Maplevale Credit, a small-business funding service in Johnson City, TN, helps plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors describe van, equipment, stock and payroll bills and passes the request to funding partners who decide. This page covers HVAC business loans, equipment and van financing, commercial job gaps, and Washington County, TN contractor counts.
At a glance
- Plumbing and HVAC contractors with paid employees, Washington County, TN
45 (CBP 2023)
- Share under 5 employees
55.6% (CBP 2023)
- Businesses without paid employees (NAICS 23822)
80 (NES 2024)
Washington County, TN plumbing, heating and air-conditioning employers
County Business Patterns counted 45 plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractor establishments (NAICS 238220) with paid employees in Washington County, TN in 2023, with 361 paid employees and an annual payroll of $18.7 million; 55.6% had fewer than five employees, and 12 had a ZIP 37601 address.
Nonemployer Statistics counted 80 businesses without paid employees at the broader NAICS 2022 code 23822 in 2024, a separate program and count. By our arithmetic, the employer contractors paid about $51,922 per employee (part-time workers included).
| Industry (NAICS) | Employer establishments (CBP 2023) | Paid employees (CBP 2023) | Share under 5 employees | Annual payroll (CBP 2023) | ZIP 37601 employer count, ZBP 2023 | No-payroll businesses, NES 2024 count |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plumbing, heating and AC contractors (238220; NES 23822) | 45 | 361 | 55.6% | $18.7 million | 12 | 80 |
Plumbing financing companies and Johnson City, TN contractors
Plumbing financing companies fall into two groups: those that finance a homeowner's water heater or repiping job (consumer financing, outside Maplevale Credit's work), and those that fund the plumbing business itself. This page is about the second group: vans, tools, stock and payroll.
HVAC unit financing around Johnson City, TN
HVAC unit financing for the contractor means paying a distributor for condensers, furnaces and air handlers before the install is paid for. A line of credit drawn when units are bought and repaid when the job pays fits that cycle; for larger stock orders, inventory financing ties the money to the units.
HVAC business loans, explained for Johnson City, TN owners
HVAC business loans for a defined project (a warehouse for stock, a second location, buying a smaller competitor) are term loans. For payroll while a commercial job waits on a progress payment, working capital fits.
HVAC equipment loan: a Johnson City, TN primer
- Service vans and their shelving.
- Refrigerant recovery machines and vacuum pumps.
- Drain cameras and jetters for plumbing work.
- Sheet-metal brakes and duct fabrication tools.
An HVAC equipment loan ties the agreement to the machine or the van. Illustration only, invented figures: a $52,000 upfitted van at a 10 percent annual rate over 60 months is about $1,105 a month. See equipment financing for the shapes.
Lee Company HVAC financing searches, for owners in Washington County, TN
Lee Company is an HVAC and plumbing contractor, and searches for its financing can be about a customer paying for a system that company installs. Maplevale Credit has no connection with Lee Company and does not arrange customer financing. This page is about funding an HVAC business's own bills.
Commercial HVAC loan: what Johnson City, TN owners weigh
A commercial HVAC loan is weighed on the job and the contractor: the contract value, the payment schedule, any retainage, and the crew's capacity. Before committing to a large commercial install, map when units must be paid for against when progress payments arrive; the gap between them is the amount to ask about.
Plumbing and HVAC is part of construction; see the construction page and all industry pages.
Solo plumbers and permit counts around Washington County, TN
Twenty-five of the county's 45 plumbing and HVAC employers had fewer than five employees in 2023 (County Business Patterns). Nonemployer Statistics counted 80 businesses at code 23822 without payroll in 2024, with $5,036,000 in receipts, about $62,950 each by our arithmetic. For context on new construction, the Census Building Permits Survey counted 849 new residential units authorized in Washington County, TN in 2023, 1,155 in 2024 and 697 in 2025; how many of those reach any one contractor is not in the data.
A commercial install, worked
Illustration only, invented figures: a contractor signs a $180,000 rooftop replacement. Units cost $96,000, due to the distributor in 30 days; labor runs $38,000 over six weeks. The customer pays 40 percent at rough-in (day 45) and the rest at completion (day 75), less 5 percent retainage. From day 30 to day 45 the contractor has paid out about $96,000 plus wages with nothing collected; that window is the bill to size.
Retainage on this invented job is $9,000 (5 percent of $180,000), collected only after acceptance.
By Maplevale Credit · Updated
