Good Neighbor Podcast Estero
Bringing Together -
Local Businesses & Your Neighbors in SWFL
Good Neighbor Podcast Estero
EP# 156 - Plumbing Beyond the Clogs - Jan Harris Shares His Unexpected Passion
Have you ever stumbled into a career that you never expected to love? That's exactly what happened to Jan Harris, our guest from Ironclad Plumbing, who joins us to unravel the often misunderstood world of plumbing. With an engaging chat sprinkled with humor and honesty, Jan opens up about the transition from disinterest in hands-on work to finding a passion and proficiency in the pipes and wrenches of the plumbing universe. His story is a fascinating one, shedding light on the personal side of a trade that's vital to every homeowner yet rarely discussed beyond the need for an emergency fix.
This episode isn't just tales from the trenches of residential plumbing; it's an eye-opener to the complex layers within the industry. Jan breaks down the varied specializations in plumbing, revealing that not every plumber you meet can tackle every type of issue—some are magicians with immediate repairs, while others excel in the orchestration of massive construction projects. His insights are a testament to the art and integrity of the trade, providing a fresh perspective on the unsung heroes who ensure our homes function without a hitch. Tune in for an enlightening conversation that might just make you view your friendly neighborhood plumber in a whole new light.
Ironclad Plumbing
Jan Harris
Ft Myers, FL
(239) 289-4860
info@ironcladplumbing.com
FACEBOOK
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, cabo, jim Schaller.
Speaker 2:Welcome, good Neighbors, to episode number 156 of the Good Neighbor Podcast, estero. Today we have Good Neighbor Jan Harris from Ironclad Plumbing. Welcome, Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 3:I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. It's always a good time to get to know people in a community and what they do. So I guess. Without further delay, let's jump right in. Obviously you do plumbing, but why don't you share a little bit about what you do over at Ironclad?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so you're correct, we do do plumbing. I say we would specialize in residential home service plumbing. We do do a little bit of remodel stuff, but that's a very small part of our business. But for the most part we specialize in home service repairs and replacement for homeowners.
Speaker 2:Nice, nice. So how did you get involved in this industry? Nice, nice, so how did?
Speaker 3:you get involved in this industry. To make it short, it was kind of a happy accident. I was never really good, or never thought I was good, working with my hands. It was more that I didn't, didn't interest me when I was younger you know more, wanted to play sports and stuff like that. And then you graduate high school and you know maybe college is an option and you figure out you got to do something to live and I started working my hands and by luck I found plumbing and ended up being really good at it at least I like to think so. So it was a happy accident. That's awesome. For lack of a lack of a better uh explanation. Um right, heard you can make good money, so I gave it a shot and um, here we are so so we've all had some type of one would say challenge or obstacle, especially starting a business.
Speaker 2:Um, is there something that happened along your journey that, uh, maybe has defined who you are today?
Speaker 3:A hundred percent. I mean that could be a really long answer, but the best way or one of the most challenging things I could say is, especially when you're starting out, you know, when it's just you, it's just keeping your integrity because you are going in people's homes and keeping your integrity and doing what's right and working for the long-term goal and not the short term goal, which is eventually, you know to, to run a successful business. And balancing home life is another part of that as well, especially if you have family, kids, wife or whatever that is. It's a lot easier if you only have yourself to rely on, but we have a family. That's even that could be the toughest part, probably.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. It's, you know, and that's why we get into business, so we can take care of our family better. And and on the backside of that, you know, customer service is something that is not so common nowadays. So glad to hear people are focusing on that. So are there any I want to say myths or maybe misconceptions surrounding your industry that we can maybe clear up for our listeners? You know, maybe things that people think when they think plumbing, they're like, oh, I don't need that or that doesn't, that's not important kind of scenario yeah, sure, sure, sure.
