the heating business

GW

remember being an all-knowing 20-something year old? Some guys never leave that stage!

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j.h.

how did you get into this business?

just curious how did the many of you wetheads and steamheads get into this business of heating? i know how i got very interested it started when i was four and went to europe and every place i went i was asking how every radiator i saw worked. and now today these systems have come here to the us and i am now learning so much more about how these very cool systems work. would love to hear your story about how you got interested in this great business. j.h.

Unknown

j.h.,

you`re entailing a-lot there! We could all write a book, in my case, it was kinda "inbred", as I was always interested. My Father being a "Canadian Dead Man".

Big Ed_3

Same Here

I was a Boiler Brat too... But just a bit to the south.

Al Corelli_2

\"Boiler Brat\" I like that term

Grandfather had the guys teach me how to weld when I was little. Very little. Not for the experience, but because I could crawl into the scotch marine boilers from the back and weld refractory tabs around the burner blast tube. Then I learned to hammer refractory around those same tabs.

Would not change my childhood at all. Got to go all over Manhattan and the Bronx, see all kinds of heating systems, fix or replace them, it was soo cool, and it still is.

I am fortunate enough to still be able to work with my Dad at times. We have alot of fun together.
I am also very fortunate at times to work with one of the greatest people on the planet, Ben Williams.

Maybe I can instill in my employees, what my Grandfather, Father and Ben have, in me.

Thanks Guys.

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Techman

Inbred?

Talk about in-bread!My parents owned a bakery where I was made to work,then I joined the Navy-Submarines,where I did Air Cond & refrigeration,then back into civilan life where I worked for a HVACR company and started learning about heat and have been faithfully studing HVACR ever since. Going on 38 years and at times I still feel like an apprentice.

GW

started plumbing

and wet heat was a natural cross-over. I didn't know how much I didn't know back then. Then again, how many people don't know what they don't know? Ahhh, that's a deep thought.

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Josh_10

My dad was a GC. He hooked me up with a plumber because I didn't want to do the family business. As it turned out that plumber specialized in RFH.

Mad Dog_2

I was brought up in Thoroughbred Horse Racing

But for several reasons....knew I needed a more reliable trade. Fixed the leaking waste bends under Ma' Sweeney's kitchen sink and thus began my plumbing journey...not long after that I became intriguiged and enamored with heating - still am. Mad Dog

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helpingothershelpthemselves_2

I was a Long Island soot sucker for Carbo Concord (in Inwood) after working for Dad and other small business owners , who owned small plumbing & heating businesses. Branched out into offering oil burner and gas burner service after first few years of being self employed. Best move made for the company. Had great people on my side ,from plumbers to service managers and Lilco supervisors. My sincere thanks to them all .

[Deleted User]

I wouldn't get into the heating business...

ANYONE can make heat. It takes a multi talented, skilled craftsman to make COMFORT on all levels.

Read anything and everything you can buy, beg, borrrow and steal from Dan Holohan. That's a great start.

As for starting up a "business", go to Ellen Rohr's web site. www.barebonesbiz.com

As for becoming a comfort contractor, go to www.healthyheating.com

And by all means, hang here at the Wall. You've GOT to learn something...

ME

Ragu_5

Started in plumbing, also...

Moved to Maine and the plumber I worked for was doing lots of radiant, and was one of the first up here. Heating calculations just seemed more fun than toilets and sinks etc.

Worked for a couple of other places, got lots of "thank you" notes from customers, but no extra $$$ or training from the bosses; had to pay out of pocket for trainings and miss a days pay to boot.

I think I was 41 when I said: "Time to try my own gig". Had to learn a lot more, but we're getting there. No regrets.

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Leo

Gary

My high school chemistry teacher had a sign.
"The more you know, the more you know you don't know" I think I got more out of that class from the sign than the rest of chemistry.

Leo

j.h.

its probably a shock to some of you but i am 12 years old and very interested in not only modern hot water but steam heat and old hot water systems i was just curious how you all got started in the business. ive been lurking here for about 2 years.
j.h.

helpingothershelpthemselves_2

Its not stealing from Dan H...it is research , I have been told .

Unknown

Ah,

Not "really shocked", our youth is where the "buds-sprout", so to speak!

Dave

Floyd_26

That's sooooo coooolllll!!!!

