I am a third-generation plumber born and raised on Long Island New York. I learned plumbing from my father by working alongside him on summers and weekends. In those days, most of the work was done by hand—digging long trenches with hand tools is quit the workout, and that’s to say nothing about the heavy cast iron pipe we had to lug around! I learned the plumbing trade through years of hard work on everything from small residential remodels to complex 20-story apartment buildings.