Speaker 3:So, um, there, I guess there's a couple um to. To briefly go over a few, one would be there are obviously different types of plumbing, um, and when I say that I mean, like you know, residential, commercial, you know. So I've been in the industry, no, and it's taken me a long time to be well-rounded, and all these aspects. But you can definitely um, when someone says, hey, I'm a plumber, um, they may know one part of plumbing really well, which may be, you know, uh, going and diagnosing and fixing problems. But as far as like restructuring or reading plans and you know, going from the ground up on a big high-rise building, you know I've had the best service guys that can, you know, fix anything. But I've had guys that don't know how to you know read plans or plumbing a whole building or something like that.
Speaker 3:So when someone tells you they're a plumber, um, usually for the most part they're not all well rounded. There's very few of us out there, um, for the most part they they're not all well-rounded. There's very few of us out there. For the most part they're really good at one aspect of plumbing, or at least better in one area than the other. That would be the biggest thing I'd say. There's so much more than you would think in plumbing.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. It's like saying I'm a doctor. A doctor of what right?
Speaker 3:Actually, I've never heard it explained like that. That's a great analogy. I'll have to use that, if you don't mind right, not at all, not at all.
Speaker 2:So do you see anything trending or has anything changed recently in the industry surrounding?
Speaker 3:plumbing, oh so much um, and it's constantly changing, just like an industry, right. So the biggest thing would be probably technology, that's, you know, that kind of has a hand in everyone's industry right now. It's constantly changing. A big thing right now in technology is in the insurance companies. People are starting to be required to put on automatic shutoff valves for the homes to mitigate water damage, because that's a huge problem. If you've never had that problem, then you're lucky, and if you think it can't happen to you, you think that until it does happen to you and it's an absolute nightmare. So a lot of insurance companies right now are asking for a cup or actually threatening to drop a lot of homeowners just if they don't have it. I think that's coming further down the line and where it's going to be more and more down the line and where it's going to be more and more.
Speaker 3:And unfortunately, in my, my opinion, I don't think our technology for the products that are out there are a hundred percent yet I think there's are issues with these products that are supposed to, you know, be able to control your home through wifi, through your phone, to shut off the water in your way or to say, hey, we detect a water leak, we're going to shut off your water in your way, or to say, hey, we detect a water leak, we're going to shut off your water, which is the main concern for them.
Speaker 3:Shut off water if there is a leak is detected, rather. But I don't think the technology is quite there yet. And what I mean by that is, you know, there can be a ray of where it's a fault. You can be in a shower, the shower, and right, you know it says it falsely detects a water leak and then, boom, you have no water or something like that. Or you know, uh, it disconnects from the wi-fi and then you know it's sending you alerts and stuff like that. It's a great idea, but I don't think the technology is quite there to actually give customer good advice for what product to get there there are a few out there.
Speaker 3:I won't mention any names, but I don't think any of them really right now are at the point where you know I'd love to go into someone's home and say, hey, this is the product for you. You're not going to have any. You know issues because, at the end of the day, if you sell a product, you're supposed to stand by it, and you know the last thing I want to do is sell a customer a product that's several hundred or several thousand dollars, whatever it is, and then you get a call in two weeks or three weeks and you know, and at the end of the day it's your fault. You know because they weren't educated.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's technology, it's evolving, it's good, but it's got a long ways to go and grow.
Speaker 3:It sure does yes.
Speaker 2:So are you from Southwest Florida originally? I am.
Speaker 3:Um, yes, I am. I'm, I believe, fifth generation. I could be wrong. Um, yeah, I was born at Lee Memorial in 1990. So that gives you an idea of my age. Um, I grew up all over Southwest Florida, all the way from Everglades city to Cape Coral. So wow. Yeah, you know, I've been here ever since my grandmother was the first Carter County women's deputy in the 1950s in Everglades City, when Naples was actually in Everglades City as was Naples. So yeah, I've been here, been here a long time.
Speaker 2:Staying. A lot of changes, I am sure yes.
