Meet Eric Turner of Turner Signature Plumbing

Today we’d like to introduce you to Eric Turner.

Hi Eric, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was 28 when I started plumbing. I went to college and have a bachelor’s degree in Literature – so it was hard for me to find gainful and meaningful employment. I joined the carpenter’s union in 2014, but union work in the South is tenuous. So once we got done with a job, we were laid off. With union carpentry in Georgia, that’s pretty common. So while I waited to be approved for some concrete form work, I decided to try another trade. In 2015, I walked into Ace Plumbing in Columbus, Georgia – my hometown – and asked for a plumbing apprenticeship and ten bucks an hour.

The guy that trained me is named Dennis. He’d been plumbing for 30 or more years. His father was killed in Vietnam at the Ia Drang Valley – the We Were Soldiers battle. Dennis himself wrote a letter that’s featured in the book. He raised two sons by himself and is generally just a hell of a guy. But at the time I could tell that the trade had gotten to him physically. There were many, many times that I considered just walking off the job because it’s tough and disgusting and grueling. Just an absolute marathon of misery. But I couldn’t see myself abandoning Dennis.

After a few months he realized that I knew the tools, knew the materials, and could do the work with pretty minimal instruction. At that point I essentially became his robot body while he talked me through the jobs and we repaired a whole lot of stuff in Columbus.

After a few years, I took a break from plumbing. I got a job in manufacturing and went back to school for a bachelor’s in Robotics Engineering. But at the tail end of covid, I started getting some pretty unbelievable offers to get back in a plumbing truck. I mean, I really couldn’t believe that people were making six figures with less experience than I had so I took a couple weeks off work and got back in a truck.

My first check had more taxes taken out than I was making at my manufacturing job. So I quit, moved to Atlanta so that my daughter could have more options in schooling and extracurriculars and life-in-general. I’ve worked for a couple of companies up here. I got my Master Plumber’s license in August and just started a business focusing on residential plumbing repair.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Plumbing is grueling. I kind of laugh when people have this notion that you can look at a toilet and be a plumber. Even something as simple as handling a screwdriver really takes time to master. When people ask what the most “difficult” trade is, I don’t know that it’s difficult. But a lot of people can’t hack it. That’s the fact of the matter.

I own every tool that that every other trade owns – plus the ones specific to my trade. All my license is, is this: I’m an expert in pipes and fittings. The least sexy job description I can imagine. But I have to be that expert when I have spiders or roaches crawling on me. Or when I’m under a house in a tight space and I start hearing rats running around. Or I see snake sheds. Or actual snakes. And of course, getting saturated with waste. It’s gross. But sometimes you just take your hepatitis vaccines and get over it.

If you want to talk about horror stories I have them for sure. But there are so many of them that I’ve gotten used to it. I was doing a job with an apprentice and I guess it was bad. I’ll spare the details. But at the end of the job the apprentice said “How did you do that?” I was confused because it was a straightforward job – so I said “What are you talking about?” And he said, “Man, that was the worst thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life!” To me it was just a Tuesday.

So there are some surefire horrors.

Another new and weird sort of challenge, as an employee, is how the nature of the business has changed. When it was Dennis and me in a beat up box truck, we would show up and fix stuff and charge what, in retrospect, was a very low number. But we did a good job and people were happy.

Now it’s become a highly corporatized sort of thing. If you want to be a successful employee in a residential plumbing job, you get sent to sales training and watch videos on extracting maximum value from every call and all this weird stuff that doesn’t sit well with me. I think that as an employee, that’s been the hardest part for me.

I’m doing my own thing now and it’s sort of nice to feel like a plumber again rather than a salesperson. I’m not advertising or making any kind of push right now. I know I’ll need to start at some point. But calls are trickling in and I feel this calm-before-the-storm feeling. I’m thinking one day I’ll have to really focus on marketing and accounting and customer service and general management – but for right now it’s kind of nice to just be a plumber for a bit.

We’ve been impressed with Turner Signature Plumbing, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I am a Master Plumber in Atlanta, Georgia specializing in residential repairs.

I’m licensed and insured. My goal is to provide top-tier service for middle-of-the-road prices. If you have a guy that can do it cheaper, call him.

If you call a plumbing company, there is a good chance that you’re not getting a licensed plumber. You might be getting some kid that’s been in the field for six months. That’s just how the business works now. A customer told me the other day that he was quoted quintuple the market rate for a job by a plumber from a major company because “working on copper is a lost art”. That man was not a plumber. If time allows, get multiple quotes. Let me be one of them!

My customers are most happy with my ability to educate them on their home plumbing system. If I’m making a repair, I am going to make damn sure you understand why I’m doing it. Some plumbers get angry when the homeowner hangs out while they’re making the repair. I absolutely welcome it! The more you know about what I’m doing, the better it is for both of us.

What are your plans for the future?
My plan is to grow the business. In an ideal world, I’d get to around eight trucks and then expand into HVAC or electrical – or both!

I’d love to build my company up with a select group of solid plumbers and a couple of apprentices. But definitely keep the business at a medium size so that I can have more exacting quality control standards. At some point I’d like my schedule rotation to be nothing but repeat customers.

I’ve also considered getting into the education part of plumbing.. I’ve pondered starting a state-board approved plumbing course focused on residential repair. But maybe that’s just, as they say, a pipe dream.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://turnersignatureplumbing.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-turner-5a0733388/

Image Credits
Nathan Crase