Articles

Orlando Plumbing Company finds success ‘The Modern Way’

 

No job in the Orlando area is too small – or too big – for Modern Plumbing Industries, Inc. (MPI).  On the residential side, the Winter Springs company gets a constant flow of testimonials from customers like Ken, who wrote, “Modern Plumbing is fast, friendly and gets the job done when they say they will. Prices are the best I can find. They follow up and schedule the work to be done very fast. They are simply the best.”

At the other end of spectrum, The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company called on Modern to coordinate plumbing work for the University of Central Florida’s Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences, a 198,000-square-foot research facility. The LEED Silver project included offices, laboratories and a vivarium with more than 24 miles of piping.

When the project was finished in 2009, Modern received an ABC Eagle Award for construction excellence for its work, which included:

• Domestic water, animal water, and laboratory water systems

• Reverse osmosis water systems

• Chemical waste, storm and sanitary systems

• Two natural gas systems

• Lab vacuum, compressed air (regular and high pressure), carbon dioxide and two specialty gas systems

“Regardless of the size of the job, we give our customers the same high level of service, which we call The Modern Way,” said Charles Bracco, Vice President, in a recent interview. “It’s a philosophy based on taking pride in what we do, providing service with honesty and integrity, and doing things right the first time.”

Modern Plumbing is also taking advantage of today’s technology with a dynamic website, including a blog, and a strong social media presence designed to attract service and repair customers. “A large commercial contractor isn’t going to visit our website to see if we can do a $5 million project for them,” said Bracco. “But having an informative and helpful website is crucial for connecting with our service customers, and we will continue to invest in that marketing channel.”

Modern Plumbing also equips its service technicians and project supervisors with iPads that connect with the office as well as the company’s Building Information Modeling (BIM) system. “A foreman in the field can see the complete model right on the iPad,” said Bracco.

 

Nearly four decades of service

Back in 1972, Frank Bracco moved from New Jersey to Orlando and opened Modern Plumbing Industries three years later.  Charles was born in 1977 followed by his brother Anthony. As the boys grew, so did Modern.

“Central Florida was growing quickly in the late 1970s, and my father worked on 600-plus new houses per year for U.S. Homes,” Bracco said. “He got right into the residential housing market, but when mortgage rates spiked in the early 1980s, he quickly saw greater opportunity in commercial markets.”

Frank Bracco built the company to include four business units: plumbing, site work, irrigation and fire-sprinkler. But in the late 1980s, he decided to downsize and focus on the company’s core competency, which had always been plumbing.

By the mid 1990s, Modern was growing again and began to see increases in project size. “Our job size grew from about $100,000 to more than $1 million by 1997 and eventually became the $5 and $6 million projects we are doing today,” Bracco said.

During the recent economic downturn, the company reduced its workforce, but was one of the few contractors that didn’t cut wages, Bracco said. “We had a strong balance sheet, which was a big help,” he added. “Other companies that were highly leveraged with a lot of debt found it very challenging to get through the recession.”

Today, Modern Plumbing has about 70 employees and a well-diversified portfolio of projects, including biomedical research facilities, hospitals, medical offices, schools, offices and hotels. The company serves commercial, industrial, and residential customers in Seminole, Orange and Osceola counties as well as the surrounding Central Florida region.

“One of the big challenges our industry is facing today is a shortage of skilled labor,” Bracco said. “Our company has always been active in apprenticeships in Seminole County. But we have to figure out how to get the kids in high school interested in plumbing or we won’t have anyone to build new projects over the next few decades. While plumbing is hard work, if you get some experience and learn in the field, there are plenty of opportunities to make a good living and move up to being a foreman or manager.”

Modern believes in safety first. Bracco is a strong supporter of OSHA and other safety standards. “We conduct regular training for team members who are in the field, and many of our foreman have earned the OSHA 30 hour certification,” he added. “That emphasis on safety is just one of the reasons that general contractors who focus on quality will call us for a plumbing quote on their projects. We’re known as a company that gets the job done right.”

 

A change in leadership

After 38 years of running Modern Plumbing Frank Bracco moved into semi-retirement this September, still coming into the office, but not every day. This was the culmination of a transition of leadership that began a decade ago.

Back in 2003, Charles Bracco was working in California and Anthony Bracco was at the University of South Florida in Tampa. “We decided to move back home, work with our dad and see what we could do with the business,” Bracco said. “We knew that succession planning is always a big challenge for family businesses, and we wanted to put a structure in place to make the transition from one generation to the next.”

