Episode Description
Eric Lothrop, VP at Benoure Plumbing, Heating & Air Conditioning, takes us through his 17-year journey from roughing in houses to overseeing custom residential construction. Eric opens up about finding his passion for mechanicals, climbing inside 2.5 million BTU boilers before transitioning to small residential systems, and discovering his true calling: building something from nothing using just blueprints and 2x4s. He explains the four pillars of sustainable success in the trades—quality, accountability, honesty, and dependability—and shares his advice for young people entering the field and what it takes to be a good student in the skilled trades (willingness to be uncomfortable tops the list). Plus, learn why Eric loves to coach, something he learned from his incredible parents, who are still volunteering as adaptive skiing coaches in their late-70s.
Edited by Mateusz Złakowski
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Episode Transcript
(Transcript edited for clarity using AI)
Chris Fredericks: I’d like to welcome Eric Lothrop, Vice President at Benoure Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning, to Empowered Owners. Eric, thanks for coming on.
Eric Lothrop: Thank you very much, Chris.
Chris Fredericks: It’s a pleasure. Absolutely. Really appreciate you doing this. I’ve gotten the pleasure of getting to know you a little bit over the last couple of years, and it’s been a real joy to get to know you. So I’m excited for the listeners to get to know you a little bit as well. So I thought it’d be fun to start off with a curveball question. I know we just talked about prepping and here’s what we might get into, but I didn’t want to prep you for this one. What is your favorite project that you’ve ever worked on in your career, like at Benoure or before Benoure? But like a project that Benoure might do. What’s your favorite that you’ve ever worked on and why?
Eric Lothrop: Curveball question right out of the gate. This is something I would have to say—my favorite project in all my years was the very last one I did in the field.
Chris Fredericks: Interesting.
Eric Lothrop: Yeah, it was the Farley residence, and it was super challenging. Architects had full control of the project and really all the decisions made. But in general, the project just had such a great flow and the owners were fantastic and they cared so much about the project and the people who were involved in it. And everybody on that job—just top-notch camaraderie, which really produced top-notch quality. But at the end of the day, the guys were really super happy to be there. They liked the owners. It was just a great vibe the whole way through. So that was a great one to finish off because everybody was just—it was great.
Chris Fredericks: Amazing. That’s a great answer. When was your last project? When was that project, like your last in the field?
Eric Lothrop: Now when I was still in the field? 2018 maybe.
Chris Fredericks: Okay.
Eric Lothrop: Yeah, it’s been a long minute. I miss it. It’s tough.
Chris Fredericks: Yeah. So what about that project you mentioned? The camaraderie and the homeowners being a big part of what made that a great experience. Was there anything else about it too, like in terms of the technical thing, or was it more purely just the experience of it itself?
Eric Lothrop: Both. It was a pretty technical project. Super high-end, super high detail, and very, very challenging, just mechanically to get things around the building. It was another one of these systems where it’s a residential home, but it might as well be a commercial project with the amount of heating and cooling that was in it. A bunch of roof drains, a rooftop penthouse for equipment. To me, it was just something different that we hadn’t done. And then you factor in just everybody enjoying what they were doing so much and just wanting to be a part of that project—it made it very special.
Chris Fredericks: That’s cool. Why don’t we take a step back and maybe you can share with everybody what is it that you in particular focus on at Benoure? And what broadly does Benoure do from a services perspective?
Eric Lothrop: So for me, I focus mostly on our residential new construction, and with that being primarily custom homes. And Benoure, our focus is on everything that is HVAC-related—plumbing, heating, air conditioning—along with a whole lot of other things. We’re into service, we’re into sheet metal. We’re into pretty much—if your house needs it to function, we can pretty much provide it.
Chris Fredericks: Yeah. And how long have you worked at Benoure?
Eric Lothrop: I am coming up on 17 years.
Chris Fredericks: Wow. That’s great. Yeah. And then before you joined Benoure, how long were you in the trades or like how did you get into the trades? Let’s go all the way back to the start.
