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my story
hi!

Our Clients

I’m Jonathan Colvin. I was born and raised in Griffin, Georgia. Graduated from Henry County High School in 2004 and now reside in Pike County in the small town of Hollonville. I’m married to my wife Leah of 10 years.

 

I started my plumbing journey after being laid off 2 weeks after moving into our first house in November of 2012. Fuel prices were $4+ a gallon and I had been given the opportunity through my wife’s father to have a helper’s position in the commercial plumbing field at Fitzgerald and Sons Plumbing Co., driving my personal vehicle 2+ hours a day for work with high gas prices and starting out with half my hourly wage from the job I was laid off from. I was tired of moving from job to job every couple of years. 3rd shift seemed to be the only thing I could get and I despised 3rd shift. I wanted to learn this trade I threw everything i had into learning plumbing. Not coming from a family of plumbers, it was hard for me to catch on. I made things too complicated trying to understand this trade.

 

I pushed through eventually rising to the status of an unlicensed plumber and gaining the respect of my peers and bosses as trustworthy and hardworking. With a go-to attitude and a willingness to do anything, I climbed the ladder of holding different positions once I was licensed. I did material handling for the build of Mercedes Benz Stadium. I operated a Trimble unit for the payment of pipe in-ground and overhead at various places: Georgia Tech, Great Wolf Lodge, and The Porsche Hotel. I was the boss's right-hand man at The Niagra water bottling plant in Newnan, Georgia. While my methodical ways and my engineer's mind prevented me from fulling taking off. Plumbing began to truly take hold of my mind and become an extension of my being. The hustle and bustle of commercial jobs became too busy. No one had the time or patience to teach anymore. It was, “Hurry up with this job, we are behind.” I found myself wanting a change. I was given the opportunity again by my wife’s father to transition into the service industry of plumbing. He too would be changing from a commercial project manager to a residential service manager. This is where my methodical and engineering way of thinking would pay off. The plumbing service part of the trade is where I thrive! Having to think, tinker, mess with, theorize, and troubleshoot to be able to fix an issue that is enclosed in the wall, ceiling, slab, etc… and not open and exposed as would be the case in commercial builds.

 

I have been involved in underground remodels such as a garage addition or basement rough-in. From time to time I still was able to do commercial service, not as much red tape as straight commercial, and some really cool and unique jobs. I soon had the realization that I wanted my own plumbing business one day. The company I started with and learned the majority of my knowledge from had 12 technicians fairly decent/large in the world of plumbing companies. I wanted to work for a smaller shop. One that I could see the inner workings with them is not as established as my current employer.

 

I left Peachtree City and was employed at a local company in Newnan. It was a miracle that the way this new company-operated was very similar to the one i left. This owner was in the office every day as his business only had 3 technicians, including myself. He worked his price book in a way that enabled me to look for what would make my plumbing job easy or difficult. I learned to further articulate my craft which helped me to communicate better with the customer. I was upfront with this new boss about my weaknesses, speed, and time management. This company would schedule their jobs in time slots throughout the day. This allowed me to not just do a job until it was done, but to look at the time I was spending on a particular task. I would need to call the next customer in line and update them if I was to be earlier or later than scheduled. This helped immensely with my time management and assessment of what was lying before me. If extra work came from a customer and it was not an emergency, then I could get it scheduled for another day. I soon left this place to pursue another plumbing company with the promise of lots of money. I soon found out this place was not conducive to my plumbing career. I left there very quickly and returned to my first place for plumbing employment. This time around being back to where I started was different. I had grown as a plumber, as a person, as a husband. I was ready to conquer the plumbing world with my first plumbing family, I started back on March 11, 2020! Weeks before the pandemic started for the United States we kept right on rolling. Once Summer hit, it was busier than ever with people being home seeing all the need for plumbing. It got to the point that after 35+ years of being in business for the first time, they were 3 weeks out as far as scheduling calls.

 

I was able to have helpers more frequently this time around. I started slowing down and doing the very thing I had longed for on commercial work. I began teaching, patiently, most of the time. I began to take the time and breathe and mental energy to teach and show these new set of helpers how to use basic hand tools and how to do plumbing at its most simplistic form, without overcomplicating it as I did when I started out. But the reasons I left the first time were still there. They just did not bother me in the same way.

 

I still had the longing to have my own business. As I grew tired of jumping from job to job before entering the plumbing trade, I did not want to chase a dollar as the saying goes. I knew this was the last plumbing company I was going to work for. Through lots of prayers and leaning on our faith in Christ, my wife and I moved from Hampton to Pike County and took a leap of faith to start my very own plumbing business, on March 11th, 2022. 2 years after returning to the family-owned plumbing company I ended my journey as an employee and began my next chapter as a business owner. I will still hold onto the values that Mike Fitzgerald instilled in me from his business. I will proudly proclaim them as a part of my plumbing pedigree. Now proudly servicing Pike County for your plumbing needs!

 

Sincerely,

Jonathan Aaron Colvin

Owner/Lead Technician of Pike County Plumber

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