Our story, the Wahl family
John Wahl started this company in 1980, working out of his mother's basement. Forty six years later, his kids run it. David and Jen both started at the bottom, one in the field and one in the office, and worked their way up to CEO and President. Still family owned, still Pittsburgh, and still particular about the parts nobody ever sees.
A duplex, a block wall, and a lot of weekends
The story starts before the company did. John proposed to Sharon, and then he took her to see a rundown duplex he wanted to buy. It had sat empty for two years and it needed everything. He wanted it because he knew he could put heating and cooling in it, and that was the part he was sure of.
The whole family rehabbed that place, weekends mostly, and for a long stretch there was no running water in it. John's mother would come by with food, and with soap and water so everybody could wash their hands before they ate. That is the earliest picture we have of how this family works. Show up, do the work, feed the people doing the work.
The company grew out of the same habit. It ran out of a basement first, then out of a single car garage, until the garage was not big enough. So they cut the block wall open and dug the basement out by hand. Nobody wrote a business plan. There was a man who could do the work, a family who showed up on weekends, and word getting around the neighborhood.
Sharon came into the business after she and John married, and she still works in accounting today. What started as a way to pay for a duplex turned into a trade, and then into a company, and then into something the next generation wanted to keep. We put the whole thing on film for our fortieth anniversary, in the family's own words: our 40th anniversary video
David and Jen started at the bottom, both of them
David and Jen grew up in the shop, sweeping floors on Saturdays and cleaning snow off the trucks. They joined the company officially in 2006, and years later they bought it from their dad. Neither of them started in an office with a title on the door.
David went into the field. Install helper first, then installer, then service technician, then selling technician, then manager, then owner, then CEO. He holds the master plumbing license and knows the HVAC side cold. Jen started in the office, moved up to service manager, then general manager, and is now President of the company. She holds multiple degrees. Both of them have put in years of industry training and certification, which is the unglamorous part that never makes it onto a truck wrap.
That is the part of the story that matters to a customer. When you ask why we do something a certain way, the answer comes from people who have done the work themselves, in an attic in July and in a crawl space in January.
- John, founder, started the company in 1980
- Sharon, co-founder, accounting, and the keeper of the family history
- David, chief executive officer and master plumber, John and Sharon's son
- Jen, president, David's sister
- Sarah, David and Jen's sister
- The five of them are the family you see illustrated in our branding
From a basement to 87,000 square feet in 46 years
The company has had four homes. A basement. Then a building on Cape May Avenue. Then Carnegie. Now Oakdale, in an 87,000 square foot facility on six acres, with 55 team members and more than 40 trucks.
We are proud of that climb, and we also know what it is worth. A bigger building does not make anybody's furnace run better. What it buys is room to stock trucks properly, and the ability to keep a crew, a machine, and the parts for a job under one roof instead of scattered across the county.
The measure we care about is whether the work holds up. Everything below is how we try to make sure it does.
We buy the good tools on purpose
Tools are not where we save money. A technician with the right tool does the job once, does it cleanly, and leaves your house the way he found it. That is better for everyone, including us.
It also decides what we can finish ourselves. Our own excavator, our own camera, our own recovery equipment. The job stays with the people you hired.
- Ridgid press tools, so copper joints get pressed cold instead of soldered with an open flame inside your finished walls
- Ridgid sewer cameras, so we can look at your line and show you what is wrong on a screen instead of guessing from the cleanout
- Bobcat excavators, so a sewer or water line dig is our own crew and our own machine
- Hilti, DeWalt and Milwaukee for the daily hand tools, because a tool that quits in the middle of a job costs more than the tool did
- Fieldpiece high CFM vacuum pumps, so a new air conditioning or heat pump system gets pulled down to a deep vacuum before it is charged. That is what removes moisture and air from the line set, and moisture left inside a refrigerant system can turn acidic over the years and damage a compressor
- Fieldpiece recovery machines, so refrigerant from an old system goes into a tank and not into the air
- Trucks with lift gates, so a water heater or a furnace comes off the truck under control instead of off a tailgate
The parts you will never see are the ones we argue about
Every job has components a homeowner will never look at again. Those are exactly the ones that decide whether the work is still good in fifteen years. We spec them ahead of time, they usually cost us more, and they are not negotiable on our jobs.
The same goes for the parts of a job you could see if you went looking. Pipe run square and supported instead of sagging between joists. Valves put where a person can actually reach them. Wire dressed instead of draped. A Wahl valve tag on your main water shutoff, so whoever needs it next can find it without hunting for it. Nobody sees a mechanical room but you and whoever works on it next, and it should still look like somebody cared, because the way a job looks is usually a fair indicator of how it was put together.
