Taking Northern Tier challenges in stride

It’s pretty common knowledge that Alaskans are an intrepid lot. It takes a sturdy breed to inhabit, grow, work and even thrive in one of the harshest climates on earth. Yet in Anchorage, the state’s largest city, business is on a good course, the population continues to grow, commerce and enterprise are healthy, and the people tend to enjoy a more relaxed pace, measured against the inevitable slowing of things when the dark winter season sets in for real.

It’s the farmers and the radiant heat pros who are most challenged by the three- or four-month-long period of warmth. Anchorage-based Partusch Plumbing -- like many other plumbing and mechanical contracting firms in the state -- have learned that if you’re going to install radiant heat or snowmelt tubing, you’d better get the job done in June, July or August.

The same weather that challenges them on the job site has made hydronics king. “We may lay down 20,000 or 30,000 feet of radiant snowmelt tubing in those short months and another 150,000 feet of interior tube during the year,” said Larry Partusch, president of the firm. “And since that’s the time frame we have to get it done in, we find a way through it. Many job sites have tubing in long before we can get to the boiler installations, but our customers know the realities of dealing with severe conditions and long, hard winters.”

Today, Partusch Plumbing is one of the largest plumbing and mechanical firms in Alaska. In June, they were just revving up for the new tubing season. At one job site, 15 miles east of downtown Anchorage, several of their trucks bumped and slid through a long, rough-hewn track, girded on both sides by tall birch and spruce trees, that was soon to become a new home’s driveway.

Excavated tundra, with old snow and a fresh set of bear tracks about 30 feet from the home’s front door, was still visible on all sides of the property, so it was still too early to lay out the ice melt grid prior to sidewalk and driveway pours. But the pumping of air compressors and hammering inside were sounds of progress and work underway inside.

There we found Mike Cooke, manager of plumbing operations. He’d stopped in to check the progress of two plumbing crews, moving efficiently between sections of the 7,200-square-foot home. Partusch installers were focused chiefly on installation of an extensive Viega plumbing system. Artfully laid-out red and blue pex lines ran through framed walls, all of which led to a manabloc domestic water manifold supported between the studs of an interior wall near a door into the garage.

“We use these systems because we sell homeowners on the benefit of modular water distribution manifolds,” explained Cooke. “Pex hot and cold distribution lines supply each side of each fixture with its own dedicated water line. This helps to reduce water temperature and pressure changes, even when several fixtures are used at the same time. We also appreciate that each distribution port of the manifold has its own built-in valve and compression connection.”

The home had 4-1/2 baths, four bedrooms, a wet bar, great room, media room with all the fixin’s and a gorgeous view. Though this house is representative of the new construction mainstay for Partusch, Cooke explained that they also do “starter homes” in the $250,000 range -- what it costs in Anchorage for a 1,700-square-foot, 3-bedroom, 2-bath home with no frills.

“Military housing has also been a real source of business over the last couple of years,” Cooke said. He explained that military managers contract with private developers to build extensive residential communities and then lease them to the military. These often include maintenance agreements. A good portion of the mechanical systems are installed and regularly serviced by Partusch.

Taking a gamble

Omaha, Neb., resident Larry Partusch visited the Anchorage area as a young plumber in 1980 at a time when construction business in the Midwest was in a downturn. Taking a gamble on a better future in Alaska -- and now glad he did -- Partusch soon moved to Alaska and the opened shop as Partusch Plumbing in 1982.

Terry Bolton moved from Iowa to join him in 1987 and quickly headed up the subsidiary, Northern Sheetmetal, now one of the largest businesses of its kind in the state. In 1995, Cooke responded to Bolton’s insistence to join them there (they’re cousins) and the three formed what would become the core management team.

Sweeping his hand toward the exposed beams of the home’s great room ceiling, Cooke added that this job was typical of the work they do: “Most of our business is in the residential new construction market, and mostly custom homes for 25 to 30 key homebuilders.” The house we were in at the time would cost the homeowner about $700,000 --not including the cost of the five-acre property and extensive landscaping.

Snowmelt has caught on big in Alaska, Cooke noted. Use of the technology began 10 to 12 years ago, chiefly for banks, car washes and hospitals, but made a quick leap into the residential and light commercial markets. After all, snow’s a certainty in Alaska, and they’ve gotta’ get rid of it somehow.

