PLUMBING The van life

By Fred Bretzke

PLUMBING

The LifeVAN

I can still picture it in my mind’s eye: It’s a hot summer day. The tunes are blasting. And, as I’m rolling down the highway, the wind is blowing in my hair, my left arm out the window gliding in the wind. No AC is needed now. The fresh mountain air is all I need. This is going to be an adventure. I’m going to be working in Banff, the place I wanna live, and vacation, and work, all at the same time.

Fred Bretzke is a full-time pipe trades instructor with SAIT Polytechnic in Calgary and the general manager of A&B Plumbing & Heating. He can be reached at fred.bretzke@sait.ca.

MARKETING ON WHEELS

Whenever I’m working or visiting the airport or Banff, I feel like I’m on holidays. As a serviceman, the beauty of the job is often the travelling time. You find yourself in a different place and on a different job almost every day. Shortly after starting A&B Plumbing, I had traded in my 1981 Monte Carlo for a 1980 Red Chevy Vandura, which I nicknamed My Little Red Engine. At the time, all three of us in the company had Chevy Vanduras, one grey, one black and one red – not black, grey and red, like the A-Team, but not far off. You know the saying “Fake it until you make it?” Well, we understood that. We numbered each van, and spaced the numbers out to make it look like we had many vans in our fleet. Attempting to appear as professional as we could, we figured good-looking, well-kept vans were an important part of advertising, although that didn’t really happen until we went to new white vans with our red wrench logo. Life as a service plumber is about your tools and your van, and your van is actually one of your main tools. It needs to be dependable if you want to do as many service calls as you can.

I loved the van I had when we started A&B Plumbing, with its shag rug floor, its 3/4” wooden shelves (which weighed it down considerably), its great bass booming stereo (very important) and its AC. In a van, the small details count. Having enough shelves to stock your van to the brim is also important.

Having enough hooks to hold all your extension cords and tools definitely comes in handy. Easy access to your heavy tools like your acetylene B tank and large wrenches is important as well. In our vans, this was usually located in the back corner.

Now what to do with your ladders? Hit the roof, of course! It’s vital to get a sturdy pipe roof rack, where you can store your lengths of pipe and your ladders.

I loved my shag rug, it was great on my bad knees, however it didn’t last long after I started cleaning grease traps with my wet/dry vacuum.

With no place to store the huge amount of grease pulled from eight to 10 restaurants a day, I would often temporarily store it in five-gallon white plastic pails lined with green garbage bags. As I bombed around the back-alley potholes, this method proved to be very messy and stinky.

All that grease permeated into my beautiful shag rug. Basically, I was running around in a rolling grease van. The things we do for money.

There’s nothing in the building or plumbing codes about your service van, but trust me, a dependable good-looking van is vital to a plumber. That’s in Fred’s Code.

FRED’S TOP VAN LIFE STORIES

(from his days in the Wild, Wild West)

My vans have taken me, and my crews, through thick and thin. Here are a few tales from road that stand out to me.

A smashing party?

As a manager of A&B, my role was to respond to all personnel problems. One New Year’s morning, I awoke to a call from the RCMP. One of our vans was in an accident in LA (Leduc Alberta). It was smashed up and left on the side of the highway on the way to Edmonton. This turned out to be one of my drain cleaners who decided to (without permission) take a joy ride to a New Year’s Eve party in Edmonton. Really, who takes a plumbing van to a party?

Helping to find better places

One crisp winter morning, one of those -25°C days, I two-way radioed everyone to meet me back at the jobsite at 7:30 a.m. for a quick job and safety status meeting. This job site was downtown, and we had all worked quite late into the evening the night before. As I approached the parking in the back alley, I noticed one of our young plumbers crawling out of his van. He looked like he just woke up. And it was freezing out. I talked to him and he embarrassingly claimed that he didn’t want to be late, so he slept in his van. There was more to this story, however. I felt some compassion towards him, so I helped him find a place to stay and told him never to risk sleeping in his van again. Extreme weather is only one of the risks present when a vehicle becomes home, even temporarily.

A hot dog?

One of our plumbers loved his dog so much, I found out that his dog was his service van companion every day.

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Now, I know there are re are dog lovers out there, here, and it can be hard to rd to leave our furry friends/family members at home at times, but a work van is s for work, and it is s not a pet-friendly y atmosphere.

Even with your windows cracked open, you never want to leave your dog in your van on a hot summer day.

A CLEAN STORY

Around 1990 or so, I had picked up the McDonald’s restaurant contract for the entire city of Calgary, and I recall an interesting conversation with the owner of the Alberta McDonald’s franchises – this was when franchises were sold by province or state. He was quite well off, and it was a pleasure to get to know him as he was friendly and had a good way about himself. He was in his late 70s then, and had a daily routine to swim a few laps in his gorgeous swimming pool and then put on his Scottish bonnet to swing by five or six restaurants for a mellow coffee.

Of course, many employees knew who he was, so they’d do their best to be on the ball if he walked in the door.

As I worked at his mansion just outside the city limits, I got to know him, so one day I finally asked him why he used our company.

He explained that he was very proud of his restaurants, and he only wanted to have professional-looking employees and service companies working in them. He later added that he loved the look of our professional, clean looking vans. That’s the kind of thing he expected.

Now those of you from our crew know why I insisted that everybody wash their vans the next day.

