VHV, formerly Vermont Heating & Ventilating Company, has a rich history dating back to its founding in 1949. Nathan Brown started VHV in 1949 out of his garage in Burlington, VT. Originally, VHV focused on sheet metal. Skilled craftsmen would meticulously fabricate the ductwork and fittings by hand. These craftsmen were typically referred to as Tin Knockers for the hammering and knocking of sheet metal into the desired forms.
Initially focused on residential applications, VHV expanded its services to include industrial and commercial heating and ventilating systems.
By the 1980’s VHV specialized in clean room environments for semiconductor manufacturing, and VHV excelled in designing and constructing these systems. The experience in the semiconductor industry, a large volume at IBM, allowed VHV to refine and master mechanical clean room systems and become a respected leader in this mechanical contracting specialty.
In later decades, a new division, Quality Air Control, would continue to design and construct mechanical clean room environments for biomedical, semiconductor, and pharmaceutical industries.
In 1987, VHV sold the manufacturing division that had developed a very successful called Perma Shield Pipe (PSP) to a new company named Fab-Tech, Inc. This was a Teflon coated stainless steel pipe that was developed for corrosive exhaust systems in the semiconductor industry. This is still sold worldwide.
Fast forward to the late 1990’s and VHV had evolved into a full-service mechanical contractor with services including ductwork, piping, service, and controls. This endeavor solidified VHV’s reputation as a leader in mechanical contracting, particularly in clean room technology.
Along the way VHV expanded its offerings to include an engineering department to enter the design build market by providing our own professionally engineered systems. VHV began using computer aided design (CAD) software for our projects. Today we have expanded our use of computer software that allows our designs to be directly taken off from computer generated designs to create project estimates. From here our Virtual Design Construction (VDC) department can generate three dimensional drawings (Navisworks) and use these to coordinate with other trades to layout and prevent conflicts that would traditionally occur in the field during installation. This information can be downloaded to our duct fabrication software and sent directly to the sheet metal plasma cutter to optimize the quality and efficiency of sheet metal cut outs. In the field we can utilize our Trimble laser system to pinpoint exact floor and wall penetrations. All of this save’s time and money to our customers!
VHV utilizes pre-fabrication of mechanical systems, piping and ductwork to ensure projects are installed in a timely manner to meet aggressive construction schedules.
After being a privately held company since its inception, VHV became a 100% employee-owned company in early 2017 with our establishment of an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, or ESOP. Now, our employee-owners contribute to the progress and plan for our company together at our Annual Employee-Owner Meeting. By embracing employee ownership, VHV not only strengthens its workforce but also reinforces its commitment to efficiency, innovation, and long-term success.
VHV’s evolution has been tremendous in the last 75 years. VHV is an accredited NCCER Training Center and provides a 4-year apprenticeship program for our employees. This is the only one in Vermont. What sets us apart from the competition? We are a comprehensive HVACR solutions provider, we have a dedicated service team, and we have our own in-house controls experts. VHV is not going to stop there. We will continue to grow, expand, and evolve our services. Just imagine where we will be in another 75 years!
