Hayes Mechanical

When Hayes Mechanical changed offices a couple of years ago, Terry AnCel came across something special during the moving process. “When we were packing before moving into the new office I came across some old boxes,” recalls AnCel, president and CEO of Hayes Mechanical. “In one of the boxes I found an invoice and feedback from a customer from 1928. I quickly recognized the name as it’s one of the accounts we still service. That invoice really speaks to how well-recognized we are and the long term relationships we’ve established over the years.”

Hayes Mechanical, a full service mechanical contractor specializing in commercial and industrial platforms, has been serving clients throughout the Midwest and eastern U.S. for nearly a century. The Chicago-based company was founded in 1918 by Dan Hayes originally as Dan Hayes Boiler & Repair Co.

The Third Generation and Beyond

“My grandfather started out as a boiler maker on Chicago’s Southside in the early 1900s,” shares Rick Mooney, chairman of Hayes Mechanical. “He eventually moved his business to the north side of the city and started a repair shop. The company expanded into working on larger boilers, pipe fitting and service. Shortly after World War II, my father, John T. Mooney, joined the family company.”

The family tradition continued onto the third generation with Mooney. “I’ve been in this industry for as long as I can remember,” he reveals. Mooney follows his grandfather’s founding values of honesty, integrity and fostering a better work environment for his union employees.

The employees at Hayes Mechanical are like family. “Our people are dedicated, loyal, cooperative and considerate of each other and customers,” says Mooney. “We have many people who’ve been with us since the beginning, who have gone onto retire; others are working on 30 to 40 years with the company. We have very little employee turnover.”

Today Hayes Mechanical operates out of five locations from Chicago to Omaha, Neb., Pennsylvania to Michigan. “Chicago is our home base, but we can reach many parts of the country” details AnCel. “We’ll go to New York, New Jersey, Wyoming; we’ve even gone south of the border depending on the demand.”

Diversified Service Coupled With Relationships

A broad range of service and longstanding customer relations make Hayes Mechanical a go-to one-stop-shop mechanical contractor. “We provide full service HVAC repair, installation and maintenance, along with boiler replacement and repair, piping and rotation equipment for large scale powerhouses,” explains AnCel. “We have a vast skill set of in-house technicians with expertise in sheet metal to plumbing, electric to basic repairs. We can do numerous types of projects, including water wall replacements, super heaters, economizers and condensers.”

Recently, Hayes Mechanical has performed large-scale water wall replacements by flying in panels and using a crane to put them in place; the company has also used helicopters to transport boilers. From full boiler replacements to heating coil replacements, exhaust hoods to chiller tear downs, condenser replacement to power crusher house rehab, Hayes Mechanical has an arsenal of talented professionals ready to tackle any job. “Safety on the jobsite is one of our main concerns,” details AnCel. “If everyone goes to work and goes home in the same condition that they came in, then we know we’re doing things right.”

According to Mooney, quality workmanship on every project is also of high importance. “Most of the work we do is complex; we do a lot of intricate welding,” he says. “We have a quality division that inspects all work on a regular basis to make sure it’s up to our high standards.”

AnCel admits that this diversification has allowed the company to survive the economic downturn. “Across the board in every industry people are reevaluating their projects and spending,” he says. “But we were really able to fall back on our service end of the business. Office buildings, schools, hospitals, power houses, no matter the facility, owners always need to maintain systems. The downturn isn’t as overwhelming now as it was in the past couple of years. We’re starting to see more projects in new systems pick back up.”

Hayes Mechanical has also relied on longstanding customer relationships -something the business was founded on and continues to nurture. “We know we’re doing a good job because people come back, year after year,” ensures Mooney. “We want to be their contractor of choice.”

Mooney foresees the company his grandfather started nearly a century ago, foraging ahead doing business as usual. “We want to keep growing, expanding and performing quality work with quality people,” he says. For 95 years, Hayes Mechanical has delivered full service mechanical contracting grounded in honesty, integrity and trusted relationships.

For more information on Hayes Mechanical, please visit: (www.hayesmechanical.com)