cutting butter with a chain saw – it works, but it’s a bit much.  You have more parts, more materials, more wiring, more labor.  We’re trying to make this simple.

Which brings us to the third, best and simplest solution:

Zone the sucker!

This is about as easy as it gets – run 145-degree water to a single manifold, with three or four zones using thermostats and manifold actuators.

Now you have 1 water temperature, 1 manifold, 1 circulator, 1 electronic control, 1 thing to pipe up and 1 control to wire up.

Oh, and it solves the problem.  Each area is just right all winter long.

It’s pretty simple – when the thermostat is satisfied, the manifold actuators close.  When the manifold actuators close, flow to the zone stops.  When flow to the zone stops, the floor surface doesn’t get any warmer.

And when the floor surface doesn’t get any warmer, the room doesn’t get any warmer.

To simplify that equation:  When the thermostat’s satisfied, the room doesn’t get any warmer.

This is the simplest and most effective way to solve the problem.  You don’t have to “tweak” flow.  You don’t need three water temperatures.

You don’t have “manage expectations.”

You don’t have to guess or hope that something will “work” or be “good enough.”

You install the job, you collect your money, you go home.

And other than ignoring the problem, it’s the least expensive way to solve it.

Beautiful simplicity.

And speaking of beautiful simplicity…

“Waterloo Sunset,” #3 on my all-time hit parade.

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If you’re not careful, this song will be in your head all day…

Disclosure time: I like The Monkees.  Admit it – the Pre-Fab Four did give us some fun, simple music.

And if you’re still listening to the band, let’s get back to our “simple” radiant system.

In our last blog soiree we examined the following job, and what would happen if we ran a single water temperature with only one zone:

The results were less than stellar.

We had to run 145-degree water to our radiant system to make sure the worst-case area (Living-Foyer) would be taken care of.  Problem is, no matter where we put the thermostat, most of the first floor would either be too hot or too cold.

And “tweaking” the flow on the manifold to “balance” things out?  Better to jump off the cliff now and save yourself a lot of time. We said in the last blog post there were three possible options that qualified as “simple.”  We’ve already crossed one off the list.  Here’s the next one:

Three separate water temperatures:

In this option, we’d use three simple, fixed temperature, non-electric tempering valves to provide accurate water temperature to three distinct areas.

Tempering Valve #1: 145 degree water for the Living-Foyer

Tempering Valve #2: 130 degree water for the Family-Kitchen-B’Fast

Tempering Valve #3: 120 degree water for the Dining and Utility

This should work just dandy – each area gets the water temperature it needs (except for the Utility – it’ll be a little-to-a-lot too warm, but it’s a utility area, we’ll cope).  Each area should feel just fine every day of the winter.

Problem solved, right?

Well, yeah…

It’ll work, but it’s a tad heavy-handed.  Consider what you’ll need to actually pull this off:

3 tempering valves
3 manifolds + accessories
3 circulators
3 relays (or one 3-pump relay)
3 thermostats (for 3 zones)

Lots of stuff to buy, plus you’ll need more materials and labor to pipe and wire it all up.

Sorta like cutting butter with a chain saw.  It’ll work, but…

We need to go back to the basic definition of “simple.” WordMonkey provides the following:

1. having few parts; not complex or complicated or involved; a simple problem; simple mechanisms; a simple design; a simple substance
2. easy and not involved or complicated; an elementary problem in statistics; a simple game; found an uncomplicated solution to the problem
3. lacking mental capacity and subtlety

This option fails the “simple” test on most levels.

Having few parts?  Three tempering valves, manifolds, circulators and relays?

Easy, not involved or complicated?  Try shoe-horning that 10 pounds of hydronics into a 5-pound closet.

Lacking mental capacity or subtlety?  Don’t know about the first, but it sure ain’t subtle!

Make no mistake – this option solves the problems created by the first option (click here to review).  But it’s needlessly complicated. We’ll look at a much simpler approach next time.

And speaking of simple – here’s a simple tune written by Mike Nesmith pre-Monkees that Linda Ronstadt made into a mega-hit:

And yes, they could play their instruments.

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Grand Funk Railroad is another of those overlooked, underrated early 70′s bands that when you give ‘em a listen, you remember just how awesome they were.

Music Mike is kinda creepy, but what I wouldn’t give for a “Time Machine!”

