biz slow?

JohnNY

I've got a couple of nice projects on the horizon, but I've had very little service since late December.

I'm also getting good r

Bob Bona_4

How's bizness?

Did someone kick the plug out?

Here in CT, either the phones are broken, or the bally hoo'ed recession has hit with a resounding thud. Shop talk at the supply houses have it some guys haven't got work in a month or more. I know one HVAC guy who hasn't been on a sales call since late December. Layoffs abound in the big Co.'s, trucks sitting in yards at 11 AM. Called another plumber buddy at 9 am the other day and asked how things were. He told me he's still in bed. Even service has taken a powder it seems like. People are hanging on to their money.

We have Mcmansions galore here, built on 50's ranch teardowns, built on spec 3 years ago and still unsold. By the time anybody buys these places, the boilers will be a quarter way into their useable life! Tough to be a tradesman, but even tougher to be a builder in these times.

Scary stuff. I wish elections were over so this country can move ahead..

Weezbo

it is winter here Bob.

new construction this spring and summer is looking strong in commercial ,planned development... it is unfortunate picture for residential developments and some Very Large commercial residential High rises ,..Reed Construction newsletter mentioned some well thought out projects that have been scrapped in communities that have 2% vacancy rates in a developing market with good financial numbers..

i tend to think that it is due more to Perception than the actual world around us. many people are finding the costs of owning properties has gone UP. the potential for finding new wealth is being linked to finding new money..that is unfortunate too. the real wealth of a nation is more closely tied to its ability to exercise and mobilize its Potential.

right now ,many wonder if Printing more money (as a solution the government offers )is any real answer.

time to regroup, determine what is important in this life, set your focus and stay "Tuned in". i have to get some work done today on finishing one of the only two new residential homes that i worked on this year. i turned down many "opportunities" as i am unable to get my superman suit back from the dry cleaners...

this coming year , there are some very fine construction projects in many communities planned yet the proposal to do the work have yet to be announced. Professionals can apply their talents and abilities in these areas of the communities in which they live... well, Good Luck this coming year...and thank you for illuminating some of the concerns in your area's economy ...
be Cause. If it is true for you , it is true for me.

Bob Bona_4

couple

years ago, I and others poo poo'd a slowdown because our Gold Coast was "insulated". I think the chickens have come home to roost

It was 5 here this am, Weez. I don't know HOW you do it up there!

Weezbo

Winter time here is slightly more struggle ,..*~/:)

you would have to read my synopsis of The Doctrine of Many-sidedness to actually wrap your mind around relative truth...

if you search on the site or if Larry saved it *~/:) you would find it a good read

this winter is a funny thing in Alaska. like some people summer in Vermont well, to winter in The Arctic is a whole notha Laval its Nice around here ..further North and deeper in the interior it is not so nifty. crashing temps lower than 76 below were reported ...that, i prayed would not find its way into our comunity this year as we have many new young families .they were young people re routed from Afghanistan , Iraq and their normal surroundings in the lower 48 these young people were trying to track vehicles on (500 ->100 foot visibility) over our city from helicopters recently in 50+ below ice fogg in preparation to return to the wars.

this is extremely dangerous if not impossible exercise in futility not to mention the viability of the application of that particular "Technique" anywhere other than the Arctic.

because the military often has what i would call "incongruent directives" command decisions also need to wrap their mind around some much larger perspectives ...as to not do so, can very easily result in terrible costs in human life. our infrastructure here does not really support this influx to our community,this is evident in the amount of lost lives and accidents on the highway this year. Freezing temps can cost many good people consternation in their course of the day. here, our new bees have far too many things to learn than time allows,... they are being re directed back to the Wars immediately....

the feelings of separation from their families in a Hostile environment and fighting in places with aggressive munitions attacks must weigh heavily on these soldiers... we do what we can here to help others in the community . thing is , many of them are unaware of simple things that they can do to help themselves ...

i really ought to go...

Unknown

Me too...