Over the next few years, the three Braccos talked about the direction to take the company and the infrastructure needed to follow that path.  While the recession slowed their planning, the younger Braccos steadily played a greater role in the organization, supported by their father and the company’s long-time employees. Charles is now the General Manager and Anthony is the Director of Sales and Marketing.

“We felt that doing service and repair work provided the critical flow of revenue during the recession, and we mostly stuck with projects within a 25-mile radius of our office,” Bracco said.  “We also took on projects near the homes of our technicians, who live in different counties, in order to minimize their drive time.”

As the result of a lagging economy in Central Florida, Modern Plumbing expanded its geographic scope, taking on major commercial projects like the Vaccine Gene Therapy Institute (VGTI) biomedical research facility in Port St. Lucie and the Air Force Technical Applications Center at Patrick Air Force Base near Cocoa Beach. “We can team up with our general contractors to do work around Florida or at military bases outside the state,” Bracco said.

Looking ahead to 2014, Bracco expects the non-residential markets to pick up steam in the coming year. “Between new schools, hotels, UCF and the theme parks, we think Central Florida is going to be a hotbed of new construction activity,” he said. “To the east, renovation of the Daytona International Speedway and construction of a Hard Rock hotel and retail complex mean a lot of new work in the Daytona Beach area. With a great team in place, we see lots of good opportunities to keep growing our company in the next few years.”

 

Modern Plumbing Industries, Inc.

255 Old Sanford Oviedo Rd.

Winter Springs, FL, 32708
407.327.6000

www.modernpi.com

By Abigail Cantor, P.E., Chemical Engineer and Water Quality Specialist

I just finished investigating yet another brand new building with corroding copper pipes.  Fixtures were stained green and the blonde residents had green stains in their hair!  This situation is upsetting every time I see it.  And, it seems to happen quite a lot — on both large commercial buildings and in private residences.

But, this problem can be prevented.  This is why I wanted to raise awareness of the problem by writing a series of articles in Wisconsin Perspective in 2012 and then by bringing the articles together into a booklet called What’s Bugging Your Pipes:  How Microorganisms Affect Plumbing Systems.

In short, microorganisms grow in water systems whenever water stagnates or resides too long in the pipes and tanks.  They attach to surfaces with an acidic enzyme that can corrode metal.  This situation is called microbiologically influenced corrosion or MIC.  This can lead to increased metals concentration in the water with possible discoloration as well as pinhole leaks in metal pipe walls.  In addition, with conditions good for microbiological growth, there is an increased risk of encouraging the growth of microorganisms that cause water-borne illnesses.

Excessive microbiological growth can occur anywhere in a water system beginning at the water source, in the water service line, in point-of-entry water treatment tanks, in the hot water system, in point-of-use water treatment devices and finally, in the faucets.  The key is to identify volumes of slow-moving or stagnating water within a water system.

One location of slow-moving water in a plumbing system is in its on-site water treatment.  The best practice is to provide on-site water treatment only when it is absolutely necessary.  There are many possible contaminants in water but it must be determined which contaminants really pose a threat.  Sizing the equipment so that it has a minimum volume and surface area to do the job required is very important.  Finally, there needs to be an automatic clean-in-place system or manual cleaning protocol that can keep the equipment free of microbiological growth.

Proper plumbing design is also critical in preventing MIC.  Many luxury plumbing features, such as multiple-head shower sprays and large bathtubs, increase the required water flow, and subsequently, the pipe size and hot water storage requirements.  Customers must be made aware of the trade-offs in selecting some of these features.  There are ways to use these luxury features with some restrictions and still enjoy them.  The new reality is that a plumbing design should focus on minimizing volume of water and interior surface area in the complete plumbing system.

Another battlefront for MIC is to prevent microorganisms from entering the building’s plumbing in the first place.  Private well owners need to understand the structural and hydrogeological issues of their wells.  Municipal water utilities need to maintain disinfected water of low microbiological activity throughout the distribution system.

Disinfection, typically in the form of chlorine, is necessary in water to prevent excessive microbiological growth.  Once microorganisms attach to the walls, then another type of chemical that can break down the protective “biofilms” around the microorganisms is needed in addition to disinfection.

Routine monitoring must be performed in the water to assure that microorganisms are under control.  One parameter to track is the disinfection concentration in the water to determine if there is “ammunition” to keep up the fight against excessive growth.  This can be done with a relatively simple test kit.  A second parameter to track is a measurement of microbiological activity called ATP.  This analysis can be performed at some water laboratories.