Heyman, keep hangin out here... you'll learn a ton!!! Like others said, the more you know, the more you know you don't know... I just happened into the heating side of things when I was doing kitchen cabinet refacing and heard there was a job opening at a heating co. I always had the attitude that I could do anything that anyone else could do... just had to learn how to do it... have wore many different hats.... farmer, meat cutter, carpenter, welder/metal fabricator, and now HVAC.... there are so many things to do in life, glad to see your interested in learning already.

Got to ask this though.....are you by chance home schooled???

Floyd

j.h.

floyd yes i am homeschooled and ive already learned a ton and theres tons more to be learned
j.h.

Ragu_5

Nightmares of Mad Dog....

Being a jockey in his youth. Poor horses carrying Mad Dog and his 4 foot pipe wrench around the track. Ouch!!

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Darrell

I'm a homeschool dad...good for you! One of my sons is thinking about getting into the trade. I started as a maintenance man for the college I attended...was going to be a teacher. We had two huge locomotives that they had converted to steam heat over a hundred years ago...still had the trucks, cattle catcher, and wheelhouses on 'em, just parked them in the basement! While I was there they were fired with natural gas, and we'd cycle them to oil once a month. They heated the entire facility with no mechanical pumps...all gravity...way cool. I came home and got into plumbing and heating...most contractors here do both, and eventually worked into service work. I still get a rush when I flip the switch on something I have worked on and count down...buzz...whirrr...click, click, click, whoosh! Ain't nothing like it.

Mitch_6

My grandfather owned an oil then plumbing company

I worked there during and just after high school, then I went to work for another company for a year before going on my own.

Knowing know what I did not know then I most likely would not be in this business, but then again I do not know how successful or satisfied I would be had I done something else.

Mitch S.

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Dmitri_2

Anna Conda

He was riding a Clydesdale ^_~

Me, I was introduced to steam power at an earrrrrrrrly age (three months....) Had lots of fun with it. Still do; now run a couple of big boilers and volunteer on a steam locomotive.

Al Gregory

I learned from my father and brothers, My father learned in the army during WW2 he was tired of marching all day and one day they asked if anyone had any heating experiance because they were building new houses for the officers. He stepped up and said he did, even though he didnt. He learned fast though working with someone that did.

LadyOilTech

How I got into this business

I got into this business the hard way. My husband back in the late 80's worked for a big Oil company, he was on call and so tired from the numerous calls that came in that night. I'd hear the pager go off, wake him up and drive him to the next job so he could sleep a little longer. I followed him down into the cellars/basements of his calls, so to stay awake he would explain things to me. I had no idea what he was talking about in the beginning but after a while things started to make sense.
So after a many years of this his friends and co-workers told me that I should go into this business. Me an oil heat tech? With encouragement and a little knowlwdge I did become a lady oil tech, Connecticuts only ladt oil tech. I love the job and the customers I suprise. I became the most requested tech for the company.
Special thanks to my husband Dale who taught me hands on, the instructors at tech school that taught me technical knowlwdge, and Billy Wade Sr. who encouraged me to just do it and taught me Steam Heat. Billy past away before he could see me in the trade and I sure do miss him. He's be proud.

Jerry Langley

Business Entry

My furnace went out on a cold Wisconsin Nite and my neighbor who was employed as a service tech for a local contractor came over and fixed it. I sort of watched him go through the troubleshooting procedures and thought I could do that , so I went to the closest vocational school obtained some knowledge and have been in the business ever since. That was 30 years ago. WOW

ALH_4

accidentally

I like the stories about accidentally stumbling into the business. Maybe that's because I did that myself.

I was attending Montana State University studying mechanical engineering and ended up with a summer job at a company that "wears a lot of hats", one of which is engineer, though that is not the part of the company where I initially worked. I learned a lot from the owners of that company, more than I would have at any other place I know of.