Eric Lothrop: Back to the start. So I found my start early on in the trades in an industrial commercial setting. I took a job at a company called Johnson Controls, which is a sub up here, which was IBM at the time, which is now GlobalFoundries. So totally industrial. I took a job as an HVAC tech trying to learn heating, ventilating, and air conditioning. And with that, I was working, doing PMs on equipment. We were helping the plumbing department out and the general maintenance department. So we were doing everything from fixing door jams to fixing sinks and urinals. And then we were working on air handlers and steam boilers and cooling towers and pumps and vacuum pumps and air compressors. And that’s where my interest in mechanicals really blossomed. And then from there, I left there—we had weird schedules where I was working a lot of 12-hour days and every Sunday. So it was time for a change. And I left there and got into the residential side of things.
Chris Fredericks: And then that was before you ended up at Benoure? You spent some time getting into residential at other companies?
Eric Lothrop: Yeah. Yep. I did. I went to a small residential company, locally owned. And I went from basically a 2.5 million BTU boiler, which is a boiler big enough that you can climb inside of to work on, down to a small little residential boiler. And it was a pretty dramatic change. So I had a lot to learn there. And I didn’t have my plumbing license at the time, so that’s when I decided I needed to get my licensing. So I got my journeyman license and masters. I got my natural gas and then the propane. Started the whole process. They were fantastic. They really wanted their techs to become educated, to become licensed. They really wanted us to just be inquisitive and ask questions and learn.
Chris Fredericks: That sounds like that would have been really good training to be encouraged to do that.
Eric Lothrop: Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Yeah.
Chris Fredericks: So at that point, were you feeling like, “Okay, this is my career and I’m feeling good about this”? Or how were you feeling and thinking about what it meant to build a career at that point?
Eric Lothrop: I think I was just taking it all in at that point in time. It wasn’t something that I ever set out to do, but I started to get the bug for it when I was up at IBM—the interest in the mechanical and figuring out how things work and just enjoying the whole HVAC experience. And then switching from there into the plumbing field and getting into the residential plumbing—it was new construction plumbing. So now we were actually building systems as opposed to repairing and fixing. And that’s the spot where I really, really kind of fell in love with the trade, was taking something from nothing other than a blueprint and maybe just some two-bys in walls and creating a system that’s functional out of nothing. And just using the skills you’ve learned, the education you’ve been given, and putting it all together.
Chris Fredericks: That’s great. So what about that process—let’s dig in a little more. What about that process did you find particularly rewarding versus, say, a maintenance project or something?
Eric Lothrop: Working with the hands and building something from nothing, I think, was what really inspired me. And I had a lot of great people that I worked with at the time. I had a lot of fantastic teachers, mentors. I worked under a lot of great master plumbers, learned a bunch of stuff from them. And ultimately, I have a lot of respect for all those guys that came before and were patient enough to instill some wisdom and teach a little bit. They had to be patient for the young, dumb apprentice. But they were great. And I owe a lot to those people who came before us. It’s their time.
Chris Fredericks: Yeah, I’m sure it’s not called the skilled trades for no reason. From your experience with those mentors and teachers back then, what do you think distinguishes the better teachers from those that weren’t as effective at teaching a young, inexperienced apprentice?
Eric Lothrop: It’s the willingness to have patience—to give somebody a chance and accept that they may fail, but being willing to teach them. It’s important to be somebody who can be taught as well. Hustle is important, especially in the trades. Guys want to see you moving. They want to see you work. They don’t want to see you standing around. So I brought all that at a young age and wanted to just earn my way. I wanted to take as much knowledge and get as much knowledge from the senior members as I could. And yeah, here we are.
Chris Fredericks: So that’s really interesting what you just said. I think for the teacher and the master plumber or electrician working with a student or an apprentice, for that to be really successful, it takes patience from the teacher, but it also takes—how would you describe what it takes from the student? You mentioned you have to be a good student, basically.
Eric Lothrop: The aptitude to learn, desire to learn, a desire to be uncomfortable because you’re out there when it’s cold, you’re out there when it’s hot. It’s generally unpleasant most of the time. But if you love what you’re doing and you love the craftsmanship and you like the trade, then it’s all easy.
Chris Fredericks: That’s great. How did you end up at Benoure then?