In summary, to prevent MIC from occurring, design the plumbing system with minimum volume and surface area to prevent microbiological growth.  Then, maintain a clean plumbing system by cleaning any treatment equipment and tanks and keeping the water disinfected.  Finally, monitor routinely to confirm that microbiological growth is low and the water is disinfected.

If MIC is already occurring, monitor to determine where the sources of microbiological growth are in the plumbing system.  Make sure that there is adequate disinfection in the water and possibly use a chemical to destroy the protective biofilms around the microorganisms.  Plumbing systems may have to be modified to lower the volume of water stored.  Then, maintain a clean system and monitor to confirm that the problem does not re-occur.

The past articles and, now, the booklet on What’s Bugging Your Pipes was written for plumbing designers, building contractors, municipal water utility managers, and property owners to raise awareness of MIC and suggest ways to prevent and remediate the problem.  The growth of microorganisms in water systems can be prevented with everyone’s participation.

 

So I travel a lot, in the air almost every week.  I am in Atlanta, flying on to Michigan for a few days.  I am a 1K on United, flew over 100,000 miles with them last year, will be about the same this year.  That is a big deal, when I call for help they know my number, ask how is Mr. Hinshaw today?

I am in Atlanta, waiting a gate 15 for my flight leaving at 5:30 PM.  It boarded at 4:55 just fine, I am in 3 C, sat down and promptly fell asleep.  Woke up at 6:00, still sitting on the runway, which is not a good thing.  The Captain comes on, tells us we are heading back to the gate, some sort of mechanical issue.  Full disclosure, I am glad we went back to the gate.  I am confident that any sort of problem on an airplane can be fixed better 5 feet off the ground than they can at 30,000 feet.

When we got back to the gate, the pilot says we are going to disembark.  Get off the plane.  That is a very bad thing, means they are sure that plane is not going anywhere.  So we get off the plane, I look at the surrounding gates, notice that there is a flight going to the same city leaving from gate 14, in 45 minutes, how great is that?

All good until I hear them announce that flight is cancelled due to mechanical problems.  Wow, two planes going to same city, adjacent gates, and both with mechanical problems.  Unbelievable.

I get on the phone, my United agent says, how are you Mr. Hinshaw?  I tell her not so well, she says I know, you are stuck in Atlanta!  She says both the flights to my city are down, she had already booked me on a Delta flight leaving in two hours, exit row, aisle seat!  How great is that.  Gets even better.  At the Delta gate I witnessed the best gate agent ever.

He called out each passenger by name as he checked their boarding pass: how are we doing Mr. Jones, what a great hat Mrs. Smith.  Every customer.  It was amazing.  I was there an hour early, watched him in action on the flight before mine.  When he was finished with the earlier flight, he asked me where I was from.  Told him Colorado, he asked if I could recommend a ski resort.  I told him we had been to Copper Mountain several times, and while we did not ski, we had friends who did and they said it was excellent.  And it is close to Denver, at least compared to some that are a lot further up the mountain.  He actually took notes, thanked me for the reference.

How long has it been since you or someone from your company has delighted a customer?  Where they were not just satisfied, but rather you turned them into raving fans.  Where the experience was exceptional, much better than they had ever imagined.  It may be as a result of a problem that occurred (my experience with United), or the fact that they showed they cared while doing their job, such as Delta.  Either way, it is so rare that a company goes above and beyond that we are amazed when it happens.

So equip your employees to make a difference in the lives of your customers, to provide an outstanding experience.  In most cases our customers have not actually done a project of this magnitude before, no matter if we are talking about a new comfort system, a total remodel of the master bath or a 5 KW solar system installed on the roof.  We may have done 40 jobs just like this in the past, but not in this home.  This may be the first time this customer has ever opened up their home in this manner; they don’t know what is going to happen next.  Make sure your team helps them feel good about it,

Contractors, the time has arrived to modernize, save money, and get digital. Technology has changed dramatically over the past 5 years to your benefit. So much so that you can no longer ignore the importance and advantages of using some digital technology to your advantage. And the best part for you is that it’s so inexpensive that it’s nearly free.

