Diamond Certified Video Reports

Big Blue Plumbing in 5 Useful Answers

• Play from Beginning
• What are some simple ways to protect your home from plumbing emergencies?
• What energy-efficient products are you installing that clients may not be aware of?
• Are there any material shortages or price increases that are affecting the plumbing industry?
• Would you recommend plumbing as a career path to someone looking for a job?
• How does Big Blue Plumbing give back to the community?

Big Blue Plumbing - Diamond Certified 5 Useful Answers - video transcript

Yeah, probably high water pressure is the biggest issue that we see causing everyday plumbing issues. All of our plumbing fixtures and supply lines and hoses are all rated to a maximum of 80 pounds per square inch, and often our water pressure around the bay area spikes. Sometimes 100, 120 pounds per square inch. Of course, real plumbing issues. So, the installation of a pressure regulating valve goes on the front of the house, and protects the plumbing from those spikes by acting as a surge protector and keeping that pressure to a safe level. We have a scheduled maintenance program. You know, a lot of our homeowners are maintaining their cars with regular oil changes and checking the brakes. But their biggest investment, their home, they don't have a maintenance program in place for. So, that's one of those things that we check in our annual inspection is that, uh, water pressure, to make sure there's been no changes in that, and adjust or install that pressure regulating valve as necessary. Yeah, when it comes to energy efficiency, as a plumber, we're mostly talking about hot water production, and gas has been the go-to for generations. The tank-less water heater has been the go-to for the that energy-efficient update in hot water production. The next step to that is the latest evolution is the air-to-water heat pump, which basically acts as an air conditioner that sucks the heat out of the space around it and instead of blowing it out the back of the house, it puts that heat into a water heater into a storage tank. This is an all-electric device, so, for clients with solar pv electric, they want to maximize their electric solar production, this is a great way to do that. People who want to get off of the natural gas entirely or satisfy the municipalities that are requiring new construction to have electric only and no natural gas, it's a really effective product and there's been some great developments of that in the last five to ten years. Yes, like many things, we are seeing some price increases and some shortages, uh, the price of copper is always going up and we are that is the bulk of our industry also, uh, items that have, um, electric chips in them, um, silicon chips as we know is an issue around the world and this is causing some difficulty in getting some of our equipment. Although we are able to overcome that with different offering different products in many times and sometimes just waiting a little bit longer, but not a major issue at this time. Yes, is the short answer to that. From for myself, I've been able to have a career and have my own business and indeed work in different countries by having this skill that is needed no matter what, no matter where, no matter when. For young people or any people looking for a career, it's an opportunity to earn money, to be out and about not stuck in one place, but doing something different every day, meeting people, being in some fantastic homes around the bay area in our market and really, uh, it's been a great career. And there's a shortage of skilled tradespeople, and so we're always looking to hire from apprentice level to, uh, you know, to skilled. So, there is definitely a need for tradespeople and it's an interesting and sometimes fun industry to be in. Oh, this is something that we're very involved in and very happy about. One of the major things that we do every month we donate money to an organization called giving well, which is a charitable group that makes maximum impact with charitable donations specifically, anti-malarials and mosquito nets in Africa. It's a great use of our money. Um, the other things we do locally is that we do a beach cleanup in Alameda right here, a little bit of litter removal to make sure our environment stays well. And when there were some fires, we delivered hay and straw to displaced horses in the north bay to alleviate some of that issue. And when we do things like that, we really come together as a team and we're really proud of it.