It started in 1945 at the end of World War II.  My Grandpa, Joseph Volk, was stationed at Pearl Harbor.  On his way back to Gary, Indiana, after his honorable discharge from the Army, he had a layover in California.  Shortly after his return to his wife and new born son, my Uncle Bart.  My Grandpa decided to leave the steal mills, brutal winters and humid summers for Southern California. 

It was a time of great optimism and opportunity.  Southern California was experiencing one of the biggest housing booms in History.  With his strong work ethic and mechanical aptitude he got a job as a carpenter for Harry Barkalew.  One day while working in the hot sun,  he saw a plumber sitting in the shade installing some pipe.  He thought, “That is the job for me.”

 He heard that the government was giving out tools to GI’s.  So he spoke to his boss.  Harry tried but was unable to get the tools.  My Grandpa called an old army buddy who said, “I will talk to my friend.”  His friend was General Omar Bradley.  My Grandpa got is toolbox full of tools.  I still have them in my garage.

A short time after receiving his tools he contacted the local plumber’s union and was put to work.  At this time plumbing was much more labor intensive.  Big jobs would have a hundred or more plumbers on it.  Today a big plumbing job may have 12-30 plumbers maybe more. 

Shortly after starting his plumbing career, my Dad was born in 1947.   In 1953, my Grandparents, Uncle Bart and Dad moved to Glassell Park, a short distance from the future Dodger Stadium.  My Grandpa actually built that house and plumbed it himself.  Now a days when someone says they built a house it means they hired a builder.  He actually built it with his own two hands.  It took him a year and it still exists to this day.

The late 1950s and early 1960s were a very exciting time to grow up in Southern California.  My Dad, Vince, grew up in the Los Angeles area and attended Eagle Rock High School.  They lived so close to the new Dodger Stadium that my Dad and Grandma attended the first game, which then, was the new Dodger Stadium.  A few years after Dodger Stadium was completed my Grandma started working there.  She actually got to know the legendary Vin Scully on a first name basis.

My Dad graduated high school in 1965 just as the Vietnam war was ramping up.  After attending LA City College for a year he enlisted in the US Navy. In January 1968 he went on active duty and shipped out to Pearl Harbor.  Shortly after arriving at his ship the USS Epperson, they shipped out to the Tonkin Gulf and their duty station off the coast of Viet Nam.   January 31, 1968 the Tet Offensive began.  My Dad remembers being woken up in the middle of the night and running to his battle station in his underwear and boots.  Little did he know he was participating in the largest military campaign of the Vietnam war in his underwear.  His ship won the Bronze Star that night.  Then proceeded to set a record for most shots fired in seven month deployment, over 16,000 shots fired.

After an honorable discharge from the Navy in January 1970.  My Dad returned home to California.   After a short stint working for the SoCal Gas company, my Dad got into Local 78 Plumber Union as an apprentice.   During this time he met my Mom and was married a short time later.  A year after that I was born at Cedars of Lebanon hospital in Hollywood, CA.   My Dad worked most of his apprenticeship on the Security Pacific Bank building, which for a while was the tallest building in Los Angeles.

During his apprenticeship Vince also went to welding school.  After “turning out” finishing his apprenticeship the country was in a recession.  Unemployment was high and jobs were tough to find.  After the completion of the Security Pacific Bank Building he was laid off, not for long.  With his welding credentials he was able to get a job a at the Douglas Oil Company refinery in South Gate.    After a several other projects over the next couple of years he found himself working for one of the largest residential plumbing companies in the country, Safeway Plumbing.  After 4-1/2 years working for Safeway it was time to start Volk Plumbing.

After settling in Thousand Oaks, CA in 1976.  My Dad while working his regular work week started Volk Plumbing as a side job.  As his reputation grew in the community his side job overtook his fulltime job.  In 1982 Volk Plumbing Inc became his fulltime endeavor.   Through the 1980s he made a name for Volk Plumbing in the commercial and industrial side of the industry.   At the same time keeping a steady workload of custom homes.

Through out the 1980s I worked for Volk Plumbing as a shop boy and pre apprentice.   I cut my teeth on getting to know materials and fittings very well by clean trucks and stocking material.  At this time I was also working in the fabrication assembling water services, fabricating waste and gas systems.  I would work for weeks at a time cutting and threading pipe along with soldering water services.  From time to time I was able to work in the field.   I had the fortune of being able to master the art of the mud wrench, also known as a shovel.  I was a human backhoe.  At the time I did not think it was all that much fun.  However, I learned the importance of mastering the fundamentals. 

 The early 90s brought a crippling recession and a football scholarship for me.  As like many other companies in the early 90s Volk Plumbing reinvented itself.  Volk Plumbing dropped the residential side of its niche and focused on commercial and industrial plumbing. 

After graduating from college in the late 90s I returned California and rejoined Volk Plumbing.  During the mid to late 90s the San Fernando Valley was rebuilding itself from the Northridge.  Into the late 90s Volk Plumbing built a reputation in the dental and health care construction industry for building complex dental and medical facilities.  We also built a relationship with Subway sandwich shops that lasted for almost 10 years.  In that time Volk Plumbing plumbed over 50 restaurants. 

All through out the early 2000s Volk Plumbing built many medical and dental facilities along with many large commercial tilt-up buildings and commercial business parks.