I took a break from the plumbing biz the other evening to watch an ABC News report on “Made In America.”  They say that if we all spend 1% more a year on American made products, we will generate 200,000 new jobs.  That got me thinking about where we spend our money; so, I got the guys to do a little research on the sources of our plumbing materials.

It turns out that 60% of what we spend on plumbing supplies is spent on American made products.  That’s not bad considering foreign made products are so prevalent in the plumbing business and they are usually cheaper than those made in America.  For example, we buy American copper piping even though copper from China costs a few pennies less per foot than American copper.

Overall, we’ve found that cheaper isn’t always better and that spending a little more on high-quality materials significantly reduces the number of times we go back to a home because a part failed. In fact our recall rate is under 2% every year.   This saves us money over time and allows us to price our services competitively with companies that use cheaper materials.

We’re not going to sit back and celebrate though. I’ve challenged our team to increase our spending on American Made products by 10% by the end of the year.  It won’t be easy to find more American made plumbing products.  Most toilets are made in Mexico or China; and all of the major brands of tankless water heaters are made overseas.  Still, it will be worth the effort if we can help put some Americans back to work without increasing our prices to our customers.

We hope you will join us and ABC News in this effort to Buy American and put Americans back to work!