When Travis Abaire and his wife, Tania, launched their Bristol, Connecticut-based plumbing and heating business in 2018, they weren’t chasing industry fame or rapid growth. They were chasing autonomy. Travis has been in the trade for 27 years. In that time, he’s done it all. He spent 13 years in local union UA 777, and later started his own company in 2013. He shuttered it shortly thereafter, however, when a friend at a large firm asked Travis to open a plumbing department. That lasted a few years before Travis decided it was time to go out on his own again, founding TAP Plumbing & Heating LLC.

“I was tired of working for other people,” he says. “No matter how much I gave, the boss always wanted more.”

Today, Travis and Tania answer only to each other, though self-employment is no walk in the park. She runs the office, and he handles everything in the field, which is right where he wants to be. The operation is lean and focused. Travis and his apprentice, Cameron, cover a 30-minute radius around Bristol. They extend their range only on occasion, for the right customer and the right project. Travis says their work is 70/30 heating to plumbing and 70/30 residential to commercial.

“There’s no typical job here, especially when it comes to hydronic heating,” he said. “We’ve got a real mix: steam systems, radiant, baseboard. You name it.”

His territory is equally diverse in fuel types. Half the homes in Bristol have access to natural gas lines, with the remainder split evenly between oil and propane. That fuel variety and system diversity has helped shape Travis into a well-rounded heating professional, capable of handling anything from full boiler installs to straightening out someone else’s mess.

Batting cleanup

As far as cleaning up boiler rooms is concerned, one recent job stands out. A homeowner who Travis had never served before called TAP about a combi boiler installed five years earlier by another contractor. The installation was riddled with issues: incorrect venting and no condensate neutralizer, to name a few. Plus, the heat exchanger was leaking.

“It was bad,” Travis explains. “The installer told the homeowner that the system wasn’t serviceable. According to the other guy, combi boilers should simply be replaced twice a decade. Not the boilers I install, and not the way I install and service them.”

Travis presented a best-of-best replacement proposal to the homeowner, taking the customer’s minimal budget into consideration. The two-family home has two boilers. The one serving the ground floor, where the owner lives, is serviceable.

The upstairs, which is occupied by tenants, was served by the failing combi and a single zone of fin-tube baseboard. The plan was simple: replace the existing combi with a new 136 MBH Alta Combi boiler, made by U.S. Boiler Co. The retrofit would include new circulators, but no zone changes were made. This kept the cost down and ensured that heat would be restored as quickly as possible.

“That was the fifth Alta I’ve installed,” Travis says. He appreciates the rate-based reset feature, which provides outdoor reset functionality without a separate outdoor sensor.

“It also has tons of room in the cabinet,” he adds. “Both side panels come off the boiler for fantastic access, and the USB-Connect app makes startup and diagnostics unbelievably simple. Parts are easy to get, too.”

When Travis looks for new equipment, he wants a manufacturer with a good reputation and a product that’s easy to service.

“The Alta checks both those boxes,” he says.

The homeowner has been thrilled with the improvement, and the tenants no longer call to say that the heat went out.

Costs and customer expectations

Being self-employed gives Travis the freedom to install the equipment he prefers and use the tools he wants. For example, he found that using press connections, whether that be copper, PEX or gas pipe, has significantly increased his efficiency without sacrificing quality.

But owning your own company isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Inflation and tariffs are driving up the cost of materials and labor, and the business owner is the one who must navigate that challenge.

“Never undervalue yourself, that’s the best advice I can give,” Travis says. “If you undervalue yourself and cut your prices just to get work, the customer will expect your prices to remain the same forever. They won’t accept cost increases. Always look for customers who value quality. They understand.”

Accidental influencer

Quality work and clear communication go a long way. TAP Plumbing & Heating does little to advertise. Word-of-mouth drives the business, supported by Google reviews and a Better Business Bureau listing.

“I created an Instagram account (@t.a.p.plumbingandheating) about the time I started the company, thinking it would generate business,” Travis says.

However, Travis quickly realized that social media wasn’t great for getting jobs; despite his 11,000 followers, he can count on one hand the jobs he’s landed from Instagram leads.

Instead, he says the networking advantages are huge.

Travis uses Instagram to showcase his work, learn from others and share his own knowledge. That peer-to-peer connection helps him stay inspired and sharpen his craft, even if it doesn’t directly bring in new clients.

“I can recall a time where another boiler professional on Instagram saved me a lot of time and headache,” Travis explains. “I was installing a mod-con boiler that didn’t come with pre-manufactured primary/secondary loop.”

So Travis made his own and posted a boiler room video halfway through the project.

“Another contractor commented that my tees were too far apart,” Travis adds. “He explained that he’d gotten the spec from the local rep. We fixed the issue long before we fired the boiler.”

Travis also receives photos and videos from people looking for help all the time, typically on plumbing projects. Answering questions doesn’t take much time, so Travis always does what he can to help.

Growing intentionally

Travis and Tania aren’t looking to grow TAP into a massive operation, but they are thinking strategically about the future.

“We’re trying to determine our niche,” Travis adds. “One idea we’ve had is specializing in service and annual maintenance for combi boilers and instantaneous water heaters. Nobody in our area really focuses on that. There’s an opportunity. We just haven’t made a push yet because I have a lot of loyal customers. They’ve been loyal to me, so I prioritize them. That said, we’re soon ready to hire.”

Regardless, Travis and Tania must be doing something right. When Travis provided an interview for this article, they were halfway through a three-week vacation in Iceland and Ireland.