Trade Talk

Discover plumbing, HVAC and construction trends and advice on the tools contractors use every day.

Tackle your toughest jobs with innovative worksite solutions and helpful tips related to your industry. Discover new ways to impress your customers more than you already do and life hacks for making work tasks easier.

An HVAC technician carries a toolbag and cables from his work van toward a suburban two-story home.

The Future of HFC Refrigerants
An HVAC contractor discusses an air treatment system with two homeowners in their kitchen.

How to Answer Air Quality Questions
A woman wearing orange rubber gloves holds a spray bottle of sterilizing solution and wipes elevator buttons with a green microfiber cleaning cloth.

Cleaning vs. Disinfecting Explained
A woman in an office squirts hand sanitizer onto her left palm.

Does Hand Sanitizer Actually Work?
Closeup of a worker wearing thick yellow safety gloves while driving a forklift.

Cut-Resistant Glove Levels
A worker at a jobsite pulls off his cut-resistant and weather-dipped safety gloves.

Find Your Work Glove Size in Four Steps
A Pennfield porcelain wall-mounted sink, white with black trim, is the focal point in this guest bathroom with pale green walls, a flowered accent wall and a mirror with a black frame.

5 Tips to Choose an ADA Compliant Faucet
A commercial ADA-compliant single-user restroom, with grab bars, automatic soap and paper towel dispenser, and touchless faucet.

How to Choose an ADA Compliant Toilet
A facilities worker cleans the floor in a commercial building lobby with a floor buffer.

How to Clean Different Types of Floor
A man wearing a white hard hat and Armateck hand protection puts on safety glasses.

How to Choose the Best Safety Glasses
Five different-colored trash bags full of paper waste are gathered against a gray background.

Low vs. High Density Trash Can Liners
A contractor assembles a new toilet in a residential bathroom.

Why Low-Flow Toilets Benefit Contractors
Closeup of a locking door handle on a wooden door.

How to Choose the Best Door Locks
A modern office space for a creative business with overhead LED lighting.

Top 5 Benefits of LED Lighting
A PPE respirator half face mask and ear protection equipment lie on a wooden carpentry workbench.

Tips to Choose the Best Respirator Mask
Ice covers concrete steps outside.

How to Choose the Best Ice Melt
On a snowy city street, a worker wearing an orange reflective hard hat and vest attaches a hook to a beam.

Cold Weather Facility Supplies
A professional plumber measures the space two residential gas water heaters are using in a basement.

What Is an ENERGY STAR Water Heater?
A contractor finishes installing a tankless water heater in a residential home.

Top 5 Benefits of Switching to Tankless
A contractor adjusts the temperature on a water heater.

How to Improve Water Heater Efficiency
A woman uses a black pull-down kitchen faucet to rinse a plate in her home.

7 Pull-Down Kitchen Faucet Features
A plumber installs a gas water heater in a residential garage.

How to Install a Tank Booster
A facilities worker wrings out a flat mop in a yellow bucket.

How to Choose Green Cleaning Products
A white one-piece elongated toilet is installed next to a glass shower in a residential bathroom.

Guide to MaP Toilet Testing
A residential ceiling fan with an LED light bowl hangs in a living room.

How to Increase HVAC Energy Efficiency
At a Ferguson Counter location, an associate discusses connected home products with a contractor.

How to Choose the Best Smart Thermostat
Brass water heater valves sit on top of a water heater

Water Heater Maintenance Tips
A mini-split air conditioner cooling cassette is installed on a wooden ceiling.

Advantages of Ductless Technology
An HVAC technician works on a Fujitsu control board.

What Is VRF in HVAC?
A worker wearing reflective clothing uses a fall arrestor device and safety body harness while welding steel on a construction site.

Guide to Fall Protection Best Practices
A contractor uses a press tool to connect overhead pipe fittings.

Top 5 Reasons to Use Press Fittings
An HVAC technician uses his phone to scan barcodes of parts in a price book.

OEM vs. ARP: The HVAC Parts Debate
A grinder pump with four pipes in a warehouse.

Sewage Pump vs. Grinder Pump
Cut-out view of a sump pump next to a home.

Do All Houses Need Sump Pumps?
Two HVAC technicians use a dolly to haul a condenser on a rooftop.

2023 DOE Dictionary
In a hotel lobby, an HVAC technician speaks with a hotel executive in front of an IAQ monitoring screen.

How to Prevent Sick Building Syndrome
A worker wearing a yellow reflective vest and yellow Armateck safety gloves operates a forklift.

Types of PPE You Need for the Jobsite
A Ferguson associate shakes hands with a property manager in a parking lot. Boxes of supplies and a Ferguson delivery truck are in the background.

Move-in Checklist for Property Managers
Hands wearing blue nitrile gloves hold a scraper against a below-grade toilet flange.

Supplies to Install a Toilet Flange