The Passion for Teaching: A Mechanical Expert's Journey

I've always been passionate about teaching, and I thought we'd take a minute to talk about siphons, so I thought we'd take a minute to talk about the care and feeding of an outside silcock or spigot. I like when people get it; I like when they see those holes down at the bottom, oh yeah, so it's much like those air holes on a table hockey game, you know where the air comes this way also. The passion comes from my father, who way back when we got a call from local public television station, we got a chance to do this, and they said you know with public televisions, you have to work for nothing, and he just jumped on the line and said sure, yeah, I think that'll be great, and he hung up, and I said why, because, he said you know what, we're having a good year maybe he'll help the Plumber's image, and he just used the term "pay it forward," as I remember, but he sort of had this way of saying, "I'm want to I want to push in and help the industry and float all the boats in the industry." He did the best way to start to disassemble it so we can remove it is to drop it.

Superior Mechanics: A Family Legacy

These people that have been there for 30, 40, 50 years, that were my mentors, I remember them having this collective history memory that just made me feel like I was there in 1902. There was another guy, Bill Genson, who had been there 50 years when I was there; he had this Collective history memory that just made me feel like I was there in 1902. And then there was another guy, Tony Lucas, who by the time I would have just figured out how to get my folding rule open, he had five pieces of pipe run into the building; he just was this magician; he could see it, he could see it in three dimensions; he was an artist.

Simplifying the Mechanical World

My industry is the least understood by the public in general, you know people know that there's a thermostat in the wall that sends them a bill. I want to demystify the mechanical world just sort of simplify it and so when I do this, it helps homeowners understand what represents good behavior in terms of hiring a contractor, which is crucial because sometimes consumers can be fooled by someone who doesn't know their stuff.

Empowering Homeowners

I think that's why we empower the homeowners to sort of hold their own and I think it made the relationship better with the marketplace. We want them to know enough about their mechanical world to not live in fear of it but also know how to hire someone who does a good job. Our show has done as good as anybody to sort of demystify the mechanical room, and and the whole mechanical world.

A Legacy of Innovation

We showed radiant floor heating before anybody else did we showed the mini duct system before anybody else did we showed the world better stuff and it helped the whole industry do a better system and made people more comfortable. And guess what? The mechanical contractor might have made more money that's okay as long as the homeowners are happy too.

A Career Well-Lived

That's sort of just total reinforcement for what you've been doing, thanks for your help Richard, thanks a lot, Richard. Part of this show is that we're all contractors by birth and we'll ultimately die as just contractors that's what we know, and I think as long as we stay true to that, with all the next generation of talent, as long as those people really have real jobs and they aren't just actors that are pretending to be contractors, will be fine.

A Word on Contractors

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"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enI've always been passionate about teaching so I thought we would take a minute to talk about siphons so I thought we'd take a minute to talk about the care and feeding of an outside silcock or spigot I like teaching I I like when people get it see these holes down at the bottom oh yeah so it's much like those air holes on a table hockey game you know where the airs coming this way also the passion comes from my father so way back when we got a call from local public television station we got a chance to do this a house and they said you know with public televisions you have to work for nothing and he he jumps on the line he says sure yeah I think that' be great and he he hung up and I said why he said you know what we're having a good year maybe he'll help the Plumber's image and he just he used the term pay it forward as I remember but he sort of had this way of saying I'm want to I want to push in and help the industry and Float all the boats in the industry and he did the best way to start to dis assemble it so we can remove it is to drop it super super it's so good to see that go we had some amazing mechanics at our family business growing up these people that have been there for 30 40 50 years that were my mentors there was a guy Bill Genson had been there 50 years when I was there so he he he had this Collective history memory that just made me feel like I was there in 1902 and there was another another guy Tony Lucas who by the time I would have been able to just figure out how to get my folding rule open he had five pieces of pipe run in the building he just was this magician he could see it he could see it in three dimensions he was an artist and those are the people I grew up with and so I borrow from them all the time what we're going to install today is an indirect hot water heater this is a raidon mitigation device these are great you know this you think this is pink but actually you know what they called it back then they called it Bermuda Coral it sounded a lot better than pink I guess my industry is the least understood by the public in general you know people know that there's a thermostat in the wall that sends them a bill what I want to do is demystify the mechanical world just sort of simplify it and so when I do that I find myself wanting to speak to the third grade I want to I want to make sure that everybody understands and I use my hands to try and help understand what the words are there's nothing more horrifying than coming home and seeing water coming out of the walls for right now we got to get you so you can sleep at night I always try to use word pictures and metaphors you know this is like this which means this and and that's what I would want to how I'd want to be taught and so with that comes a little bit of passion a little bit of Theater now it'll fill those radiators with steam thermostat should shut off and now the steam gives off its heat to the room and the water that's inside the steam that's inside turns to water and now it's called condensate comes back through the same pipe all the way back to the boiler and it can be reheated I'm emphatic when I when I talk but I think if you say something you have to see it this is an energy recovery ventilator it's pretty simple inside it has a core right here and this is really a heat exchanger you have to help them imagine where it is if you're not going to see it particularly behind walls particularly with television you look carefully you'll notice that there are different layers air goes this way this layer the next it goes the opposing way and they just alternate if I'm going to take somebody inside the mechanical World a lot of times it's in a really hard place to shoot so often times guess what under underneath the sink okay well down no no no okay there it is and then you know there A lot of times you want to explain you know inside of a pipe and these cameras came along that could just go down and so nothing is better than taking America down a big drain it makes it real these tools have changed everything for me to be able to tell what's going on then there's all these digital temperature thermometers and thermographic cameras that can bring temperature to life you know that we never had before it used to be we aha that's hot now we can actually know exactly how hot it is so the tools get better and better and that only makes it easier to teach has this really brilliant control on the front it's like a smartphone where it puts all the right water temperatures into the different functions of the building beauti you can remotely dial into it so pretty cool I think our show has done as good as anybody to sort of demystify the mechanical room and and the whole mechanical world so here's what the unit looks like on the outside we've seen these before they're used all over the world you can see right here at the top there's a combustion air fan and a gas valve what I realized after about 10 years of doing this I'm not going to teach them everything there is all the rules I'm going to teach them what represents good behavior and then that helps them hire better you know what I mean and they also get to know what represents a good job cuz a lot of times the consumer is for lack of knowledge they can be fooled Red by somebody and so what we did is we empowered the homeowners to sort of hold their own and I think it made I think it made the relationship better with the marketplace we want them to be to know enough about their mechanical world to not live in fear of it but also know how to hire to have it done right we showed radiant floor heating before anybody else did we showed the mini duct system before anybody else did we showed the world better stuff and it helped the whole industry do a better system and made people more comfortable and guess what the mechanical contra they might have made more money that's okay as long as the homeowners are happy too who loses nobody loses you have hot water that's awesome thank you this is a cool thing no matter where I go if somebody recognizes me they'll say thank you if you're going to do a career where you give teaching and anybody that comes up says thank you that is a that's a career well-lived I mean that's sort of just total reinforcement for what you've been doing thanks for your help Richard thanks a lot Richard thanks Richard part of this show is that we're all contractors by birth and we'll ultimately die as just contractors that's what we know and I think as long as we stay true to that that with all the next generation of talent as long as those people really have real jobs and they aren't just actors that are pretending to be contractors will be fine thanks for watching this old house has got a video for just about every Home Improvement project so be sure to check out the others and if you like what you see click on the Subscribe button make sure sure that you get our newest videos right in your feet\n"