Nathan Padilla

I soldered my first copper joint when I was nine years old. My cousin was rebuilding a unit behind my mom's house in Englewood after a fire, and I wandered in from the backyard and watched him work a blowtorch on copper pipe. I asked if I could try. He said sure. That was it for me. I've been a Denver native my entire life, and I built my career here from the ground up. After high school, I enrolled in the apprenticeship program at Total Plumbing, which at that time was one of the most reputable commercial plumbing contractors in the state of Colorado. I graduated at the top of a class of 68. My first three years were spent on large commercial builds in downtown Denver, and that foundation gave me a command of commercial plumbing systems that most residential guys never develop. I ear...