Recently, I was speaking to a professional in the industry who mentioned that there were some contractors who just purchased their very first fax machine. I was a little shocked, not that it took so long to have fax capability but because a hardware device was purchased. Fax machines alone are not very expensive depending on its capabilities, but somewhere around the $100 range for an average model. But then there is the cost of the fax line from a local carrier and any extra cost for ink for every fax that comes through. For some contractors, having fax capabilities are necessary. However, there is a much simpler, streamlined, and cost effective method. It’s using online fax services. They provide you the fax number and all communication is done online. Instead of printing a document and faxing it, you can simply fax it right from you computer or even from your smart phone. In addition, faxes can be sent directly to your email address automatically, no extra fee in a PDF format. If you’re looking for an important fax and you’re on the road, this can be very convenient to receive a fax directly to your smart phone anytime and anywhere.

Many of these same companies, among others, also provide online phone services. For some operations, a receptionist is necessary. But some businesses need to save under this economy but still offer a professional service and quick response to their customers. Without a receptionist, you can always have a customer contact your cell phone. But you may prefer to also have an office number or may have several employees out on the road at once, leaving the office empty. Instead of using an answering machine, you can use online phone services that are inexpensive and extremely flexible to meet any contractor’s need. Want customers to be greeted professionally and have calls routed to various employees or business owners on their cell phone whole on the road? No problem. If they don’t answer, would you like the customer’s message to be left in the main phone system message box? Sure, no problem. How about having any messages emailed directly to you, whether on your computer or smart phone, in an mp3 format? Sure, that’s easy. No more waiting to get back to the office to see if any new customers have called. It comes to you instantly. In addition, the cost of online phone and fax systems is minimal. Some can be as little as $7 – $10 per month depending on your need.

How many of you have recently started your new business or perhaps you would like to rebrand your business? It’s simple and can be quite fun actually. There are tremendous online resources to produce and design a new logo, business cards, brochures, and more for your business in a contest format. The best part is how it works and the benefit to you. You simply use on of multiple websites available and enter your need and design requirements. Then thousands of developers from around the world can compete to win your “design contest”. You may receive 80, 90, or well over 100 designs from various designers from all over the globe. And you only pay the winner of your choosing. How can you beat that? Each website and contest offers something unique that you can choose to your liking and budget. But instead of paying someone to develop several designs that you do not like, only to pay again and start over, these online contests offer a tremendous advantage for any company and any budget. You can easily take a look at the quality of designs being produced as well on each site. I recently read a story of a fortune 500 company spending several million dollars just for their logo, when I saw the result, I was quite unimpressed. Logos are important as they offer a unique identity. But they also can be overthought. Think of the simplicity of the Facebook logo, yet it’s identifiable.

The greatest area of need for contractors is in obtaining your first, or upgrading your company website. This technology has seen the most dramatic transformation of them all. It used to be, even several years ago, that if you wanted a professional looking website, you would need to spend a minimum of $10,000 or far more. Otherwise you were left with a simple static website that looked like it was built by you, or a relative or something in their spare time. They were mainly a few pages of text, maybe a few pictures, and even a contact form. But the overall look was not pretty and looked very “texty” than professional and beautiful. But hey, your contractors right? Where’s the beauty in some pipes and drains? Well it’s much more than that. Think of it like this; imagine treating your wife or some friends to a nice steak dinner on a Saturday night. Perhaps you heard of a place having great steaks and you show up and the building looks like it’s about to fall down. The restaurant sign can barely be seen and is tilted sideways, the paint is chipping everywhere, the parking lot is full of deep potholes, minimal lighting, and the entrance is hard to find as it’s in an awkward position. Then you walk in and the hostess can’t be found so you wait, then she shows up in very old dirty clothing with holes. The entire inside is dusty, dirty, dingy, and looks like it has never been cleaned since its grand opening 50 years ago. You see some tables that aren’t even washed as she proceeds to seat you and your group. How quickly is it before you want to pick up and leave to a restaurant that is much more presentable for your wife or friends. The steak may be great, but what good does it do if nobody wants to even stay to find out. Or perhaps you heard of a great restaurant but can’t even find it. How many of you don’t even have a website for your business.

This has been the norm in the contractor community unfortunately. Perhaps it’s because of the cost to have a website developed for your business. Well, that has now changed all due to a website platform called WordPress. Today, you can have one of the most professional looking websites for as little as $40. That’s right, $40. The reason is all because something called a “theme”. A theme is basically like a house built on a good foundation. The foundation and structure is very sturdy and stable but the inside can be changed to look however you want and whenever you want. Themes are similar, they are websites built upon the WordPress platform but they have their own look and feel to them and can be changed at anytime. In the past, themes were very basic and offered little in your ability to change the look of the theme you purchased. It was kind of “What you see is what you get”. But now, technology has changed so much that each them has thousands or almost an infinite amount of variations to make it look exactly like you want. 10 years ago, some of these same themes for $40 or $60 would have cost well over $30,000. But now, even the smallest of businesses with the smallest budget can have an amazing, professional, beautiful, and very functional website for almost no cost.