That is what we mean by the Wahl way. It is not a slogan on a wall. It is a list of small decisions that were already made before the truck left the shop, so nobody has to make them at your house at four o'clock on a Friday.
- Type L copper instead of type M. Same outside diameter, thicker wall, more metal between your water and your drywall, and more margin against pinholes down the road
- Viega ProPress fittings, pressed with a calibrated tool so the joint comes out the same every time, on every truck, no matter which of our people made it
- Disconnects with glass fiber reinforced nylon handles, because that handle lives outside in Pittsburgh weather and somebody will be pulling on it years from now
- Rubber Bigfoot pads under mini split condensers rather than the plastic feet that ship in the box. They hold up outdoors and they help with vibration
- Stainless steel screws when we set a toilet. A bathroom floor is a wet place, and the next person who has to pull that toilet should be able to back the fasteners out instead of snapping them off
How we work, and what we put in writing
We price flat rate. You get the price in writing before the work starts, and you approve it before a wrench moves. When there is more than one reasonable way to solve your problem, we lay out the options and let you pick, including the option to do nothing today.
The list below hangs on our warehouse wall. It is what we hold each other to, and it is what you should hold us to. Every person who works here, in the field and in the office, knows these five by heart.
- Professional excellence
- Empathy first
- Rapid responsiveness
- Done today
- Operational awareness
The line card, and why we keep it short
On the heating and cooling side we are a Rheem Pro Partner, a Mitsubishi Diamond Elite contractor, a Bosch cold climate dealer and a Friedrich dealer. On the hydronic side we install Weil-McLain and IBC boilers. For indoor air quality we use Aprilaire, RGF REME HALO and NuCalgon iWave.
We could carry twice as many brands. We do not, on purpose. Depth beats breadth here. When our technicians see the same equipment families every week, they learn the failure patterns, the control boards, the commissioning steps, and the quirks that only show up on a cold morning. A technician who has commissioned a hundred of the same heat pump is worth more to you on a Saturday than a longer list on a website.
If what you have in your house is not one of ours, we still service it. Most of what we work on every week is equipment somebody else installed.
Who you are hiring
Wahl is family owned since 1980, with 55 team members, more than 40 trucks, and an 87,000 square foot facility on six acres in Oakdale. We are licensed and insured, with a master plumber on staff. Our Pennsylvania home improvement contractor number is PA022302. We hold an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau and 1,522 five-star Google reviews at a 4.8 rating.
We offer 24/7 emergency service, and our ongoing training runs through PRAXIS S-10. Heating, cooling, indoor air quality, water heaters, water treatment, plumbing service and repipe, sewer and excavation, water and gas lines, and bathroom remodeling, all under the one name.
If you have a repair to make, a system to replace, or a project you have been putting off, call the office and tell us what is going on at your house. Somebody here has seen it before.
Let us reach out to you
Fill out the quick form and we will call you back. For an emergency, call any time at (412) 276-9245.
Questions, answered
Is Wahl still family owned?
Yes. John Wahl founded the company in 1980 and his kids run it now. David is CEO and holds the master plumbing license. Jen is President. Their mother Sharon is a co-founder and still works in accounting. David and Jen bought the company from their dad, and John is still part of the company.
Who is who in the Wahl family?
John is the founder and Sharon, his wife, is a co-founder and the one who keeps the family history. David is their son and the CEO of the company. Jen is their daughter, David's sister, and the President. Sarah is David and Jen's sister. Those five are the family you see illustrated in our branding.
Did David and Jen really start at the bottom?
They did, and it is the part of the story we are proudest of. David went install helper, installer, service technician, selling technician, manager, owner, CEO. Jen went from the office to service manager to general manager to President. They swept the shop on Saturdays as kids before any of that.
Why do you use type L copper instead of type M?
Type L has the same outside diameter as type M but a thicker wall, so there is more metal between your water and everything around it. That gives you more margin before a pinhole becomes a leak in a finished ceiling. It costs more per foot and we spec it anyway.
Are you licensed and insured?
Yes. We are licensed and insured, we have a master plumber on staff, and our Pennsylvania home improvement contractor registration is PA022302. Ask for that number before anybody starts work at your house, including us.
What does flat rate pricing mean for me?
It means the number you approve covers the whole job, not a clock running while somebody works. There is no hourly meter and no surprise at the end. When there is more than one reasonable way to solve the problem, you get options to choose from, including doing nothing today.
Can I reach a person after hours?
Yes, we offer 24/7 emergency service. Call (412) 276-9245. If you smell gas, get everyone out of the house first, then call 911 and your gas utility from outside, and see our emergency service page for what to do next.
Ready when you are
Call us and get a straight answer. You get the price in writing before the work starts.
Call (412) 276-9245Schedule online