Eric Lothrop: So when I made the choice to come over here, I was really looking to get into new construction. The company I was working for was phasing their way out of new construction. And that’s where I found my niche. That’s what I really wanted to pursue. Benoure was one of a few companies that were doing it and doing it well and had a good staff. And so a couple guys came here from the company I was at before Benoure prior to me, and they’re still here—one of them is—and it was great. And they came in and they said, “This is the place you ought to be.” And here we are 17 years later. I came in as—I was not even a journeyman at the time, but I came in and I started roughing in houses.
Chris Fredericks: Okay. So what’s roughing in houses mean?
Eric Lothrop: Oh, roughing in houses. So that is basically everything you don’t get to see in the house behind sheetrock, right? So that’s all the drainage, the waste, the venting, the water, gas lines, wiring—everything that goes in to make the house work that you don’t get to see.
Chris Fredericks: Yeah, yeah. I remember being struck by a comment that Brad mentioned at one point, which is he’s never once unclogged a toilet. And I think for a lot of people, they think plumbing, they think that kind of work. And then what you just said is—and you mentioned a word earlier, “craftsmanship”—that seems to me to be one of the main interesting differentiators for a company like Benoure. It’s the pride of work and that almost artisanal level craftsmanship that good people seem to bring to the job. Is that something you feel like is true for folks at Benoure?
Eric Lothrop: Certainly a lot of pride in the work they do. I had a lot of pride in the work I did. I know everybody has quite a bit of pride for what they do. And they’re always looking—whether it’s going to be on display, like in the mechanical room later on, or it’s going to be buried in sheetrock—we try to keep the same standard and the same craftsmanship to all of it, right? So whatever goes in the wall looks as good as anything that you’re going to see outside the wall. It just speaks to our level of attention to detail and our level of—I’m drawing a blank here.
Chris Fredericks: Yeah. Attention to detail. Standards, that level of standards.
Eric Lothrop: Yeah. Quality to it. Yeah. Quality.
Chris Fredericks: Yeah. So for you now, you’ve been at Benoure for 17 years and you’re no longer the one going in to do the install. What are you doing now these days at Benoure?
Eric Lothrop: Missing being the guy going and installing a little bit. But in reality, I’m enjoying watching the younger guys come through and carry that torch. I’m overseeing a lot of that work currently. We’re estimating and bidding and doing design-build. There’s a lot of what we do, which is pretty fascinating too. It’s fun. Again, you’re taking just some lines on a paper and figuring out what kind of heating system, what kind of cooling, how we’re going to route drainage and rain leaders and wiring controls, and just figuring out how we’re going to make this thing function and perform at the end of the day through all our seasons here, right? So our heating season, our cooling season. So that’s my day-to-day now—figuring all that out.
Chris Fredericks: Project management, estimating, design and build, and then managing people and teaching. I assume now you’re the teacher?
Eric Lothrop: A lot of that still stays on the foremen who are out there. But yeah, sure, I’m always here to lend a helping hand.
Chris Fredericks: Yeah. So what do you think it takes for a company like Benoure to be successful and continue that success over long periods of time? Because I think in the trades and contracting business, it can be really tough, very competitive, challenging to find people. In your experience, what are the things that a company like Benoure needs to be good at to be a sustainable, long-term, successful business? Just a little small question for you there.
Eric Lothrop: Quality, accountability, honesty, and dependability. And those, I think, are four things that we have always had in our wheelhouse. That’s a strength here. Always putting the customer first or trying to make it right, doing what we say we’re going to do when we say we’re going to do it, and just quality—always quality. Pushing on that all the time.
Chris Fredericks: That’s awesome. What about advice you might give to somebody who’s starting their career at Benoure or another similar company? Like what do they need to do to eventually be where you’re at today or something similar? What’s your advice to someone starting off a career in the trades?
Eric Lothrop: Well, first of all, I think a career in the trades is fantastic. I think it’s a great opportunity for growth. It’s a great way to just challenge yourself and continue to get educated and just grow. There’s so many different facets of this trade we’re in. What you mentioned earlier about Brad not having unclogged a toilet before—it’s something we don’t do. That really is just what people think of when they think of plumbers. They think of pants down low and the butt crack.
Chris Fredericks: I didn’t say that.