TURN-KEY VEHICLES READY FOR THE JOB-SITE

By Denise Deveau

Kitchen & bathroom trends gaining a new perspective

Any real estate guru will tell homeowners that a kitchen or bathroom upgrade is always a smart investment choice. Whether it’s a faucet or sink upgrade, new intelligent features, or an addition that pushes sustainability efforts, there are plenty of options for contractors to offer customers.

The best part is, your clients don’t have to choose between style and functionality, because manufacturers are delivering both. Even the latest garbage disposal and filtration units are more streamlined and easier to install than ever before.

Here’s a look at some of the trending highlights this year.

Grohe

THE IN-HOME GENERATION GAP Distributors are seeing an uptick in equipment for outfitting multigenerational homes with everything from attractive safety bars to zero threshold showers and walk-in tubs. “Homes are being built to house up to three generations,” explains Diana Di Carlo of Desco Plumbing and Heating Supply. To address this, some equipment manufacturers are designing their lines to fit a homeowner’s desired aesthetic and needs without looking like a medical device.

Bronte Collection Grabcessories

THE FINISHING FACTOR

When it comes to finishes, colours are taking centre stage for those interested in looking beyond the conventional white on white or stainless steel look. The latest sink offerings are geared towards solid surfaces and colours, says Jason Boyd of Dobbin Sales. “Manufacturers are expanding lines of colours every year. This year Elkay Quartz Luxe started with red, then jubilee blue and are now adding mint green to their sinks. Some have interchangeable apron fronts to match.” Even stainless steel manufacturers are showcasing colours. Zomodo, for example, now offers stainless steels sinks in black, gold and bronze finishes. Commercial designs are also making their way into homes, from pulldown kitchen faucets with the look and feel of commercial pre-rinse units, to concrete and white enamel sinks. “The most noticeable commercial trend is the popularity of the commercial spring faucet with power boost and clean features,” says Garry Scott of Moen Canada. Matte black and gold fixtures continue to dominate, although manufacturers are now finding ways to change things up by blending finishes such as matte black and gold in their newest lines. “We’re seeing big trends in living-in-place and multi-generational homes, where there is more integration and sophistication in plumbing, accessories and access that are suitable for mainstream, particularly for higher end products,” Isabel Carvalhana of LIXIL Canada (Grohe and DXV) adds. Di Carlo predicts demand will grow over the next three to five years. “It will be a necessity, more than a desire.”

THE BATHROOM SCENE

In the bathroom, porcelain finishes are taking a spin on the colour wheel. “It won’t be long before powder pink bathrooms are happening again,” Di Carlo says. “Colours are coming back in a big way. We’re seeing a lot of it in chinaware. Some manufacturers offer more than 190 colours for their porcelain fixtures.” While matte black and gold fixtures still reign supreme, rumours are that flat white may make some headway this year, she says, pointing to new shower fixtures from Rubinet and Baril. “That could be the next big thing.” Dominic Giordano from Taps, a Wolseley Showroom, says matte tub exteriors are gaining momentum. “We’re also seeing concrete-looking tubs.”

American Standard

This year could also see the rise of the bidet. The pandemic is driving renewed interest in bidet retrofits and one-piece units, according to Marlon Thompson of LIXIL Canada (American Standard). “They can pay anywhere from $99 to $2,000, depending in the feature sets. Right now, we’re seeing a run on the lower price point items.”

CONVENIENCE AND LUXURY

Among the many recent innovations in the residential plumbing space are spa showerheads from Moen that use atomization technology to reduce water consumption while enveloping the user in comfort, and the commercially inspired Glass Rinser from Delta. It releases high-pressure water jets to instantly clean glassware – from baby bottles and wine glasses to water bottles and travel cups.

Moen

SMARTER FIXTURES

For the past couple of years, touch-free faucets have been growing in popularity for health-conscious homeowners. Now manufacturers are going one step further with voice-activated and pre-programming features that can dispense specific amounts at specific temperatures and lengths of time on command.

These include the U by Moen Smart Faucet, which offers the option of voice, wave or manual operation, Delta’s VoiceIQ! system, which can bring voice activation to a number of existing faucets in the company’s lineup, and American Standard’s Avery, which can be operated with a wave of a hand. American Standard’s SelectFlo Measure faucets can also be programmed to pour specific amounts on request.

Boyd says connectivity is leading to a lot of new apps on the commercial side that are moving to residential, particularly for troubleshooting. “There are apps that can let you scan faucets with a smartphone, monitor water usage and running time, and leak detection systems.”

SUSTAINABLE THINKING

Environmental sustainability is becoming a key selling point for homeowners. Take the garbage Moen disposal, for example. Once besmirched with fictional tales of danger in horror movies, Moen consumers are beginning to understand how safe, and beneficial, they are, says Di Carlo. “The myths around the dangers need to be dispelled,” she explains. “They are environmental heroes because they save food waste from going to landfill, and are becoming essential kitchen appliances as much as a stove and fridge.” Residential offerings include products from InSinkErator and Moen. Homeowners are also increasingly looking to filtration innovations to reduce water usage, reports Carvalhana. “Water optimization and sustainability look to be among the strongest

American Standard trends. Transforming water through filtration will grow more and more in the future.” This includes the integration of multiple water types into a single point of delivery. For example, the Grohe Blue single-lever faucet sparkling water system dispenses still and sparkling filtered water, as well as regular unfiltered water from the same faucet, reducing water waste and plastic. American Standard also has a faucet line that delivers filtered water at the touch of a button. “The great thing is that you don’t need filtered water for washing dishes or cleaning the fish tank, so you’re not wasting the filter cartridge,” says Thompson.