Buglione Plumbing & Heating
June 16, 2009
By Martin Wilbur
(Reprinted from the Examiner News)
June 16, 2009
By Martin Wilbur
(Reprinted from the Examiner News)
Buglione Plumbing & Heating
June 16, 2009
By Martin Wilbur
(Reprinted from the Examiner News)
Buglione Plumbing & Heating is a mom-and-pop business in the truest sense. Fifty years after Roger Buglione’s father opened the family plumbing and heating company from the garage of his house, it warms his heart to see son Steven make it three generations. He never demanded that his son carry on the longtime tradition, but remembered the youngster coming to work with him and enjoying the ride in his truck from an early age.
“I said to him, ‘You don’t have to come into the business if you don’t want to,’” Buglione recalled. “I understood that and I really thought he was going to go elsewhere. But he came into the business; he liked the plumbing business.”
It was 35 years ago when Buglione had to make his own decision about his future. His father, also named Steven, who he followed into the trade in 1959 when the elder Buglione established Buglione Plumbing & Heating, died in 1974 at 58 years old. At the time, Roger Buglione had overtures from rivals who wanted him to work for them.
“It was something that I felt that I owed to my dad,” Buglione said of staying with the business. “All the years that he kept the business going and everything, because he wasn’t a well man when he stopped working. So I took the business over, my wife and I, and worked hard to keep it afloat.”
Buglione Plumbing & Heating isn’t much bigger today than when Buglione’s father set up shop. It still features a father-and-son team. But instead of operating out of a garage, it’s located at 829 Franklin Ave. in Thornwood, a property the couple bought in 1987 before building the shop in 1991. The family has a full-time helper and secretary. Keeping the operation running smoothly is Buglione’s wife of 44 years, Barbara, who actually worked for the elder Buglione starting in 1970.
While the company may be dwarfed by larger competitors, it still does top-notch work. For the past half century, satisfied customers throughout the area have called on the company for plumbing repairs and installations. From time to time, Buglione said his son will encounter a customer who remembers his father.
From early in the morning until late in the afternoon or evening, Buglione Plumbing and Heating replaces boilers, water mains and sewers, installs sinks and bathtubs, repairs hot water heaters and comes to the rescue of dozens of homeowners for a variety of smaller repairs, including from the Mr. Fix It types who need help.
“On Mondays, we get repairs where the husband tried to fix something.” Barbara Buglione pointed out.
Although the business, which serves residents throughout Mount Pleasant, Pleasantville, Chappaqua and Armonk, among other locations, has been good to the family, the hours are long and it takes constant trade seminars to keep up with new equipment and technology. Equally important, Buglione says, you have to enjoy the work to be successful. He points out with pride that they don’t go home until the last job is done.
“Through the years it’s been a challenge, and I love challenges.” Buglione said of his attraction to plumbing and heating. “Every day the phone rings, there is a different situation. It’s not the same type of work every single day. It may be plumbing and it may be heating, but it’s a challenge every time you get into a job.”
Today, Steven Buglione handles the bulk of the day-to-day operations while Roger Buglione helps out when he can. When the younger Buglione seriously showed an interest in coming into the business, Mom and Dad sent him to Alfred State College, where he learned the trade as part of an occupational studies program for plumbers. Roger Buglione didn’t want his son being distracted with night school, as he was for five years while attending union plumbing school.
In the 50 years Buglione has worked in the business, there have been some significant changes. There are few remaining cast iron, brass or copper pipes. Today, the pipes installed are plastic. As the materials changed, Buglione has realized that he needed help.
“The old style I can fix,” he acknowledged. “The new kinds I would have to call on my son to do.” Of course, a good plumbing and heating specialist still must be able to read an architect’s blueprints.
The years of hard work and doing right by their customers has paid off, Buglione said. He remembered a bit of advice from his father, which he relayed to his son years later:
“You’ll never become a millionaire, but you’ll make a good living at it,” he said.
June 16, 2009
By Martin Wilbur
(Reprinted from the Examiner News)
Buglione Plumbing & Heating is a mom-and-pop business in the truest sense. Fifty years after Roger Buglione’s father opened the family plumbing and heating company from the garage of his house, it warms his heart to see son Steven make it three generations. He never demanded that his son carry on the longtime tradition, but remembered the youngster coming to work with him and enjoying the ride in his truck from an early age.
“I said to him, ‘You don’t have to come into the business if you don’t want to,’” Buglione recalled. “I understood that and I really thought he was going to go elsewhere. But he came into the business; he liked the plumbing business.”
It was 35 years ago when Buglione had to make his own decision about his future. His father, also named Steven, who he followed into the trade in 1959 when the elder Buglione established Buglione Plumbing & Heating, died in 1974 at 58 years old. At the time, Roger Buglione had overtures from rivals who wanted him to work for them.
“It was something that I felt that I owed to my dad,” Buglione said of staying with the business. “All the years that he kept the business going and everything, because he wasn’t a well man when he stopped working. So I took the business over, my wife and I, and worked hard to keep it afloat.”
Buglione Plumbing & Heating isn’t much bigger today than when Buglione’s father set up shop. It still features a father-and-son team. But instead of operating out of a garage, it’s located at 829 Franklin Ave. in Thornwood, a property the couple bought in 1987 before building the shop in 1991. The family has a full-time helper and secretary. Keeping the operation running smoothly is Buglione’s wife of 44 years, Barbara, who actually worked for the elder Buglione starting in 1970.
While the company may be dwarfed by larger competitors, it still does top-notch work. For the past half century, satisfied customers throughout the area have called on the company for plumbing repairs and installations. From time to time, Buglione said his son will encounter a customer who remembers his father.
From early in the morning until late in the afternoon or evening, Buglione Plumbing and Heating replaces boilers, water mains and sewers, installs sinks and bathtubs, repairs hot water heaters and comes to the rescue of dozens of homeowners for a variety of smaller repairs, including from the Mr. Fix It types who need help.
“On Mondays, we get repairs where the husband tried to fix something.” Barbara Buglione pointed out.
Although the business, which serves residents throughout Mount Pleasant, Pleasantville, Chappaqua and Armonk, among other locations, has been good to the family, the hours are long and it takes constant trade seminars to keep up with new equipment and technology. Equally important, Buglione says, you have to enjoy the work to be successful. He points out with pride that they don’t go home until the last job is done.
“Through the years it’s been a challenge, and I love challenges.” Buglione said of his attraction to plumbing and heating. “Every day the phone rings, there is a different situation. It’s not the same type of work every single day. It may be plumbing and it may be heating, but it’s a challenge every time you get into a job.”
Today, Steven Buglione handles the bulk of the day-to-day operations while Roger Buglione helps out when he can. When the younger Buglione seriously showed an interest in coming into the business, Mom and Dad sent him to Alfred State College, where he learned the trade as part of an occupational studies program for plumbers. Roger Buglione didn’t want his son being distracted with night school, as he was for five years while attending union plumbing school.
In the 50 years Buglione has worked in the business, there have been some significant changes. There are few remaining cast iron, brass or copper pipes. Today, the pipes installed are plastic. As the materials changed, Buglione has realized that he needed help.
“The old style I can fix,” he acknowledged. “The new kinds I would have to call on my son to do.” Of course, a good plumbing and heating specialist still must be able to read an architect’s blueprints.
The years of hard work and doing right by their customers has paid off, Buglione said. He remembered a bit of advice from his father, which he relayed to his son years later:
“You’ll never become a millionaire, but you’ll make a good living at it,” he said.