How We Scaled plumbing and HVAC in Sherwood Park Company 10X | Hinse Brothers Mechanical Story
Business growth can sound impressive on paper. More employees. More trucks. More customers. Bigger projects.
But for a homeowner choosing someone to work on their furnace, plumbing, boiler or air conditioning system, growth only matters if the quality of service grows with it.
That has been one of the defining challenges behind Hinse Brothers Mechanical.
What began as a small family operation working evenings and weekends has developed into a team of approximately 16 people serving homeowners and commercial clients throughout Sherwood Park, Edmonton and surrounding communities. From its first year to its eighth, owner Adrian Hinse says the company has grown roughly tenfold.
Yet the story actually started before Hinse Brothers Mechanical existed.
It began with Ledgers Plumbing.
Adrian’s relative, Ledger, had spent years working in the plumbing trade before deciding at around 50 years old to start his own business. He already had customers who trusted his work, and the company quickly became busy.
Years later, as Ledger began thinking about slowing down and spending more time away during the winter, Adrian and his brothers were considering building a company of their own.
One phone call connected the two stories.
Ledger asked if they could handle his customer calls while he was away. Within approximately six months, the Hinse brothers had the opportunity to purchase the business. They acquired Ledgers Plumbing, its website and assets, but more importantly, inherited a responsibility to the customers Ledger had served for years.
That became the foundation for what Hinse Brothers Mechanical is today.
From Ledgers Plumbing to a 10X Local Service Company
When Adrian and his brothers purchased Ledgers Plumbing, they could have simply absorbed the customer list and eliminated the old name.
They chose not to.
Ledger had one important request: he wanted his name to remain part of the business. For him, Ledgers Plumbing represented years of relationships, workmanship and reputation. His hope was to someday see the Ledgers and Hinse names working together.
Today, both names continue to appear on the company’s vehicles.
There is also a practical reason for maintaining both identities.
“Hinse Brothers Mechanical” reflects the broader scope of the company, including HVAC, commercial mechanical systems, boilers, gas fitting, ventilation and other specialized work. “Ledgers Plumbing” immediately communicates something familiar to a residential homeowner looking for plumbing help.
Together, the two names tell a more complete story.
The company has also expanded considerably since 2018. What began with a van, a small crew and part-time work eventually developed into a business with apprentices, journeymen, administrative employees, sales staff and a Sherwood Park office.
Its work expanded as well.
Residential service remains an important part of the company, but Hinse Brothers has also moved further into commercial mechanical work. Adrian estimates the current workload is roughly split between residential and commercial projects.
For homeowners, that broader experience can be valuable.
A company accustomed to working with boilers, hydronic heating, gas systems, ventilation, commercial equipment and complete mechanical installations develops a much wider understanding of how systems interact.
That knowledge can become particularly useful when a residential problem isn’t as simple as replacing one failed component.
The Plumbing and HVAC Company Sherwood Park Homeowners Have Watched Grow
Growth is only useful if customers still receive thoughtful service.
Adrian’s approach is not to immediately look at a failed furnace and assume the answer is simply a new furnace.
He wants to understand why it failed.
Is there enough return air? Is the filtration appropriate? Has the furnace been overheating? Is there a larger airflow problem? Would zoning make parts of the home more comfortable? Is the existing system properly designed for the way the homeowners actually use the house?
That diagnostic mindset is an important part of how the plumbing and HVAC company Sherwood Park residents know today has evolved.
Instead of treating mechanical equipment as a collection of unrelated boxes, the team looks at the system around it.
Consider a homeowner who complains that the basement is always cold while the upper floor becomes too warm. Installing a larger furnace might not solve the problem. The real issue could involve airflow, ductwork, zoning, return air or the design of the existing system.
The same principle applies to boilers, plumbing systems and air conditioning.
Adrian describes the company as detail-oriented because many jobs deserve more consideration than an immediate quote. Straightforward work can often be priced quickly, but complicated systems may require investigation, research and a closer examination of how the equipment works together.
That philosophy has also allowed Hinse Brothers Mechanical to offer homeowners a much broader range of options.
The company works with conventional furnaces and air conditioning systems, boilers, hydronic heating, gas systems and high-velocity HVAC. In some homes originally designed around boiler heat, for example, high-velocity equipment can provide a way to introduce cooling without installing the same large ductwork required by a conventional forced-air system.
The goal isn’t to sell every homeowner the same solution.
It is to identify the solution that fits the house.
Homeowners can learn more about the company’s residential and mechanical services through Hinse Brothers Mechanical.
Why Full-Service Mechanical Expertise Matters Inside Your Home
One of the lessons Adrian and his brothers learned as the company expanded was the value of versatility.
A homeowner may initially call because of one problem, but homes are interconnected systems.
A renovation could involve plumbing, natural gas and HVAC changes. A boiler replacement may raise questions about domestic hot water or zoning. Finishing a basement might require new plumbing while also changing heating and ventilation needs.
Working with a contractor capable of understanding multiple mechanical systems can simplify those projects.
It can also reduce the number of different companies a homeowner needs to coordinate.
Hinse Brothers has deliberately developed expertise across plumbing, HVAC, gas fitting and hydronics rather than limiting itself to one narrow category. Adrian sees that versatility as a strength, particularly when complicated projects require people from different areas of the company to collaborate and troubleshoot.
Building that kind of company, however, requires skilled people.
One of Adrian’s priorities has been training younger workers entering the plumbing and HVAC trades. Hinse Brothers employs both apprentices and journeymen, giving newer tradespeople opportunities to develop their skills alongside experienced workers.
That apprenticeship model is an important part of how Alberta develops certified tradespeople. Alberta’s plumber apprenticeship program combines classroom education with thousands of hours of supervised work experience and currently incorporates Gasfitter Class B certification as part of the program. Homeowners interested in how Alberta tradespeople are trained can review the province’s official plumber apprenticeship program information.
For Hinse Brothers, investing in new tradespeople is not simply about filling positions. It is about creating a team capable of maintaining the standards that allowed the company to grow in the first place.
That matters because no mechanical company gets every situation perfectly right.
Adrian is open about that.
The company’s goal is not to pretend problems never happen. It is to respond when they do and make sure customers are taken care of. That approach has helped the business build a strong review profile and generate a significant amount of referral and word-of-mouth work.
There is an important lesson in that growth.
Going from a part-time operation to a company roughly ten times its original size could have pushed Hinse Brothers away from the personal service that defined its early years. Instead, the company has tried to build systems, train people and expand its capabilities without abandoning the relationships that started with Ledgers Plumbing.
For homeowners, that may be the most important part of the story.
The trucks are different. The team is larger. The projects are more complex. Hinse Brothers now works on everything from residential furnace replacements to boilers, hydronic systems, high-velocity HVAC and substantial commercial mechanical projects.
But the fundamental question Adrian asks has remained remarkably consistent:
What does this customer actually need, and how do we solve the problem properly?
Tenfold growth is an impressive business milestone.
Building a company that can grow while still asking that question is what makes the growth meaningful.