In addition, these themes no longer require a programming degree or years of website study and development. Yes you too can build your own website. Of course there is always some minor learning that you go through as with anything you buy these days, just as you would learning how to use a smart phone or iPad for the first time. But it can be quite simple. Most themes simply use drag and drop systems to design your own website. You simply design it in a way you want your company represented the first time someone comes across your business. What message do you want them to see? Are you more of a Kitchen & Bath specialist, you may want to have a more image and graphic website for customers to see your work and capabilities that can be very powerful. Or perhaps you offer 24hour service, this is something that can be the main highlight, or perhaps you have or want to produce videos. With WordPress, this step can be 1-2-3. You simply upload your video to YouTube, copy and paste a code into the section you prefer on your website and instantly your YouTube video plays through your website, even though it was uploaded to YouTube.

For contractors, this technology is simply too good to pass up on. There is no budget too small for any contractor not to have a website. It never will replace referrals, hard work, and running a business with integrity. But it’s an increasingly becoming a digital world that can be used as an advantage. This is unlike social media that can come with all the other headaches of non-business conversations and can be very time consuming. A website is basically the very fist location people go to now days to investigate and research whether or not they want to consider doing business with a company. How many of you pull out your smart phone to go on the web to look something up whether it’s the latest news or your about to buy a new TV and you want to see who has it at the best price. Why shouldn’t contractors be just as visible in their services? Especially for $40 – $60.

WordPress is an open source platform that is by far the most flexible and resourceful website platform available in the world. Because it’s open source, it means that there are contributors and developers around the globe that help to continually make it the most powerful, useful, and affordable website program in the world. This is to your advantage. For instance, perhaps you decide at some point you want a little help with the website from some developer. You have thousands of developers at your disposal rather than having to be constrained to using some local company that built your website on a proprietary platform that us unknown to other developers. That’s a recipe for disaster and high expenses. In addition, there are thousands of resources available to help anyone with their website. In fact, with the purchase of many themes, you can simply ask the theme developer questions in their support forums for additional help at no extra cost.

And get this. Let’s say that after 3 years or so you have built up a lot of information on your website but you decide it’s time for a change, a completely new look. WordPress can handle that in a jiff. Simply get a new theme, upload it with a click, make a few minor tweaks to the layout to make it look how you want, and “voila”, you have a brand new looking website with all of your old data in tact. That’s the beauty and power of WordPress.

In addition, WordPress is extremely Search Engine friendly as it comes somewhat SEO (Search Engine Optimization) ready. That’s extremely important because being ranked higher when someone searches for contractors in their area on Google, you want to be at or near the top. It’s not quite set-it and forget it to get ranked high without paying a fee to Google, but it’s minimal. And even if you did set it and forget it, your still probably ahead of some other contractors simply because of the SEO backbone built into WordPress compared to their website.

How can you pas up this opportunity to upgrade or finally get your very first website for your contractor business? The cost is minimal and now, you too can finally have one of the most professional, powerful, functional, and beautiful websites in the industry for less than $100.

Here’s the simple process. Pick out your website name on Go Daddy or some other domain name company. Sign up with a hosting company of your choice for about $5 per month. Install WordPress, typically a one-click installation. Purchase the WordPress theme of your choice. Upload the new them through the auto theme installer for WordPress. Add pages, your information, and adjust some settings to your liking. When it’s ready, simply point the domain name you have registered to point the hosting company of your website and your new website is live. Of course the process can take some time to get it just the way you want, And if you need help, there are thousands of helpful resources to help you build your website. Or contact me, and I can help you.

But the time has come for contractors to take advantage of useful digital tools that are extremely cost effective and allow you to do-it-yourself. Whether it’s phone and fax systems, logos, brochures, or getting your very first website. It’s simply too good of a deal to pass up during an economy like this.  So contractors, it’s the perfect time to get digital, modernize, and use 21^st century technology to your advantage. After all, it’s practically free.

For more information about these subjects or if you need additional help or support visit pressbucket.com