Three Generations in the Trade

I didn't exactly choose this trade. I kind of got pulled into it.

My grandfather started his own shop in Manhattan. My dad followed him into the trade, and I followed my dad. I started working with him when I was around six years old — nights, weekends, summers. Holding a flashlight, handing him tools, standing there while he worked on residential systems, crawling through attics in August and thawing pipes in January. That was over 20 years ago.

At the time, it didn't feel like an opportunity. It felt like I was missing out on being a kid. But somewhere along the way, that changed. By the time I was in high school, I could braze copper, charge a system, and diagnose a bad compressor.

I knew early on that I wanted to work on commercial systems — the real mechanical rooms. But before I got there, I had to earn my stripes. Right after Superstorm Sandy, I got an opportunity to go out to Fire Island and learn refrigeration. A lot of the island was still torn apart. Units had been fully submerged under water. My first day, the owner handed me gauges and a recovery machine and basically said, "Figure out which unit is which, recover the refrigerant, and safe them off."

No diagrams, no labels, no step-by-step. Just flooded equipment and a deadline. So I figured it out, and he hired me on the spot.

That job was tough in a way that's hard to explain unless you've done it. Crawling through sand under buildings, dealing with winterized structures with no heat or bathrooms, just out in the elements all day. But that's where things really started to click for me. That's where I learned how to figure things out when no one is there to show you.

After that, I moved into a plant operator role at JFK Terminal 7. That was a completely different world. Instead of small systems, I was around full plants — chillers, pumps, large mechanical systems. I joined IUOE Local 30 over 12 years ago, which opened the door to a new level of training and experience. I was finally surrounded by guys who didn't just know how to fix individual pieces of equipment; they understood how entire systems worked together to keep buildings alive.

From there, I moved into service work across NYC, handling VRV systems, BMS, and large commercial jobs. Each step pulled me deeper into understanding how buildings actually operate. What started as a one-year project pushed me into a project management role, then into a General Manager position at C&S Building Services. I realized how much I genuinely loved the team we had and the engineering behind everything we do. After a couple of years as GM, I had the opportunity to purchase the company. 20 years later, I now run C&S Service and Controls and get to work with some awesome people every day, including my best friend and my brother.

I created The Mechanical Room because I realized something: there is a ton of content out there for residential HVAC techs, but almost nothing for the commercial guys. The men and women running plants, maintaining chillers, and troubleshooting BAS networks are out there figuring it out on their own. I wanted to change that.

I don't have time to write articles the traditional way — I'm running a business and working on equipment every day. But I know this stuff inside and out, and I want to share it. Every article on this site comes from real experience, real jobs, and real problems I've solved in the field. If it's on this site, it's because I've lived it.