Slow, same area as you Bob. Lots of stuff coming down the pike though. Just got to wait it out and hang in there. Good luck!

[Deleted User]

Tax time..

It has slowed this time of the year every year for the 10 years I've been with this company. Don't worry, be HAPPY, and take care of the loose ends you have to deal with while you can....

Better times are coming.

ME

Unknown

Tax Time???

Man that`s a rotten excuse! Tax time is EVERY day, and remittance time only brings that thought ever so closer to fruition.
Try living in Canada,, this is a constant way of life!

Dave

Darin Cook_5

Bob

My gut feeling is that biz will be booming soon enough. I myself right now, is doing exactly what ME said. Tying up all of my loose ends and letting the book keeper clean up my office!!! I am also steering myself towards more of the alternative energy side of our biz. Grabbing up as much education on these subjects right now as I can also.

Which also leads me to ask, where can I get some quality education on ground source heat pumps (geo-thermal)? This was a subject quite a few people have asked me about and have had to refer them elsewhere. Any ideas or suggestions?





Thanks,

Darin

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John R. Hall

Get out of bed

The worst thing to do right now is stay in bed. I bet that plumber has a lot of business-related issues that he could be attending to. I wish I had the luxury of sleeping in but that's just me. Fortunately in my trade, there has not been a slowdown. But if there were, i would find new revenue sources and new operating procedures that would make my life easier and more profitable.

Dave Yates (GrandPAH)

prior to the long run up

that's lasted for almost two decades, there were three traditional slow periods: Christmas holiday season; tax time; and summer vacation. Folks tended to hold the buckage closely to the vest. Then about every three to five years, a recession would set in to make life interesting. We rolled with the punches and got the he$% out of new construction almost 30-years ago.

It'll pass, but it's mighty frightening for the first-timers. Not all will survive.

Weezbo

I think very highly of you,Dave.

there are some hidden pitfalls to the service industry that are equally as devastating,not to high jack the thread buh ,i consider speaking of it generally in the same light as pricing. It amazed me the consternation that is bought about by treachery in these United States.

perhaps someday there will be a symposium entitled when treachery became the norm...

till then , be careful ...i have seen some very elaborate contrivances in desperate times.

Keith_8

You never call anymore

Hey Bob,
Give me a call, 203-258-0277.
Sorry I lost your phone #.

BTW, Business is good.
We do 100% commercial installations and service. About 0% of that would be new construction.

Keith

ScottMP

I agree with ME

BUT ..

I normally see middle of March to the middle of April as the traditional slow season. Winter porjects are over, customers waiting for tax's and contractors waiting for the weather to improve untill they start to rip open walls. Thats the slow season.

Things getting slow in the first week of Feb. or sooner is certainly no tradiational cycle in my book.

I think there are some that will fall, some that need to tighten up and make some calls. Don't wait for it to hit, shake the tree and get something to fall.

We've got some good projects that will brings us right thru this slow season. Even then, I am looking for whats coming after that.

Call back everyone, suggest everything, look for all oppurtunitys. If you don't ... then get ready to watch Oprah.

Scott

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Bob Bona_4

I gonna call you.

Keith.

Bob Bona_4

I thought

it was March-ish last year I stalled out. You are right Scott, this is not traditional.

Sometimes I think all the problems have been solved, all the old boilers have been changed, all leaky oil tanks have been replaced. Are we doing too good a job?

Keith_8

always an opportunity

Sometimes we need to look in a different direction for business.

Instead of replacing equipment when its shot why not use the high cost of energy to our advantage?

A customer called me the other day. They wanted to install a Tekmar boiler staging control in their 3 boiler rooms. They had another contractor pitch the idea to them, quote a price and explain the benefits, what did I think about the proposal? I told them the truth.....It's a fantastic idea, it will pay for itself in less then 1 year and I'm sorry I didn't call them up and promote the idea 1st.

The other contractor that was paying attention to my client wasn't even a hydronics company. They were called air something or the other. They have some nerve paying attention to the other side of the business. You get the idea, they are looking for work, found a concept and are adapting. Why not?