“Here, radiant is king,” said Bolton, manager of Northern Sheetmetal. “We’re seeing a lot of radiant heat these days, especially in the custom home market.”

One of Bolton’s crews was at work in another section of the home, running ductwork for a central a/c system. He and Cooke were traveling together, checking on the joint progress of their crews at several job sites. “What some may think an oddity for Alaska homebuilding, air conditioning has become important, too,” said Bolton. “Our warmer summers have changed this for Alaskans. Few homes are being built today without considering it as an important option.”

Following our tour of the house, we put the custom home in the rear view, following Mike and Terry to another job site: a church retrofit in central Anchorage. There, a neatly laid-out mechanical system included two Bradford White eF commercial water heaters, several Grundfos three-speed circulators and a remote radiant manifold with four Caleffi zone valves.

“We buy nothing but Bradford White water heaters,” said Cooke. “The new eF water heater is a good example of why we made this commitment. The eFs can achieve more than 99% efficiency. They offer a 60-gallon size with input ranges of 125,000, 150,000 and 199,000 Btu, and several 100-gallon sizes (used at the church) in the 150,000- to 400,000-Btu range. The low nox systems also come in conventional, through-the-wall or direct venting. We can do a lot with that, and have no reservations about offering it to our customers.”

Bolton added,“We’ve also standardized on Grundfos multi-speed circulators and isolation valves, Rheem furnaces, Caleffi hydronic components and VenMar heat recovery ventilators -- we use these a lot, especially for homes that are fully radiant. We train all of our techs, and build each hydronic system based on the concept and advantages of multi-speed circulation. As this area grows, there’s a lot of retrofit work here. These circs give us the flexibility to make adjustments downstream, often with no need to swap-out the pump.

“We’re very impressed with Grundfos’ SuperBrute and VersaFlo circs and the wet rotor design. Being able to select speed and performance levels is very important to us,” added Bolton. “With radiant heating, we already have the ability to create as much or little heat in any particular zone by cutting back on the valves, and to have a circulator with three speeds only gives us more control and versatility.”

Back at the headquarters and warehouse, where we watched Phil Lahti use sweeping compound as he cleaned the mirror-finish floor for the fourth or fifth time that week, we saw their well-honed efficiency in full operation. Supplies and equipment were being tagged and bundled for pick-ups and trucks came and went in an orderly fashion.

Partusch and Northern now occupy a spacious new headquarters and warehouse facility on the south side of town. The 13,000-square-foot building, with 10,000 square feet of additional snowmelt outside, was constructed in 1995. It’s a busy place, but the stress of running a growing business hardly shows.

“When the building was being designed, at the top of the list was the need for room -- lots of it -- for inventory,” said Bolton. “We wanted to be able to stash lots of inventory to reduce the need for installers to be at the wholesaler. Before, we lost a lot of time that way. We cut that lost time substantially. We’re sure we make fewer trips to the wholesaler than any other firm up here.”

Rick Thompson, who handles all billing and bid solicitations, noted, “We now buy direct-to-door purchasing of water heaters, abs pipe, fittings, Sioux Chief plumbing supplies, Moen trim and fixtures, sinks and Jacuzzi tubs. We buy only through wholesale distribution [their suppliers include Ferguson Supply, Keller Supply and Pacific Plumbing], but they don’t need to handle the material or write an inventory for every unit. Instead, we’re invoiced for an entire truckload. This reduces the cost for the manufacturer, the wholesaler and for us. This means that we can be more competitive with shops that are buying all materials and supplies over the counter.”

Within a growing market, and with all this efficiency, Partusch said that the company pays it off at the most important level -- where the employee stands. “If we don’t offer employees the best work environment, the best salary and benefits and training, and the commitment to their safety, then we lose,” said Partusch. “We take this seriously, offering a great package with vacation pay, paid training time, medical, dental and retirement benefits -- the company puts in 15% of gross wages, placed into individual sep accounts.”

“People tend to stay here,” added Bolton. “Some have wandered out and then quickly return.”

Bolton pointed to Andy Scudder, a journeyman plumber who runs all of the firm’s commercial jobs.

At that moment, Scudder was climbing into one of the company’s new vans. “Andy started with us 16 years ago as a journeyman plumber,” Bolton said. “He’s contributed a lot to the company and runs his job sites with great care. We all can take pride in that.”