Most tradespeople would be thrilled to earn one nomination for an industry award. Doug Hines got two.
Hines, the owner of Hines Heating and Cooling, was named the June Ace of Trades recipient by WDIV and Carhartt - a monthly recognition spotlighting local trade workers who lead by example. He is the only recipient in the program’s history to be nominated by more than one customer.
Customer Valerie York, who has relied on Hines for four years at both her personal home and a rental property in Redford, submitted one of those nominations.
“I spoke about the honesty and the trustworthiness,” York said. “I spoke about his pricing, which in my opinion was very fair.”
Hines said the double nomination left him humbled.
“I’m just honest. I’m just real with my customers. I don’t try to sell them anything they don’t need or I don’t think would benefit them in some way,” he said.
From sprinklers to furnaces
Hines did not set out to work in heating and cooling. At 18, he took a job with a friend’s father in lawn irrigation - an experience that showed him he loved the service industry.
“At 18, I started working for my best friend’s dad,” Hines said. He wanted something year-round, and a family connection pointed him toward a trade school in Southfield. The 11-month program, he reasoned, beat four to six years of college.
He graduated, was hired by an HVAC company while still in school and stayed nearly a decade. “Worked with them for almost 10 years, and, figured it was time to start my own company,” Hines said. He credits faith with the timing: “I just felt it was something that God was leading me towards.”
A van from his wife’s uncle - the same relative who first suggested the field - helped him get Hines Heating and Cooling off the ground.
A brutal summer, a simple fix
Hines is a one-man operation, and the recent heat wave has pushed him to his limit. He said the All Things Livonia Facebook group “has really been a godsend for my business,” generating as many as 20 calls a day during peak heat.
He cannot answer everyone. “I can’t get to everybody. I do my best. I try to guide them to other resources, if need be,” he said.
This season has revealed a common culprit. “This has been a summer of capacitors,” Hines said, referring to a small electrical component that frequently fails in extreme heat. His advice to homeowners is free and straightforward: “keep your coils clean, take your hose, rinse ‘em off yourself just to kind of cool things down.”
A pitch for the trades
Hines closed with a message for young people weighing their options.
“I always encourage any young person to get into trades. If you have, especially heating and cooling, if you have a mechanical aptitude, don’t mind putting in long hours, maybe lifting heavy, it’s a fantastic career choice. It’s been good to me,” he said.
Nominations for the July Ace of Trades recipient are open at clickondetroit.com/tradeup.