Local HVAC Company Overcomes Tragedy to Grow & Expand

A community submission from: Top Tech Heating, Cooling & Refrigeration of Antigo, WI, owned and operated by James Schulz since 2016.

I have worked in HVAC full time since about 1993. Shortly after my second child was born, I worked for a company near Antigo at that time and then several years for France Sales & Service in Schofield. The opportunity came available to work with Dan Zelinski of Dan’s Repair & Tome Svaton of Svaton Sheet Metal. I then formed my own company and bought a service vehicle.

We were independent but we worked together for several years. Eventually Dan retired, but Tom and I continued our partnership. All along my career, my wife, Patty, was right there helping and keeping records and books. She was my business partner, my secretary, my organizer, tax preparer and clearly so much more.

Tragically in September of 2021, my soul mate and partner passed away from a food poisoning pathogen.

Although I was able to keep working servicing and replacing furnaces, boilers, air conditioners, etc.; record keeping and bookkeeping was falling behind. My son in law Blake, helped me move the offices from my home on HWY 47 to 400 Clermont St., a house I had already owned since 2003. Laura, who is trained in field work, a professional clean and check Technician, was able to help with getting our bookkeeping transferred to a new platform. With Patty gone, we had to move our records to an entirely different system.

With Patty passing, I no longer had a full time receptionist or secretary to answer calls and keep track of messages, or to prepare my taxes.

My son, Nathan who has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Marquette University, came to help with sales tax reporting and filing other tax documents. He also has been working with Tom Svaton whose 55 years of sheet metal experience make Tom an excellent mentor & teacher. Nathan is capable of replacing residential furnaces by himself and has done so several times. He is also learning to do troubleshooting on furnaces.

Our greatest challenge remained in recording and tracking calls for service in busy times. We also have people mistake Shulz Heating and Cooling for my company. While my last name is Shulz, I am not associated with their company.

Tom Svaton is still helping us as we need an experienced hand every so often. But its funny- at least one of our competitors was telling customers that Tom was dead. Well he is not! We have a website, 90% of our customers are previous faithful customers or people who were referred to us by word of mouth.

In early 2022, we purchased a warehouse from Wes Tradewell. It’s located in the Tradewinds complex, near the Antigo Country Store, next to the Today’s Hair Salon and just east of the Green Hen. There we have a full sheet metal shop, our offices are framed out, as well as inside truck parking and storage for parts & furnaces and air conditioning units.

We are still waiting to bring water & sewer to the building. Once we do that, we will move out of our office on Clermont St., and into our building at 735 Superior St., Antigo.

So as we continue to recover from the shock of losing Patty so unexpectedly. I have found, as many people do, with the loss of a spouse- that she was more valuable than I ever realized.

So yes, Top Tech is still here. We are expanding; we continue to offer full service HVAC, Emergency No-Heat services (including furnace & boiler repair and replacement), sheet metal work, expert oil burner service, light refrigeration and air conditioning service.

So please call if you are in need of service. Leave a message if we don’t answer and if you don't get back to you right away, call again! But we always service No-Heat Emergencies same day.

I did a clean & repair check on my aunt’s furnace a while back, she’s retired but while talking to her I joked if she wanted a part-time job. To my surprise, she said yes! And Jan Hoerman had been keeping track of my business and personal banking accounts, paying bills & balancing checkbooks ever since!

With all our experience and expertise in the HVAC industry- Our greatest strength is in our integrity, our honesty.

I have had so many people call me saying that a different tech. has told them they need a new furnace because there are no parts available to repair their current unit. At least eight times in the last two years, I was able to repair their unit either without parts or I had the parts in my truck (in their driveway). This speaks to our integrity and the pressure tactics other techs have used in order to sell new units. If you do need a new unit, we install furnaces in about 6hrs., in most cases. And if we can repair it, we won’t pressure you into buying a new unit.

Image Left to Right:

Tom Svaton: Sheet Metal Master, furnace whole house & replacement expert, private consultant

Laura Townsend: Field train tech, clean & checks heat exchange replacement, installer & QuickBooks manager

Jane Hoerman: Bookkeeper & receptionist

James Schulz: Owner with 30+yrs of experience, Expert Service & Diagnostic Repair, Whole House furnace & Boiler Installation, Expert Oil Burner Service

Nathan Schulz: Sheet Metal Apprentice, computer service for taxes, Service 7 Diagnostic Apprentice, Lead tech for Furnace installation and replacement