Business

Bechdel Plumbing & HVAC hits 50-year milestone

BEECH CREEK -- After 50 years of dedicated service, Bechdel Plumbing & HVAC sees no end in sight.

Owner and operator, Duane Bechdel, has serviced Clinton, Lycoming and Centre counties for many years and -- since he enjoys what he does -- does not plan on hanging it up just yet.

Bechdel Plumbing & HVAC provides Central Pennsylvania with anyone's plumbing, heating and air conditioning needs.

"50 years wasn't my goal, it wasn't my goal to reach it and it wasn't my end game. It just happened," he said. "I have good support and I have good people around me and that's important -- you can't make it without good people."

Having originally worked for Haven Homes when the company opened in 1970, Duane started plumbing work for them at a request by his boss. Beyond working on the siding in the factory for the modular homes they produced, Duane did all the plumbing work for Haven Homes. Eventually, he said, he did all of the plumbing work both on campus as well as in the field at the homes.

"I was doing that and they were having a lot of trouble with their plumbing. They couldn't get a guy to do it right and they were having a lot of trouble. The owner of the company came to ask me, and he knew I was pretty mechanical, and asked if I could try the plumbing work," he said.

At that time, Bechdel had a "pretty good gig" going for himself. With working 45 scheduled hours a week in the factory and going out doing field work in the evenings and weekends, he said he was making good money.

"I knew how to do a lot of plumbing work because I've been around mechanical stuff, picked up stuff quick and knew how to solder. He (his boss) said to try out plumbing for so long and if I don't like it, he was going to give me my job back in siding," Bechdel said.

In the morning Bechdel started doing plumbing instead of siding. He came up with some innovations, how to modularize things and made up patterns and designs, so that a lot of the work could be done right at the bench, he said. That way he was able to work ahead and look at the blue prints.

"I made them some money. Somewhere along the line, they decided they wanted me to do the field plumbing too. All of it," he said.

Bechdel took the job in 1971 and worked on plumbing into the winter of that year. By the beginning of 1972, he was doing plumbing for other people as well who contracted him.

"If someone called for a plumber, I'd be a plumber for them," he said.

Eventually, with so much work piling up for Bechdel and not being able to complete everything in the evenings and weekends, it was time to start his own business.

"I tried to hire help… I did get some good kids out of school -- back then they had programs in high school and you could get a good kid who wanted to work -- I got a couple good ones but it still wasn't enough," he said.

Bechdel put in his notice at the Haven Homes factory in March of 1972 and just as April began, he opened up Bechdel Plumbing.

"The first day of April was the first day I went fully self-employed," he said.

For several years onward, he continued working on the plumbing for most of Haven Homes' work and did work for other people in Clinton County.

"I just built a business from there," he said

Bechdels Plumbing began out of a garage he made in the basement of his house. It was there that he kept all of his materials.

"Of course, that got too small real quick. Then I got a shop down on Wynn Avenue in Beech Creek and I worked out of that for years until 1988-89," he said.

The building which is now the headquarters of Bechdel Plumbing & HVAC was purchased and he moved in soon after.

"I had more room and I have shop out back. I just built up from there," he said.

From there with a bigger space and more people working for him, Bechdel was able to move into other outlets outside of the plumbing business. He started working on hydronic heating in the late 1970s, then he got more into airflow systems in the 1980s. When the 1990s came around, Bechdel moved into geothermal heating/cooling which he went to school for.

"We got into that pretty good for about 15-20 years," he said.

Bechdel was the first contractor in the area to do geothermal heating/cooling. Proceeding from there, the company got into all sorts of air conditioning and refrigeration and it just went from there, he and his wife, Patti Bechdel said.

Patti acts as the customer service and human resource portion of the business.

"We always stayed open for opportunity. That is how I survived, I didn't always hit the big play or the consistent but I kept myself in the ballgame until the opportunity presented itself," Bechdel said.

Though the Bechdel's are running the 50-year long operation, it is their employees and their customers that keep them going.

"We couldn't do any of it without our employees and the communities. They have supported us over the years," said Patti.

They pointed out having about 14 cabinets full of customer documents with some of those customers having been with the business since its incarnation 50 years ago.

"We may be 50 years in but we aren't stopping anytime soon," Patti said.

They are always looking to take on new customers and in need of experienced employees.

"It is difficult to grow a business if you don't have the experienced employees," Patti said.

Bechdel Plumbing & HVAC services a one hundred mile radius from Beech Creek, covering Clinton, Centre and Lycoming counties. Along with their Beech Creek based business, the two own Bechdel's Properties with rentals available and run an Airbnb.

Bechdel Plumbing & HVAC is located at 25 Grant Street in Beech Creek. For more information visit their website at www.bechdelplumbing.com, visit their Facebook or call them at (570) 962-2932.