Plumbing & Mechanical Contractor

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Editor Kristen Bayles spoke with Blake Turner, master trainer at Nexstar, to discuss the misconceptions surrounding "upselling," and how through a few simple steps — focusing on communication, presenting options, and helping customers make informed decisions — contractors can improve both the customer experience and their business outcomes, without ever feeling like a salesperson.

The air-to-water heat pump summit was held on March 4th in Burlington, VT, and attended by over 120 people.

The next era of the trades won’t be dominated solely by the most prominent brands or the loudest marketers. It will be shaped by operators who understand efficiency, protect their margins, and invest in genuine relationships.

A common plea during the recent bitter cold spell: no heat, frozen pipes, frozen underground water service line and sewer lines, too! But, there’s always at least one issue homeowners never expected - running out of hot water when they haven’t had that problem previously.

When radiant slabs and high-demand fixtures share a heat source, thermal equilibrium doesn’t always favor the shower.

In this episode of And So It Flows, Kristen Bayles spoke with Jane Blanchard, head of brand and marketing at Service Forge, about a challenge many contractors underestimate: the true cost of missed calls.

The recent cold weather means one thing for contractors: an increase in calls.

In a data-informed environment, plumbing and mechanical systems become managed infrastructure — visible, measurable and continuously optimized. Contractors who embrace that reality position themselves not simply as technicians, but as long-term asset stewards in an increasingly performance-driven built environment.

Codes are expanding into areas like resilience, electrification, water quality management and long-term accountability. No longer are they static rulebooks; they’re living frameworks shaping how systems perform over decades.