Sam Cartwright is one of our sweeps in training to become a certified tech. He has a wealth of home improvement and building trades experience, starting with his first job at age 15 as a handyman’s helper. He also enjoys fixing cars. We are really excited to work with him because he focuses his attention like a laser and retains complex information and instructions, and has an outstanding work ethic. Our work days are often long, and the work can be hard and presents us with new challenges and opportunities to solve difficult problems on a daily basis. We love to work with people like Sam who relish the flow state that comes from doing challenging, meaningful work.
John Sauter is one of our certified techs. He enjoys gardening, working on vehicles, and spending time with his family of 5. He has been with Bailey’s since 2015, and has put his mechanical skills to good use as an installer of many dozens of chimneys and chimney liners. He is an important part of our team, and one of our most versatile, as he can do service calls and inspections in his capacity as lead tech, but he can also step up and install anything we throw his way.
Ben Nuhn brings a wealth of creative and technical knowledge and experience to Bailey’s. We like to hire creative people with technical expertise, because they tend to have lots of practice focussing their attention like a laser to accomplish a task, which enables them to easily enter the “flow” state. Another one of our outstanding new hires on track to become a certified tech, Ben hails from Austin, TX, and is fun to work with because while on the drive to the job he can tell stories about all kinds of great underground songwriters from Austin.
On his second or third day we stacked and assembled 6 sets of scaffolding in a single tower, which we ratcheted to the chimney to keep it (the scaffold) from falling over.
John Sauter (featured earlier in the thread of posts on this page) and I were in our harnesses with the fall protection gear all set up, attached to our ropes as John ferried stuff up to me on top. We all wore our climbing helmets. Lucas got right to it, bringing us whatever we needed before we knew we needed it. We were installing a giant chase cover on what surely must be the highest chimney in White Rock, NM.
We are proud that we attract accomplished, smart folks like Ben Nuhn to our business. Great people enjoy being a part of the winning team!
(And we now offer health care benefits, along with paid time off to our awesome staff.)
–Justin Bailey
General Manager Doreenda Martinez and Administrative Assistant Santana Padilla keep busy day in and day out answering phones and emails, dispatching chimney crews, and handling all the administrative elements of Bailey’s Chimney, LLC. Santana joined our team this past summer and has shown that she is a very capable, dedicated, and thorough member of our team. Doreenda has been with Bailey’s since 2014, and she deserves a lot of credit for the growth and success of the business since she started. Our field techs constantly get rave reviews from our clients about our office staff, pictured here.
Chris Privette is one of the best technical/construction problem solvers I’ve had the chance to work with. I knew he was a keeper when he and Pat Rael (featured elsewhere in this thread) in a chimney restoration job, had to replace a portion of combustible wood-frame wall with metal studs for the fireplace to meet clearance requirements. Chris figured out a way to remove the wood frame wall without disturbing the exterior plaster–not a single crack. This saved his crew two entire days of labor that would have been needed to replace and match the exterior stucco if we had done it the old fashioned way. Meanwhile, the customer was beyond thrilled that her exterior plaster was unblemished. I stopped by and saw it myself. If I didn’t see it with my own eyes I wouldn’t have believed it could be done.
This is Chris’ third year with Bailey’s, and his first season as leader of a dedicated installation crew. He installs chimney liners, does restorations, installs class A chimney and connectors for wood stoves, and even has prefab fireplace change-out on his upcoming schedule.
Chris is driving biggest, strongest truck in our fleet: a 4×4 Dodge Ram 2500 pickup with crew cab and 8 ft bed.
Pat Rael, on the left in the photo below, started at Bailey’s in 2016 as an office assistant. He is now our highest rated, most productive field technician. He recently earned a Bachelor’s degree, graduating summa cum laude. He completed his studies while raising three kids, coaching some of them in Little League all stars. He is also a founder at Prodigy Church in Taos, where he serves as Pastor. He and his lovely wife Menesha (she took this photo) have become expert nutritionists and health experts in recent years. Before Covid, the whole family enjoyed regular jujitsu sessions that they would take part in all together as a family unit.
To Pat’s right is Jared Padilla, one of our newer hires. Jared does a great job as a helper and we are glad to have him on our team.
Pat and Jared are pictured in front of one of the three 4×4 pickups in our fleet that enable us to get to all of our jobs regardless of weather conditions.
Lucas Ebnother is one of our apprentices working out of our Santa Fe warehouse. He’s picking up the trade twice as fast as the usual new hire, so I decided to put a double photo of him up. An experienced blacksmith, he also is an expert baker. Lucas is working his way through the NFI (National Fireplace Institute) Core Knowledge Reference Manual with the goal of becoming an NFI Wood Burning Specialist. He is also eager to become CDET certified in dryer vents. We’ve ordered the latest version of that manual and are excited about Lucas growing with our company.