 ”Sherman, set the WABAC Machine for January 31st of this year…”

On that day, my neighbor and I were still friends, the Patriots still had a shot and we didn’t know Ike Libby had a heart of gold.

And we were talking about what “simple” means.

As in “what is a ‘simple’ radiant floor system?”

We tossed this at you:

Four distinct areas with different use patterns, different BTUH/SF heating loads and different finished floor R-values. The installation method is consistent – tubing between the floor joists with extruded aluminum plates – but required supply water temps are all over the map.

Not much we can do about it – the water temps are what they are due to different BTUH/SF loads and different finished floor R-values.

With “simplicity” in mind, there are three ways to go.  Here’s the simplest option:

One water temperature, one zone:

Use one t-stat, one circulator, one relay, one manifold and one fixed temperature tempering valve (if it can handle the flow – that’s another blog post!).  But what water temperature would make sure everything heats adequately?

Tick, tick, tick….

145?  Give that man a cigar!

Second question: where do you put the thermostat?

I don’t know, either.

The Living-Foyer has carpet, a 26 BTUH/SF load and needs 145-degree water under design conditions.  Put the T-stat there and it heats up just fine.  But what about the other areas?

The Family-Kitchen-B’fast has tile and hardwood, a load of 19-22 BTUH/SF and only needs 130-degree water.  Betcha a fiver it’s gonna be too warm pretty much all the time.  Dining room?  Way too warm.

Utility room?  Yowch!

So put the T-stat in the Family-Kitchen-B’fast area and give it 145-degree water (even though it only needs 130). How is that area going to feel?

Tick, tick, tick…

Perfect? Yep, another cigar!

Why wouldn’t it?  When the T-stat’s happy, flow stops.  When flow stops, the floor doesn’t get any warmer.  When the floor doesn’t get any warmer, the room won’t, either.  The only side-affect of running 145-degree water where only 130-degree is needed (as long as that area is controlled by a thermostat!) is the area will heat up a little quicker.

But how’s the Living-Foyer area going to feel?

If you said “cold – anywhere from a little to a lot,” you get another cigar.  There’s a high R-value and a 25% higher BTUH/SF heating load. The zone won’t run long enough to satisfy that area.

Dining and Utility rooms? Still too warm –  a little to a lot.

“Wait a minute,” you say, “why can’t you just ‘tweak the flow?’”

Common suggestion, but the question is “how?”

As in, “how do you know if you get it right?”

Dirty secret about radiant manifolds:  “tweak” the flow in one loop and you affect flow in all the others.  Say the T-stat’s in the Living-Foyer and you want to “tweak” the Kitchen-Family-B’Fast loops.  When you crank down the balancing valve on one of those loops you increase flow in every other loop on the manifold.  Tweak another loop and you change the flow in the loop you just tweaked, as well as all the others.

Remember the 3 Stooges short when Curly starts pulling a loose thread on his suit? Pretty soon all his clothes fall off.

Same thing only different.

Oh, and it may take hours until you notice what, if any, difference your tweaking has actually made.

Your system’s now so far out of whack you’ll need a priest to bring it back.

So one zone, one water temp may be “simple,” but it’s not a ” simple solution.”  We can do better.  Next time, we’ll look at the second option.

Until then, let it rock!

I miss the 70′s!

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For today’s blog, another Styx classic fits the bill…

“The headlines read these are the worst of times…”

The front page of Saturday’s New York Times featured this story of an elderly, disabled, fixed-income couple in rural Maine.  They were out of heating oil, already owed the oil company for two previous deliveries and had no way of paying for the next one.

The oil dealer took this pretty hard.  Imagine yourself in his position: he’s a kind-hearted businessman trying to pay his own bills, and his kindness has seriously affected his business profitability. He has to shut the guy off.  No wonder he’s on stress medication – the decision tore him up inside.

Two days later, the retiree drives up to the oil company office and offers the title to his car in exchange for oil.  The stunned office staff pays for the oil themselves.

End of story, right?

Not in this internet world.

Bloggers Allison Bailes of Energy Vanguard (click here) and Peter Troast of Energy Circle (click here) caught wind of the story and  the ball started rolling.

