What does operating a 120-year-old family-owned plumbing house in 2026 in Brooklyn, New York, have in common with operating that original plumbing shop back in 1906? Not much, except in common core values, which — of course — is everything.
Petri Plumbing, Heating, Cooling & Drain was founded by two brothers-in-law (it had a different name, actually). John Petri soon joined the company of his uncle and father-in-law as a young apprentice plumber, eventually becoming the company’s general manager. He was the first of a succession of Petris to lead and build out the business.
Today, the company is owned by Michael Petri — great-grandson of one of the founders — with his son Christopher as operations manager. The company is headquartered in the same three-story brick building at 901 Bay Ridge Ave. where it opened its doors at the turn of the 20th century.
Long gone are the donkey and cart that carried Petri plumbers, their tools and materials through Brooklyn streets to customers’ homes. Today, plumbing techs make their calls in 18 service vans brightly bearing the name “Petri.”
SERVICE THAT GOES BEYOND THE FIX
The constant through all this change is the unvarying commitment of company ownership to provide skilled plumbing services and thoughtful customer care. Such professional and human consideration makes all the difference, says Christopher.
“Plumbing work itself is nothing special,” the 34-year-old operations manager says. “Another plumbing company goes into a home to replace a fixture or something and the work usually is OK. Water comes out of the faucet. It is how you do the work that’s special. If you do it skillfully and treat the customer like a person with a plumbing issue rather than as a problem to be solved, you will have rendered top-notch service. It is how we treat customers that really defines us.”
He goes on to describe a situation where a service tech is working near a kitchen counter and in the course of his work lays a wrench or other tool on the countertop. “Now you have a situation where someone in the household sees the wrench on the counter, which might mean the countertop will later need to be disinfected. We have fixed one problem and created another one for the customer. So, we want to be neat where we are working in a home and, when finished, clean up after ourselves. Basically, we want our visit to a home to be a positive experience.”
And it indeed is homes where Petri service technicians mostly perform their work. By design, fully 98% of Petri calls are residential. On its website, the company declares that its mission is “to provide unparalleled home services that enhance the comfort, safety and well-being of our clients. We aim to be the trusted partner for all your home service needs.”
A RESIDENTIAL FOCUS ACROSS NEW YORK CITY
Some 60% of home service calls are to resolve plumbing issues, including clogged drains, with the remaining 40% distributed among HVAC work. The latter component of business has doubled in volume in the last few years, says the operations manager.
Petri Plumbing serves customers in all five New York City boroughs (Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island) from two locations. Nine in 10 calls are to addresses within Brooklyn, the company’s home community from the very beginning, with most of the rest being in Manhattan.
The company’s technicians are among 40 employees today. The techs are specialists within the different categories of work — plumbing, HVAC, drain and sewer cleaning. They periodically receive training to keep current with methodologies and materials, the training coming either inhouse or through specific product and equipment training sessions offered by manufacturers. Petri also built a training center for its technicians. The center focuses on refining skills associated with maintenance of home systems — that is, updating or repairing fixtures and water heaters or cooling units, replacing failed pipe, locating and eliminating leaks and so on.
GROWTH, HIRING AND THE FUTURE OF THE TRADE
All construction and associated trades have experienced some problems in recent years in their search for new generations of men and women to perform the work. The trades are competing against new technology jobs where one doesn’t dirty his or her hands. Christopher Petri was asked if getting good help is a problem for Petri Plumbing? Yes and no, he says.
“It is difficult finding people who will wholeheartedly embrace the work and be mindful of customers,” he says, yet there is no shortage of candidates for Petri positions. Every two weeks, the company holds a hiring event that includes group interviews with as many as a hundred people. Petri outlines expectations in those meetings, answers questions and begins culling the crowd for potential employees.
As for public awareness, Petri Plumbing has a PR company helping keep its name out there. Consequently, Christopher has been interviewed on news stations for seasonal homeowner advice on topics such as frozen pipe prevention. His father has been interviewed about the family’s business heritage.
The company has a Facebook presence, of course. In comparison, Christopher Petri was asked how company founders went about spreading the word of their fledgling company. “Word of mouth,” he says of that simpler era.
The operations manager exemplifies some qualities upon which the company was built, hard work being chief among them. For example, the interview for this article was conducted at eight in the evening on a weekday. Petri comments on the hour by saying that long working days are a fact when a company is growing “and we are growing. I’m working in the company during the day and on the company at night. I really like my job.” After graduation from college with psychology and business degrees, he has been active in the company for eight years.
Growth indeed is occurring. Plans are underway to double the size of Petri Plumbing from what it was just two years ago. Such growth is predicated, Petri says, on two factors. One, that the company continues to provide incomparable service to residential customers throughout the city. And, two, that Petri Plumbing, Heating, Cooling & Drain continues to invest in itself. “The industry itself is changing rapidly and we need to keep investing in new trucks and equipment (and personnel) so that we can get jobs done properly. Such investment has to be made to keep up and to grow.”
Two decades from now, the operations manager envisions triple the number of company vans running to service calls throughout the city, each one loaded with plumbing fixtures or heating and cooling units, carrying RIDGID video cameras and other quality brands of equipment, with skilled customer-centric technicians eager to reach a destination and do their best work yet.
Petri says there is no secret formula for extending the reign of the House of Petri as a premier plumbing company in New York City. “We are sticking with the values that got us to 120 years in business. We need to just be true to those values and put in great work.”