Mike Miller

Also accidently

Man, I wish we would had forums like this when I was struggleing years ago to figure out what to do with my life. I really stared out in the Oil FIeld in the late '70s. My Mom had raised me and my brothers by herself. So there was no Dad around to emulate. My Mom worked for Texaco Drilling and when I graduated High School there wasn't much going on in construction that I knew how to get into, so she called friends in Casper Wyo where the oil patch was going crazy, they were taking any body who could stand upright. I am still grateful for the experience, I learned how to work there. The smallest pipe wrench we used was a 36" and the usual tool was a 60". When I came back home (Denver) i got a job at a litle supply house, a plumbing junkyard really, and learned the fittings and some basics, meet some of the local guys and finally found one who was willing to take on an apprentice who wasn't afraid of a shovel. I was just a plumber for years, joined the Union and got to work some of the big jobs we have had out her the last decade, got to working around pipefitters and got interested in heating and cooling. It has really only since I opened the doors on my business that I have gotten around a lot of heating and cooling work, after thirty years as a plumber, it is great to have something new fascinating me. I love the wall, because of you guys I have been able to do some jobs that I would have had a much more difficult time finding the information I needed. We replaced a steam boiler in a residence recently that we able to go in and do well because of the wall and Dan's book. JH I think it is great that you are checking this out at your age, even if you don't wind up in the trade, the information found here is invaluable to anyone who owns a house. Thanks for letting me share Mike

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brad johns

getting into the biz.

Grandfather was an electrician, father is a steamfitter (retired), I am now a steamfitter as well.

GusHerb

interesting stories everyone i see that alot of you stumbled into the trade and the rest it was past down by family keep tellin your stories everyone.
thanks j.h.

The Wire Nut

Still learning, wandering and wondering...

Bought an old stone house 3 years ago. Had a steam boiler, trashed by a knucklehead. Found The Wall, took a Dan seminar, fell in love with steam and its elegant simplicity but maddening counter-intuitiveness.

Answering an appeal from Dan on The Wall, I spent 2 days with Eugene Silberstein (The Professor) and Dan as a jr. apprentice helping to set up the new heating lab at Suffolk CC here in NY. That's me on the left in the photo, hand threading 2" black pipe...

Dan and I became friends, Eugene became an inspiration.

I read all of Dan's books (well, almost all), then tackled re-installing my boiler, drop header and all. Then installed a replacement V85 after the basement flooded this summer.

Attended 3 Wetstocks, met lots of wonderful people, some who have become good friends. Took a lot of Dan's seminars. Learned a lot, and know I need to know more...

Love to find a place for me within this profession, using my skills in wiring and technology...

Alex

Alan R. Mercurio_3

Before I started working in this industry I was a baker at a Mister
Donut store in Danville, PA. That was only about nine years ago. I was pretty happy with what I was doing but one day I found out I would soon be a dad. I knew the money I was earning was good but I knew it would take more than what I was making to support a child. That’s when a good friend told me about this oil company in the area that was offering on-the-job training, good money, and benefits. These were the things I knew I would need. But I had no clue as to what any of this would entail, and to be honest, the money and the benefits were the reason I was willing to try.

That changed very soon after I started working for this company,
However, I realized that this was a very serious job and that the people
I helped were really counting on me. I remember the first time I had
Discovered the trouble with a system and repaired it. I felt so proud.
It was a great feeling to go upstairs and tell the family they would be warm now.

I soon realized that this job meant more to me then just a pay check at the end of the week. I knew I had to dedicate as much time as possible to learn about this industry. I had to take courses, read books, and keep an open mind when talking with others in this industry.

Today I can say I have learned a lot of things but most of all I’ve learned that learning never stops. And today, with the Information Superhighway, the time you can spend learning seems endless. I guess I am telling you all this because I want you to know that if you really put your heart into what you want to do you can do anything.

J. H. I applaud your desire to learn this trade or any for that matter at such a young age. If I can ever be of any help to you I’m just an e-mail away. Bless you and Merry Christmas


Your friend in the industry,
Alan R. Mercurio

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ED_29

How I got started/

My Dad was a stationary Enginer. He had learned this trade on board a destroyer in WW 2. After the war, he got a job in a local textile mill running thier boiler room & also the electric turbine that generated the power for the mill from the river. Well you can probably figure out the rest. But I have to tell you I had no intentions of ever being involved with ,or around such a dirty rotten job, least thats what they had me do in the summer`s. Clean out those monsters. so during high school I worked for the water dept, running pipe in the streets,pick & shovel. also did a variety of other jobs, till getting drafted in the Army during the 60`s. After getting out I drove oil truck,& so started the journey. Been interesting,I am only 67 now, but its been a long road, still working but no nite service. Good Luck to all my fellow service Tech`s , ED !