50° mornings and a boiler replacement surge this week in NYC and NJ.

JohnNY

Why, oh, why does everyone wait until the last minute?!?!

Dave0176

I had a customer wait till January 5th when it dropped into the teens last year to call me knowing he needed a replacement last March.... Smh!!

Bob Bona_4

Yup, ppl had their heat on yesterday when I was making the rounds. I'm still in Tshirts and cargo shorts.

RobG

Great work John. Do you do the design and send your guys out to do the install or are they good enough to do both the design and the install?

JohnNY

A lot of these are cookie-cutter, repetitive installs that my two best boiler crews handle on their own. I sell most of the jobs so if I have a preference or if there's something that needs to be addressed I just let them know.

RobG

JohnNY said:

A lot of these are cookie-cutter, repetitive installs that my two best boiler crews handle on their own. I sell most of the jobs so if I have a preference or if there's something that needs to be addressed I just let them know.

Do you have any younger guys running your best crews or is it older guys who will be retiring soon?

JohnNY

At 46, I'm the old guy here. My top boiler guys are 38 and 36.

RobG

JohnNY said:

At 46, I'm the old guy here. My top boiler guys are 38 and 36.

At their ages and the way the country is going you should be able to get another 30 years out of both of them.

ChrisJ

Never like it when guys sit fittings and tools all over the top of a new boiler.

A piece of cardboard goes a long way.

Dave0176

JohnNY said:

At 46, I'm the old guy here. My top boiler guys are 38 and 36.

Were getting younger, I'm 39, my helper is 37, and I'm in the process of trying to train my 19 yo brother, who seems very interested. Although lately my pop at 63 has been doing a lot of work with me.

Dave0176

ChrisJ said:

Never like it when guys sit fittings and tools all over the top of a new boiler.

A piece of cardboard goes a long way.

Chris I'm guilty of doing that too...........

jonny88

Sorry Chris I am guilty to but you are correct

JohnNY

Yeah. Sometimes that just happens. I guess after you do a few hundred of these things, you get to learn how to place things gently without leaving marks. Maybe I'll go get another picture of the finished product and we'll see how we did.

Snowmelt

whats up with the water heater

ChrisJ

Water heater looks like temporary hookup

jonny88

Common practice snowmelt to install temp hot water on a job that will take more than a day.First complaint is always the water.

JUGHNE

If I'm working any of the trades in a house for more that a day, I will cover the washer, dryer, chest freezer or whatever with heavy drop cloth or cardboard. If I'm there long enough something will be placed on top of that "handy workbench" and this way it and I am covered. This also is good PR towards HO. At the end of each day everything is uncovered that HO may want that evening.

ChrisJ

JohnNY said:

Yeah. Sometimes that just happens. I guess after you do a few hundred of these things, you get to learn how to place things gently without leaving marks. Maybe I'll go get another picture of the finished product and we'll see how we did.

What the boiler looks like afterwards, is of course what is important.

However, my statement is also about what the customer thinks if he sees it. I know I wouldn't be happy.

I'll admit, some friends call me "The Anal Retentive Chef".

Harvey Ramer

Chris,
I am guilty of the same thing. I'm glad you mentioned it though. I will start throwing a piece of cardboard or drop cloth on the boiler before I set tools or fittings on it.

ChrisJ

Harvey Ramer said:

Chris,

I am guilty of the same thing. I'm glad you mentioned it though. I will start throwing a piece of cardboard or drop cloth on the boiler before I set tools or fittings on it.

Harvey,

Be 100% honest, am I wrong about what a customer would think?

Maybe I'm wrong in this regard, like I said, I know I'm overly anal about a lot of things, i get that.

JUGHNE

Lady/Customer notices this. Especially their appliances.

It all goes by the point system that all husbands eventually learn: For instance you get maybe 3 points for painting "her" entire house....but you lose 10 points because you stepped on one of her flowers that surround the house.

You never "lose" points by trying to protect something, you may not gain any, but just showing concern registers with some people. It is like carefully wiping your shoes on the door mat even though you know that they are absolutely already clean. IMHO

njtommy

You mean you guys don't where nice white collared shirts and put tarps down every where and wear booties over your work boots?

Dave0176

ChrisJ said:

Harvey Ramer said:

Chris,

I am guilty of the same thing. I'm glad you mentioned it though. I will start throwing a piece of cardboard or drop cloth on the boiler before I set tools or fittings on it.

Harvey,

Be 100% honest, am I wrong about what a customer would think?

Maybe I'm wrong in this regard, like I said, I know I'm overly anal about a lot of things, i get that.

No Chris your right, it makes us look like slobs.....

JUGHNE

Here in the "outback", the red neck tee/sweat shirt, bib overalls, and just clean boots will cut it. But if boots are muddy they stay at the door and I go in stocking feet.

Aaron_in_Maine

I carry a six foot folding table in my install trailer for placing my stuff on. But if space is limited a piece of cardboard on the boiler will due.