Curtis has been around the plumbing industry his entire life, his father was a plumber so it was only natural that he would follow in his footsteps. Curtis got his first job working for W.D. Sams and Son Plumbing and Heating in 1976 as a delivery driver. At the age of 18, Curtis got a job working as a plumber’s helper and through hard work and dedication he was advanced to plumber after two years.

In 1984, Curtis decided to go into business for himself and got his first line of credit to purchase his first backhoe, a flatbed truck and materials. To cut down the costs, Curtis rented a two bedroom house, slept in one bedroom and used the other bedroom for material storage. All of the money that he made on his projects he put right back into his company and it wasn’t long before he was approved for a construction loan to build his first office/warehouse in the Business Park area of Chesapeake in 1986. Still wanting to cut costs and put money back into his company, Curtis built an apartment over the offices in his building where he lived. With business picking up all over Tidewater and in Northern Virginia, Curtis decided to open a second plumbing office on the Peninsula side. While Curtis ran the Southside, his brother Rasit ran the Peninsula side, both locations employing nearly 90 people each. In 1993, Curtis closed his doors to the Peninsula location and relocated his Peninsula office to the Southside, due to increase of local projects and a decrease of out of town projects.

With all work and no play, Curtis decided to follow his second passion and he became a NASCAR race team owner. With Rasit Key running the plumbing division and Donnie Atkins running the HVAC division along with Curtis’s long time employee and mother Geneva Key as office manager, Curtis decided to pack up and move to Mooresville, North Carolina to pursue his racing dreams. But due to the untimely death of his brother Rasit in 1999 Curtis sold his race team and returned to Chesapeake.

In 2000, Curtis built a larger office / warehouse in the sought after area of Greenbrier and moved his company to its location where his company expanded to over 200 employees and over 100 vehicles. Since, Curtis has slimmed his company back down to 80 employees and 60 vehicles and continues to provide the Tidewater area with to quality plumbing, heating and cooling and electrical services.

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