Pressure Tested: Pat Plumbing, Heating, Air and Electric

By Lisa Loewen
Photos by John Burns, Christina Noland, and Addison Vest

Pat Grogan didn’t set out to own his own plumbing company. Born and raised in upstate New York, he grew up helping his father, who was a plumber, but had no interest in following in his footsteps. Pat left high school at 15, joined the Army at 17, earned his GED and took college classes at night while serving.

Eventually, his path took him to Fort Riley. Once his enlistment was over, he still wasn’t sure what he wanted to do, so he began helping a friend in Topeka who was flipping houses into rental properties.

“I didn’t realize at the time how much I already knew about plumbing,” Pat said. “It all just seemed to be common sense to me.”

On one particularly large job, sectioning off houses into individual apartments, they brought in a professional plumber to help. Pat’s job was to assist him so the work would go faster. The plumber was impressed by what Pat already knew and suggested he apply for a job at the company where he worked.

“I applied the next week but never received a call back,” Pat said. “So, I learned the name of the person who worked the front desk and called every week to do a check in. She kept telling me there were no job openings. But I kept calling. Until one day they either had an actual job opening or just wanted to make it stop. It didn’t matter, I had a job.”

FROM APPRENTICE TO ACE

Pat began working as an apprentice at Cooper’s Plumbing, where he spent three years learning the trade and earning his license. He then worked for Stryker Heating, Cooling and Plumbing for 10 years, becoming one of five partners in the company. He stayed through ownership transitions to Blue Dot and then back to Stryker, but found the status quo too limiting.

“I learned a lot by that point and was starting to have my own ideas about the kind of company I wanted to build,” Pat said. “I knew the only way to do that was to start from scratch.”

A conversation at the dinner table with his wife, Jennifer, turned that idea into a plan. She backed him, and a new business was born. It just needed a name.

“People in Topeka already knew me by name. They would call the company and ask if Pat the Plumber was available. To my business common sense, it seemed like a no-brainer,” Pat said.

In May 2005, with a business loan from Heritage Bank, Pat branded his Ford F-150 and a newly acquired work van with the now-familiar Pat the Plumber signage and officially opened for business. His first office was in the basement of his home. He went out on jobs and handled all the paperwork and invoicing from inside his vehicle. His first clients came from people he knew: friends and family, members of the Topeka 20/30 Club and former customers who tracked him down.

FLUSH WITH SUCCESS

“At first, I had to say ‘yes’ to everything,” Pat said. “I handled commercial and residential, normal hours and emergencies. Anything to grow the business.

”Pat brought in his first official employee, Ed Davis, who he says knew nothing about plumbing or electrical work but was “just a great, trustworthy guy.”

“I love that dude,” Pat said. “He can always make me laugh, no matter what the circumstances. He just makes every job easier.”

He also moved out of his basement and into shared office space in a business center. A year later, he moved again, this time to office space near the FedEx facility, before settling into the current location at 3761 SW South Park Ave. The company recently purchased the warehouse building next door, adding space for storage, staging and training.

ADDING TO THE TOOLBOX

As the business grew, Pat went from doing all the physical work himself to managing others, a shift that came with a steep learning curve. He had to learn to delegate and trust that his employees would provide the same level of customer service he expected of himself. In 2015, Pat the Plumber added HVAC to its services, but only after Pat had taken the time to reacquaint himself with the industry. He went to five different schools to learn about the equipment, installation and maintenance.

“We made some mistakes when we first started in the HVAC business, but we always owned up to those mistakes and made it right for our customers. Those hard knocks made us better because we learned from those mistakes,” Pat said.

In 2024, the company added electrical services and changed its name to Pat Plumbing, Heating, Air and Electric.

“It just made sense for us to offer all of the trades and mechanical services for our customers,” Pat said. “Now, they just have to make one phone call, and the job gets done.”

Over the past 20 years, Pat’s company has grown from one man working out of his basement to 20 employees working out of locations in and within a 30-to-40-mile radius of Topeka.

WHAT FLOWS AROUND

Every hire is selected through a comprehensive interview process. For Pat, character matters more than skill.“

We hire good people who are honest and kind and then teach them to be great technicians,” he said. Pat attributes much of his company’s success to its core values, which emphasize relationships over transactions and taking responsibility for mistakes. But first and foremost, he credits his wife and four sons for supporting him along the way.

“When you have that kind of support, you believe you can do anything. And when you believe you can do it, it becomes reality,” Pat said. “Jennifer has been my rock. I could not have done this without her.”

Pat made a conscious decision to keep the business smaller for several years because it was more manageable, he says. With four sons at home who were all involved in sports, he wanted to be present for games, school events and family life.

“I didn’t build my family around the business,” Pat said. “I built the business around the family.”Now, with his sons getting older and the business expanding again, Pat is excited to see what the next 20 years might bring.