This website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more.
This Website Uses Cookies
By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Learn More
This website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more.
SNIPSMag logo
search
cart
facebook twitter linkedin youtube
  • Sign In
  • Create Account
  • Sign Out
  • My Account
SNIPSMag logo
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • MAGAZINE
    • Current Issue
    • Digital Editions
    • Subscribe
    • Submit a photo
    • SNIPS eNewsletter
    • Contractor of the Year
  • SUBMIT
    • Contractor of the Year
  • HOW TO + TIPS
    • Shop Layout
    • Fabrication
    • Spiral Duct
    • How To Webinars
  • STEEL REPORTS
  • PRODUCTS
    • Toolbox
  • DIRECTORY
    • Buyers Guide
    • Classifieds
    • Interactive Product Spotlight
  • EVENTS
    • Industry Calendar
    • AEC Buildtech
    • SMACNA
    • Webinars
  • VIDEOS
  • CONTACT
    • Editorial Staff
    • Advertise
    • Clear Seas Research
    • Custom Content & Marketing Services
    • Partners
    • Store
    • List Rental
    • Reprints
Home » Why Tom Martin of T.H. Martin Inc. fills his days advocating for the HVAC industry
Industry News
SHOP TALK

Why Tom Martin of T.H. Martin Inc. fills his days advocating for the HVAC industry

Tom Martin of T.H. Martin Inc.

Tom Martin accepting the Contractor of the Year award at the Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors’ National Association’s (SMACNA) 75th Annual Convention.

January 26, 2019
Emell Derra Adolphus
KEYWORDS commercial/industrial / mechanical contractors / SMACNA
Reprints
No Comments

Last year ended on a high note for Tom Martin, president of T.H. Martin Inc. in Cleveland, Ohio, after he was awarded Contractor of the Year at the annual Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors’ National Association’s (SMACNA) Convention. Martin has been president of SMACNA’s Cleveland branch since 2014. In addition to being involved with various initiatives at a local level, he has nationally championed the sheet metal industry involved in the areas of education, training and recruitment.

“It ultimately it all helps our business,” says Martin. Here, he talks about navigating the ups and downs of the sheet metal industry and shares why he’s still a team player.

Your grandfather was a sheet metal worker and your father started T.H. Martin in 1985. Was the sheet metal industry always your career plan?

I actually majored in health and human services, so I was planning on looking at other options.

My dad winded up securing a major job at the Cleveland Hopkins airport and needed a project manager. The fact that I’ve been around a sheet metal shop all my life, I knew a lot of the key people; I knew a lot of our employees. I drove the truck. I swept the shop. So at that time when I graduated, he was really looking for some help on the project manager side, so I got into a project management role as soon as I graduated.

Your business evolved from strictly sheet metal to being a full-service mechanical contractor. How did relationships play a role in this?

I think our business is still relationship driven, relationships with your vendors, your reps, your employees, other trades, construction managers, general contractors — it’s just a relationship business. To get the jobs done in a timely fashion and meet schedules, you have to collaborate, you have to work together. 

You mentioned that you went to Ohio University on a football scholarship as a free safety. Is this a football metaphor?

It reminded me of sports. You may not like everybody on your team, you may not get along with everyone on your team, but you got to find a way to work together to make the project be successful. So I like that aspect of it.

Considering everything you are involved with in the industry, it sounds like you are still a team player.

Absolutely. I am heavily engaged with SMACNA — especially when it comes to the resources that SMACNA provides in the areas of safety, business management, technical resources like how to fabricate, lean principles, those types of things. I can implement those resources back in our business. So, I am helping writing these manuals. So I do take pieces and parts back to our company and implement them where we see fit.

How have rising steel prices affected your industry?

With regards to tariffs, yes we see price upticks throughout this past year. As a contractor, you just have to make sure you are getting information about where prices are going to forecast and make sure you have your estimates covered. .

So, it goes back to your point of having good relationships. 

Whoever you are buying your steel from, you have to make sure you are communicating and getting updates from them so you kind of know where the pricing is going for future bids and proposals.

What does T.H. Martin strive to communicate to its customer?  

That we can offer a bunch of options in regards to pricing and designing, energy efficiency and equipment, if needed. We’re the experts on construction and how to build it. We can offer our contractors multiple ways of building it and with price points associated. And if you want to get into lean lead credits, energy efficiency, we can get into that, too.

 

Subscribe to SNIPS

Recent Articles by Emell Adolphus

How Rossi Hardware changed HVAC airflow

SNIPS' 2019 Sheet Metal Fabrication Contractor of the Year: McCusker-Gill Inc.

Trump plans steel tariffs on imports from Brazil and Argentina

The 2020 sheet metal industry forecast you need to read

Introducing Our 2019 Sheet Metal Contractor of the Year

Emellheadshot
Emell Derra Adolphus is the editor-in-chief of Snips Magazine. Contact him at adolphuse@bnpmedia.com.

Related Articles

“Radiative cooling” could change the future of the HVAC industry

Increasing role of robotics in the HVAC construction industry

Looking for the HVAC industry's future workforce

The right kind of R&R for HVAC market businesses

You must login or register in order to post a comment.

Report Abusive Comment

Subscribe For Free!
  • Print Edition Subscriptions
  • Digital Edition Subscriptions
  • eNewsletter
  • Online Registration
  • Subscription Customer Service
  • Mobile App

More Videos

Popular Stories

Kevin Gill is SNIPS Sheet Metal Contractor of the Year

Introducing Our 2019 Sheet Metal Contractor of the Year

Sheet metal worker Lisa Davis

Portland sheet metal worker earns national position

Sheet metal and HVAC industry forecast

The 2020 sheet metal industry forecast you need to read

apex corporation duct design

A duct layout design in Boston requires a 9'x 9' high grease exhaust

Metal materials

Can President Trump really change steel import restrictions on Argentina and Brazil? It's complicated

SNIPS Steel Reports

Events

December 30, 2030

Webinar Sponsorship Information

For webinar sponsorship information, visit www.bnpevents.com/webinars or email webinars@bnpmedia.com.

View All Submit An Event

Products

HVAC Duct Construction Standards - Metal and Flexible

HVAC Duct Construction Standards - Metal and Flexible

See More Products
SNIPS Classified

SNIPS

SNIPS December 2019

2019 December

Check out the December 2019 edition of SNIPS: 2019 Contractor of the Year, the state of the industry report, Industry Icon Vic Petrossian, metal roofing and much more!
View More Create Account
  • MAGAZINE
    • Current Issue
    • Digital Editions
    • Submissions
    • Latest News
    • Subscribe
    • Advertise
  • HOW TO + TIPS
    • Shop Layout
    • Spiral Duct
  • ABOUT SNIPS
    • Contact Us
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Media Kit
    • Industry Research
    • Mechanical Group
    • Survey and Sample
    • Privacy Policy

Copyright ©2019. All Rights Reserved BNP Media.

Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing