Calling upon skills taught at the Sheetmetal Ductwork Fabrication School in Burkeville, Virginia, students Tony (left), Nick (right) planned, fabricated, assembled and installed transitions and plenums to achieve a supply and return unit replacement.

After suffering a stroke, John Sciara knew his body could no longer support the demands of sheet metal work. A veteran, union sheet metal worker, Sciara, 53, graduated from apprenticeship in 1992 and has steadily worked for 27 years.

According to the Associated General Contractors of America, construction employment has increased in 249 out of 358 metro areas from May 2018 to May 2019. A shortage of labor likely held back more hiring. 

That type of thinking might apply to many aspects of the HVAC construction and installation industry. Yet, I think we all can agree, job sites aren’t one of them. 

Under development and testing by Stanford University professor Shanhui Fan and his research team, the (pictured below) rooftop device is designed to make electricity from sunlight while also beaming heat away from buildings in a process called “radiative cooling.”

Bryan Orr gives tips on identifying mold and moisture problems in residential HVAC work. 

With its fleet of delivery vans, operating in more than a dozen cities, Dispatch’s delivery services have been known to relieve, and in some cases, replace a company’s need for a truck fleet — enabling owners to redirect those resources elsewhere.

Ontario’s unionized sheet metal workers are on strike after a breakdown of negotiations with bargaining agency.

If there is one conversation we love to explore in the pages of Snips, it is how the industry is changing. Yet since officially taking over the editorial reins of the magazine this summer, I’ve spoken with enough contractors to know that the industry has already changed — and those changes are far from over.

"NAHB commends President Trump for making retirement security an important national priority," says National Association of Home Builders CEO Jerry Howard in a statement.