Troast got in his car Sunday morning, along with DeWitt Kimball of Complete Home Evaluation Services and Josh Wojcik and Kevin Casey of Upright Frameworks, one of Maine’s leading weatherization companies, to evaluate the home (a vintage 1800’s converted cabin – a blower door test showed 1.37 ACH!), and to do what they could.

To quote Styx from our previous blog post – each one is a “straight-talkin,’ hard-workin’ son-of-a-gun.”

Not only that, but the phones at the oil company, Hometown Energy in Dixfield, ME, have been ringing off the hook.  In just three days, more than $100,000 in unsolicited donations poured in from all over the country.

“I didn’t expect this to happen,” says Ike Libby, owner of Hometown Energy. “You can’t even put it into words.  America’s got a heartbeat and we are hearing it.”

Libby is using the money to set up a trust fund to help other people who can’t pay for oil.

I’d call that the best of times.

If you’re interested in donating, Hometown Energy has started a webpage to make it easy – click here.

And while you’re at it, raise a glass to Ike Libby – he’s a class act.

The best of times, indeed.

And click here for a full video from Channel 6 News in Portland, ME.

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Confession time – I’m a closet Styx fan, especially this one from 1981…

Paradise Theatre went triple-platinum that year, and “Rockin’ The Paradise” hit #1 on the Rock charts.

Way better than “Mr. Roboto.”

It was not a red-letter weekend at the Barba household.  First, trying to house train two puppies during a Minnesota winter is a wee bit of a challenge.  Sleep deprivation, paper towels and baggies lead to one crabby guy.

Second, made a rookie mistake Friday night while installing a Beta version of the new Taco BumbleBee circulator (click here for info).

Didn’t turn power off to the boiler while wiring up the relay (which was not powered at the time – I’m careless, not stupid!).  The wires to T-T on the boiler – still connected to the boiler, mind you – scraped a ball valve, causing a short.

Jim Hilpipre – king of the wiring schematic – walked me through the troubleshooting.  Only a blown fuse, but I still felt like a schmuck.

Oh, and there was a small matter of a slightly infuriating football game last night…

But what really set the tone was a discussion with a neighbor on Saturday.

It wasn’t an argument, but it wasn’t a mature exchange of opinions, either.

More like a spirited disagreement.

Noticed a plumbing service truck in his driveway Saturday morning.  Saw him outside later that afternoon and, being nosy, asked him what was up.  He wasn’t happy.

“Had to have a clogged drain cleaned.  The son-of-a-***** charged me 200 bucks!  Damn thief!”

After 3 hours of sleep, losing ground with the puppy training and still feeling schmuck-like for blowing a fuse, you can imagine how well that went over.

Dude, you got immediate service on a Saturday morning.  He’s a licensed professional, not some handyman.  He does this for a living, and it’s his weekend, too.

“Yeah, but he was here for no more than 45 minutes!  He’s making $200 an hour, and he’s just a plumber!”

Whoah, pal – do NOT go there…

Let’s just say the conversation – like the weekend – devolved from there.

Tried very hard explaining a licensed plumber, or heating technician, or electrician, is a highly skilled professional with specialized training and equipment.  He or she goes through years of schooling and training and the job requires a unique skill set.

Not to mention he doesn’t put the $200 in his pocket.  He has a business to run.

No impact.  He just rambled on about outrageous prices, thievery and butt cracks

“All he did was snake a drain.  Hell, I coulda done that…”

Well, why didn’t you?

That pretty much ended the conversation.  It was either admit he had no idea how to do it himself, or throw up his hands, walk away and wonder why he such an idiot for a neighbor.

Guess which one he chose?

Okay, I’ve buried the lead long enough.  This is all a setup to tell you about the mikeroweWORKS Foundation.  You know Mike Rowe – the host of Dirty Jobs on TV and a supporter of Richard Yeagley’s film The Tradesman: Making an Art of Work.

Here’s the scoop direct from Mike’s website:

Bottom line, all monies collected by The mikeroweWORKS Foundation will go to further the mission of mikeroweWORKS – and that is to promote the skilled trades in areas of public awareness, reducing stigmas, education, career planning and job opportunities as well as support organizations that get us there.

Yeah, it’s a trade thing.

Here’s a link to the Foundation website.

This is a cause that should really resonate with our community.  What are your thoughts?

MIke Rowe spoke to a Congressional Committee last year to promote skilled trades.

Yoo da Man, Mike!

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