National Heating and Ventilating Thrives on “Flexibility”
By Dennis W. Roberts
Times Correspondent
National Heating and Ventilating can fit many different contracting arrangements. It can assist a plumbing contractor with the sheet metal portion of a mechanical job. It can provide the same sheet metal specialty work, if called upon, directly for either the general contractor or the owner of a construction project. In the spiral duct fabrication operation, its customers are other sheet metal contractors on bid work. The company’s ability to “float” makes it a “one-stop shopping center which can help all parties –mechanical contractors, general contractors, owners – save costs and maintain a competitive advantage,” Rawls says.
“Satisfying the customer has been the aim of National Heating and Ventilating since it’s beginning,” Skaar notes. “And, we strive to remain flexible to meet the needs of many different customers. The ability to ‘float’ in the construction business and meet different market demands has given us a unique niche. It has also allowed us to keep our overhead relatively low, since we are not overly intensive in any one area. This factor again allows us to save costs for the customer.”
Founded in 1939 by Clarence Cuttingin as Standard Roofing, the company did very little heating or air conditioning, since forced air ventilation systems were in their infant stages. Heating in buildings was accomplished by radiant heat from boilers and fireplaces and cooling by fans and open windows.
Pioneer in Forced Air Systems
In the early 1940s large institutional buildings in Albuquerque were beginning to adapt to forced air ventilation systems. One of the first was the First National Bank in downtown Albuquerque. Since Standard was performing the roofing work and had sheet metal capability as part of its
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For Sid Skaar, president of National Heating and Ventilating, Inc., 818 Iron SE, and Huck Rawls, another key player on the management team, “our flexibility” has been the reason “we have been able to put together a long, distinguished history in heating, ventilating, air conditioning, sheet metal fabrication and related fields in Albuquerque.”
The company is celebrating its 60-year anniversary in 1999. During that course of time, it evolved from being a roofing company to an early fabricator and installer of forced air systems to becoming a major “plan and spec contractor” working under the traditional competitive bid system to adding the expertise of “design-build” with capabilities of working under contract for mechanical contractors, for general contractors or as a prime contractor itself.
Its New Mexico Contractor’s License Number of MM 1076 is one of the earliest issued in the mechanical industry, or construction industry in general, in the state. Contractors’ license numbers are now being numbered by the Construction Industries Division, Department of Licensing and Regulation, at over 20,000.
‘Design-Build Can Save Money’
“Under the design-build system,” Skaar points out,
Design-build is actually the oldest form of constructing buildings, dating back to ancient times, when a master builder was responsible for both the design and construction of a structure. The system has been used frequently in the private
National Heating and Ventilating, Inc., has an affiliated business, CA Systems, 802 Iron SE, which has the capability of producing high-and-low-pressure spiral ductwork for quick turnaround projects. “Quality and quick turnaround are the hallmarks of CA Systems,” Rawls says. “We have been known to turn our 28,000 pounds of round pipe on short order for major industrial systems at Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories and for other major industrial users.”
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In many ways, Cuttingin’s experience explains how roofing companies were able to spread their capabilities into the sheet metal portion of mechanical systems when forced air became the mode of the day. The roofing companies used light gauge metal for flashing and often installed metal roofs as part of their work. The cutting of sheet metal into the geometric patterns that form ductwork, and the installation of that ductwork in the interior of buildings, became logical extensions of their businesses.
Like other selected construction company owners in New Mexico in the 1940s, Standard received a major opportunity for growth when Los Alamos began to grow as a site for nuclear study and experimentation. The newer buildings in the Atomic City were designed for forced air systems, and Standard was in a prime position to do the work.
Gradually, the heating, ventilating, and air conditioning became the major parts of the company’s business and the name “National Heating and Ventilating” was adopted.
Company Purchased by Rawls
On a return business trip from Los Alamos, Cuttingin was tragically killed. Jay Rawls, who was employed by the company, bought the assets and continued the operation. He was later joined by Luther Hargrove. The company grew in volume under the traditional lump sum, competitively bid contract method was the mainstay of government procurement in New Mexico for decades.
In 1976, Skaar left the banking business in Albuquerque and purchased
He has served as president of the New Mexico Chapter, Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning
Skaar points out, “Whenever possible, we use local supply sources and personnel. For example, National has several long-term employees throughout Northern New Mexico.” The company does jobs throughout New Mexico and southern Colorado, and has performed work as far away as Idaho.
Both Skaar and Rawls agree that “our customers have made us what we are. We adjust to their needs.” In the process, National Heating and Ventilating, Inc., has put together a history which puts it among the longest-standing sheet metal – and one of the true pioneer construction companies – of New Mexico.
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National Heating and Ventilating, Inc., employs an average of 40 people and generates revenue of approximately $5-7 million per year. Projects completed in recent past years include HVAC for the Rio Rancho Mid-Schools, the Beryllium Technology Facility at Los Alamos, the C711 Laser Facility at Kirtland AFB,
“The more people you know on a personal basis,” he says, “the better the work seems to go. If you know the people with whom you are doing business, you can solve a lot of problems. The people who are involved with AGC tend to have more concern and involvement with jobsite safety, for example,” he says.
Getting the Work Done
Skaar points out the company's management team thinks little in terms of job titles and more in terms of the “work we do.” For example Rawls is basically a vice-president in charge of “getting the work.” A more traditional
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