How long have you been with JJ White and what initially attracted you to the company?
I have been with JJ White for just over 3 years now. I had initially worked alongside JJ White employees during power plant outages at the Mystic power station here in Boston, I was approached by the company about coming on and starting a plumbing operation here in the northeast. Already knowing the kind of company JJ White was, and the idea of getting in on the ground level with great growth potential, made the decision easy for me.
What does an average day look like for you?
My days vary, if the power plants are in an outage, I am on site performing preventive maintenance on the plumbing and gas work. There are times where we have bid and been awarded work at buildings in the Boston area, and I will be on site performing the full scope of those jobs. When we have finished the backlog of work that has been awarded, I will be back in the office estimating projects for the general contractors that we have built working relationships with. Next week will be a week where I am at the power plant Monday, finishing a job at the Seaport Tuesday and Wednesday, and then estimating work Thursday and Friday.
What is the most important factor in making a large-scale plumbing project run smoothly?
In any large scale build I think the most important factor in getting it to run smoothly and without delay is the pre-job coordination. Any layout issues, material delays, or conflicts with other trades can be discovered and resolved early. On big jobs if these problems are discovered in the field, they can take weeks to resolve, and result in lost time or material. Any job superintendent who can get an early start with the plans, identify and work towards a solution to the issues found can keep his team running smoothly in the field resulting in saved time and money for the company.
What do you think separates JJ White’s New England/Plumbing Team from the rest?
Here in New England if you have JJ White performing a plumbing job for you there is no confusion on who oversees and can answer questions about the project. The estimator, project manager, foreman, and plumber are all the same person. Contractors and clients never have to worry about getting a problem resolved or having to bounce emails to different people for price changes, submittals, or scheduling.
What is your favorite project that you’ve worked on at JJW?
The 101 Federal Street 4th floor spec suite project is my favorite project to date. It was a renovation of two existing core bathrooms, addition of two new handicap bathrooms, and the addition of 6 kitchens. It is our biggest project to date and had a lot of coordination and shutdowns with the school who was on the 3rd floor below the project. Much of the work was off hours, and we were able to complete it without injury and finished on time.
What is your biggest accomplishment with the company so far?
I think my biggest accomplishment is that we are still here in the Northeast performing plumbing work. I had never been involved in a new business development situation before and had great support from the JJ White employees who were in the area. We were delt a blow when COVID hit about 7 months into our start and navigated through that to stay afloat. Now we have a solid group of contractors and clients that call on us to do their plumbing work. I look forward to seeing how far we can take this.