Eric Lothrop: You did. Yeah. That’s right. But in reality, it’s just not what it is. I never had a plunger on any of my trucks. It’s just not what we do. And there are other facets of this business that you can do. You could be a welder. You could be just the gas guy. You could learn controls and you could be a service tech guy. I mean, it’s just endless. But for a young guy coming in, nose to the grindstone. Pay attention. Listen to the guys who are willing to teach you. Find the ones that are knowledgeable, that are willing to teach you. Take the classes and pay attention to the classes. There’s a lot of good information there.
Chris Fredericks: Be a learner. Like what you said earlier.
Eric Lothrop: A learner. A lifelong learner too. It doesn’t stop.
Chris Fredericks: Yeah. What you said earlier struck me along those lines, which is the ability and willingness to be uncomfortable. You mentioned the weather, but also learning is not always comfortable. I mean, it’s not fun to not know something and to feel a little bit under the pressure to learn. So I wonder if that feeling of being okay feeling a little bit uncomfortable has been an important trait for you and others who’ve been successful in your field?
Eric Lothrop: I would imagine so. I think so.
Chris Fredericks: Good, good, good. What about the experience for Benoure of being employee-owned over the last year and a half? Anything come to mind?
Eric Lothrop: I think it’s been well embraced. We’re moving into closing in on two years now. I think more people now are starting to embrace it and really understand what it is and kind of just take this new path and create something with it. It’s great.
Chris Fredericks: It’s awesome. All right. How about outside of work? What does Eric like to do outside of work?
Eric Lothrop: Outside of work, well, I love to coach soccer. I love to run and I love to ski and family and friends. Those are my top four—six.
Chris Fredericks: Love it. And we’re headed into Thanksgiving as we record this. How’s the snow season looking to be this year for Vermont?
Eric Lothrop: So far quite good. Yeah, we’re in the snow pack right now. Jay Peak is looking at somewhere around 90 inches to date. They got a solid base. Probably the best opening they’ve ever had. Stowe is in the same way. So the Northeast is looking pretty good this year. I hope it’s going to be the same out West. We’re taking another trip out West this year, so I hope that they’re off to a good start as well.
Chris Fredericks: That’s awesome. So you mentioned coaching soccer. What do you like about coaching soccer?
Eric Lothrop: So I played all through my youth through high school, and I never really had any desire to coach until there was—it was lacking in our community. We had a program already that was struggling with just involvement. So we decided to step up and see what we could do to help. So I started coaching when my son was, I think, five, and I coached him all the way through eighth grade, and it was just awesome. I mean, it was great getting to just—it’s really self-serving, really, because I enjoyed it so much. But just teaching them what it’s like to be a teammate, what it’s like to be a good sport, and what it’s like to work hard and what it’s like to earn something. And just teaching them skills—it’s just completely fulfilling. Not coaching currently, so that’s one of my biggest regrets. But hopefully I’ll get an opportunity here to coach again.
Chris Fredericks: That’s great. Last question for you. I think I understand that maybe you’re also into volunteering. What about volunteer work do you enjoy doing, or is there anything in particular you like to do in terms of volunteering?
Eric Lothrop: Most of my volunteering was spent with the soccer program, and that was mowing fields and lining fields and helping with the jamborees and just all the extra things that come along with just coaching. Coaching in a small town isn’t just coaching soccer. There’s coaching soccer, then there’s everything else. When the grass is really tall, no one’s mowing the lawn. You’ve got to line the fields, fix the nets—all hands on deck. All hands on deck.
But volunteering in general, my family has always thought it was pretty important. My parents are still heavily involved. Their latest passion is Vermont Adaptive, which is a program here that helps people with disabilities do all kinds of different activities from skiing, kayaking, biking, whatever it may be. Yeah. So their passion is skiing as well. So they still volunteer and ski at 79 and 77. Yeah.
Chris Fredericks: So they’re both skiing and they’re volunteering and helping with coaching?
Eric Lothrop: And coaching. Wow. Yeah. Yeah.
Chris Fredericks: Sounds like you have some amazing role models to live up to.
Eric Lothrop: Yeah. Tall task.
Chris Fredericks: All right, Eric, this has been so much fun. Thank you for coming on Empowered Owners.
Eric Lothrop: Thank you, Chris. Appreciate it.
