What started as Jay Gill working out of a shed behind his house, driving a small Toyota pickup truck grew to an entire business. 30 years after its inception, Jay Gill Plumbing & Heating is a strong force to be reckoned with, including 12 employees and a fleet of vehicles ready to service customers.
Jay joined the plumbing, heating and air conditioning business right out of high school, working with a company in Fairview. It was then he met his wife, Kristy, in 1989. It would be at their home that Jay would start his business in 1993.
Jay hails from the Union City area, while Kristy is from Spartansburg, where the business is located. It’s her roots that brought them to the area. The business is headquartered at 275 Main St. in Spartansburg.
They bought the current property from Bernie Skiff in 2017. Before that, the business was on Route 89, and prior to that, Canadohta Lake Road — all within a mile of one another.
Jay offers a scope of service from repairing faucets to working on water pumps, doing water filtration, water conditioning and treatment, as well as heating, hot water heat, forced air heat, commercial heating and cooling and doing high efficiency systems in houses.
When he started 30 years ago, the industry was a lot different. Kristy noted there were oil furnaces then, and now there’s a large focus on high efficiency.
Jay works on residential and commercial systems, and says the crew handles everything from new construction to repairing homes and regular maintenance.
It’s become a family business, too. Jay and Kristy had two children — a son, Jack, and a daughter, Rebecca. Rebecca (Carey) is 22 years old and lives with her husband, who is stationed at Camp Lejeune. Jack, soon to be 25 years old, works at the business and is set to take it over when the time comes.
“He [Jack] should be able to take over and have a pretty well-established business to work with,” Jay said.
Jay noted its the flexibility and personal connections that make it rewarding to own a small business. Kristy commented that working with people is something Jay has always excelled at.
“He’s always been really compassionate about people,” Kristy said, noting that Jay is understanding of each person’s needs and their circumstances.
She said their motto is to work on someone’s home the way you would work on your home.
“We’re very lucky we’ve got good employees who take a lot of pride in their work,” she said.
Jay said he looks forward to growing his business even further.
“We’re in the plans of growing it down the road here so we can do more and more. There’s always room for expansion in this business,” he said.
The only obstacle right now, he said, is finding more quality employees. He believes there’s a misconception that people should either be paid a lot of money with no education, or they have to go to college and spend a lot of money and enter fields less lucrative. Jay’s company is the sweet spot of providing the ability to grow and make money while receiving a hands-on education.
He said they are able to fully train technicians and get them started. He noted Gill’s needs positions filled in the office, too.
Especially since this time of year is busy, as people are getting maintenance checks before the weather gets too cold. Checking that everything works properly is paramount, and even more so, having a professional do it.
“Especially on heating equipment, you can run the danger of killing someone with carbon monoxide poisoning or that type of thing if you don’t understand the proper techniques to install and the equipment,” Jay said.
Jay noted that having a professional work on the equipment is an asset because they are fully versed in how it works and all the implications of each decision. Getting to that level of professional knowledge is something that takes time, and thankfully for Jay Gill, he has over 30 years of service under his belt with many more to go.
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