Keith

mtfallsmikey

Yes, that's the ticket!

Always need to diversify,expand your horizons..like Iwould up doing accidentaly with bath remodels. Most HO's want to only deal with one person on jobs like that, so I would up being the GC on a lot of them. Worked well most of the time, some sub's service is slow, don't want to stick to the schedule. Anyway, where I live in the Beautiful Shenandoah Valley Of Virginia residential is slow, lots of new retail/small office construction, mostly being done by out-of-town contractors. Instead of dropping out, most of the new construction low-ballers hve taken up service work, with a lot of disastrous results. In the D.C. Metro area, commercial construction is going well, some new townhouse/condo projects, but single-family housing is pretty well dead.

Roland_4

Stalled?

Hi all, I know very little about the heating biz. I am also in a service industry (totally unrelated to heating) and we also have our slow periods. When this happens, the boss gets on the phone and calls our steady customers to touch bases with them. Very often there is hidden business that you would not normally consider during the high season. You may want to get in touch with clients with whom you have had a good rapport. Offer them a system inspection/cleaning/tune-up at a reasonable fee. Print handbills and have a person with some free time deliver them to homes and commercial establishments. Get out the message that you can help save people some dough on the high cost of energy. There are so many of you folks with tremendous talent and knowledge. Stay busy and don't dispair. I don't know who first said it but it is true for me: "IF YOU ALWAYS DO WHAT YOU'VE ALWAYS DONE,

YOU'LL ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU ALWAYS GOT".

Dave Yates (GrandPAH)

likewise weezbo

Same sentiments here & I've been thinking about how you deal with the cold. Every time I'm tempted to complain about being cold, I think of how warm it is compared to where you are!

Not sure I completely understand your note, but I wasn't trying to delve into treacherous territory.

ChasMan

Last year I called four places to get my boiler replaced. The only guy willing to come and look at it wanted to just replace the boiler and run. I showed him my Slant / Fin heat loss calcs that I did and he said that you cant go by that. He wanted to replace it with the same model slant/fin.

The one Wallie I could find, couldn't be bothered to drive 12 miles north He only goes east and west on the gold coast I guess. <- Editorial comment.

So, If anyone is interested, shoot me an email. I'm in Danbury CT, 06810

Must be willing to do a good job at a fair price. Im looking for a basic triple pass Oil boiler that vents into a chimney. It has (will have) 5 zones on it :-) And I would like an Indirect too. Outdoor reset etc. I have limited area for all of this so if there’s a combo with the indirect under the boiler, I could be persuaded. Euclectic perhaps? Slant Fin has a picture on their website with a combo but I dont see the tanks on their site.

crmartyn@gmail.com

ALH_4

Getting a quote

If you're looking for a stackable unit and Viessmann is out, Crown is the only other manufacturer that I know of with a horizontal tank available (40 and 53 gal). I am not sure which boiler models can be stacked on Crown's tanks. The tanks have pretty heavy jackets.

I can sympathize with the frustration of even getting quotes from contractors. I have been trying to get a roofing contractor to give me an estimate since last fall, and finally got one to actually come to the house yesterday. I called every roofing contractor in town 3 times and left messages (not one actually answers the phone), and eventuall got three calls returned and only one has taken the time to come to the house. At times I spend hours trying to get ahold of manufacturers and reps in my job only to encounter complicated menus to navigate or to leave a message for someone that apparently gets lost in the abyss. If I have too much trouble I just spec around a different product from someone who does return calls. There's good money in returning telephone calls. Unfortunately few businesses seem to be capable of doing so. So there's my rant about returning calls. ;-)

Mark Hunt_5

Buderus

has a stackable unit as well.

Here is one Darin Cook installed.

Mark H

Chas_4

Nice!

I think I would have poured a pad for it but otherwise very nice. That would save enough space so I could fit a laundry tub in the room which I need badly.

Bob Bona_4

Chas

Check your email.