Speaker 3:Now I know my mom used to always say these, these, this traffic is terrible in season. As a kid you don't think anything of it, but now you start driving around and you're like. I know you're so mad about mom.
Speaker 2:I get it. I get it now I get it. Exactly so, living down here in Southwest Florida but owning a business, so you probably don't have a lot of free time. But what do you enjoy doing outside of work, outside of work?
Speaker 3:Well, first and foremost would probably be my family, which is my lovely wife and my kids. That would be my number one. But I'm sure that's everybody's answer, right? It's important.
Speaker 2:It's important.
Speaker 3:Outside of my wife and my kids. The way I stay sane is I try to play golf when I can. It's very rare or I do play soccer still. I'll do that as long as my body allows me to. It gets harder and harder every year, but I would say soccer and golf are kind of my things I like to do outside of work.
Speaker 2:There you go, staying active. That is great. So what is one thing you wish our listeners knew about you? That you know, or ironclad, that maybe they're not aware of?
Speaker 3:Um, this may not be a very good answer, but I guess, um, I truly believe I have the best team in all of Southwest Florida as far as service goes. I mean, I guess that's the one thing I could tell people is we really do have the best team. So, no matter what technician, if you decide to use our services that we send out there, we screen every call, so we know who to send, who not to send, who would be better equipped Not that you know everyone's equipped for the job of some better than others.
Speaker 2:uh, depending on what, it is so um it's important yeah. It's important to have. It's important to have a good team and good support around you, because that just reflects again on your business and your customer service, your willingness to do what a lot of people out there don't do nowadays, well said yeah, it's too often.
Speaker 3:I mean, uh, I mean I'm sure this will probably come up later, if not but a big reason why I started this company is just I was tired of um, I was tired of the. Honestly, I was just tired of going out to calls. For when I worked previously for other companies that I was the, the fireman, you know, I just put out a lot of fires for people that didn't know what they were doing.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, treating people like a person rather than just another number, you know a hundred percent.
Speaker 3:A hundred percent, a big thing with. You know our industry. Now I'm gonna let out the secret.
Speaker 3:Um, especially for service work, most companies are commissioned. I mean, there's nothing wrong with being commission based. Um, obviously, you know it probably insane. You incentivize you probably not to do what's best for a homeowner at all times. Um, I'm proud to say that we are not um commission based, we are salary based. The guys may work 10 hours. I mean doesn't usually happen, but 10 hours, 50 hours, they, they make the same amount of money, like that's. It's like the team I have, they're so great, they, they treat me so well and by doing that, um, you know, it allows the techs to go there and, you know, just give the customer the options of, like what's best for them. Um, definitely, within the realm of being safe. You know, there's sometimes where people want to make a repair and it's just like, hey, I'd love to do that, I wish I could do that for you, but that's just not safe and it's not right. So unfortunately, we're gonna have, we can't make like a you know, economical cost repair. We're gonna have to do a replacement or whatever it is.
Speaker 2:But for the most part, um, yeah, doing what's right for the customer at the end of the day. That's the important thing. That's speaking yeah, speaking of customers. How would our listeners go about contacting you if they had any questions or things?
Speaker 3:that need to be fixed. Yeah, you could contact us. Well, the number one means is our phone number would be 239-289-4860. You would call. You'd either get myself or one of our office girls, mainly Lexi. She's very sweet, she could take care of all your information. If you'd rather be more nonchalant and text, you can always text that same number as well and we'll do our best to help you through via text. We're also available through Facebook and, yeah, those three are probably the best. I mean, you could always email us as well, but if you really need quick service, the best way to do it would be call us, but email, call Facebook and text. I mean those are probably the main avenues.
Speaker 2:Perfect, jan. It's been a pleasure getting to know you. Thank you for being such a good neighbor and I hope to see you out in the community soon.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no problem.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Estero. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpestero. com. Go to gnpestero. com. That's gnpasterocom. Or call 239-296-2621.