The company originated with Roy Gore, according to owner Paul Lamp, who went to work for Gore in 1982 while still in high school. “I went to work for him as a helper,” Lamp recalls. For the next few years, Lamp says, he worked part-time for Gore, and after graduation from high school, found additional employment in other occupations, including stints as an emergency medical technician and a medical equipment salesman.
Then, in 1989 while recovering from hip surgery, Gore made an irresistible offer: he would sell Lamp the business and stay on as an employee. The arrangement lasted four years until Gore relocated to Athens, Texas to be closer to family and spoil his grandbabies. Reflecting on their time together, Lamp speaks with warmth and respect. “I always said Roy was both the best employer and employee I ever had.”
From its humble beginnings, the company has grown not only in size, but also in its capabilities and service area. The company utilizes six full-time employees and always keeps a technician on 24-hour call. Lamp sometimes fills that role. “I’m not asking my guys to do something I’m not willing to do.” he says.
The company has achieved a Class A license, the highest licensing granted by the state to companies in the air conditioning industry. The license means the technicians are qualified to work on an air conditioning installation regardless of its tonnage capacity.
The service area has also widened beyond Conroe. “Our main service area is Lake Conroe, Conroe, The Woodlands, and Willis,” Lamp notes. “We don’t do a whole lot in east Montgomery County. Some of the addresses we have are Cleveland addresses, but they’re in Montgomery County.” About 70 percent of the company’s new business results from referrals, he says. Residential work accounts for about 70 percent of his business, most of it for air conditioning, with light commercial jobs making up the remaining 30 percent.
In recent years, the air conditioning and heating industry has focused on producing more efficient, safer, and environmentally friendly products for consumers, Lamp believes. However, that has also escalated prices, especially for furnaces. Lamp does not care for advertising that promises to include a furnace at no extra charge with the installation of an air conditioner. “The stinking furnace is almost as high as the rest of it, so you know they’re having to boost the price somewhere to pay for it.” Shaking his head in disgust, he adds, “There’s just too much honest business out there to cheat people.”
Lamp says that, too many times, homeowners incur expensive problems with their air conditioning units because they fail to take two simple precautions: regularly changing the unit filter inside the house and cleaning the coil on the unit condenser outside the house.
“Most people don’t realize how much money they lose with just a dirty filter and a dirty condenser coil outside.” He says a homeowner should use a garden hose to wash the condenser from top to bottom two or three times a year. “It’ll save you a fortune in repair bills.”
The Lamp family has deep roots in Conroe and the county. “I’ve lived here all my life,” he says. His brother Mark owns an automotive electric service company in Conroe; his mom Bobbie lives in Conroe; and Lamp’s father, the late H. W. “Kix” Lamp, was a former principal of Anderson Elementary School in Conroe. His grandfather and uncle were also long-time residents of the area.
Like his father was, Lamp is a long-time member of and a deacon in the Conroe Church of Christ. In fact, it was through the church that he met his wife Leah in 1992. At that time, Lamp was in charge of the church baptistry, and one day he was alerted by a church official that a baptism was scheduled for the evening service. “I went up there to make sure there weren’t any bugs or anything floating on the water,” he recalls. “I stayed for the baptism, and that was the first time I met her.” About six months later, he asked her out to dinner. The couple got married in January of 1994 and now have three sons and a daughter. Drew, the oldest, is now a technician in the family business; Sam is married and living with wife Anna in Waco; Joe, the youngest son, is a firefighter and EMT who also lives in Waco; and daughter Tori still lives at home and is a senior at Montgomery High School.
Lamp enjoys devoting whatever spare time he has to his church and family. “We’re active members,” he says. “I can’t imagine growing up and not being involved in the church.” He and Leah also look forward to the times of year they are able to get all their family together under one roof again.
Although Lamp voices few complaints about his business, he acknowledges it is not entirely free of problems. One downside, he says, is that weather extremities drive so much of the demand for services. For instance, while August and September can usually be counted on to be the busiest months for air conditioning services, February is often too mild to require professional assistance to keep homes and offices warm. “There have been times when I’ve threatened to take the whole month of February off,” Lamp says. “That’s our worst month.” The weather and a slack economy make it hard for the company to stay profitable, but Lamp continually manages to not lay off any employees during the winter. Grinning at the thought, Lamp says, “I’m living proof that the Lord takes care of idiots. Let me tell you, that’s the only way I’ve been able to stay in business, by my trust in Him.”
Another aspect of his profession that troubles Lamp is the practice of some companies putting sales above consideration for the customers’ needs. “Some of these companies are so sales-oriented that their technicians earn commissions on sales, and it’s all about the numbers.”
On the plus side, Lamp says, “I am a ‘people person.’ I enjoy being in people’s houses, seeing the needs people have. It gives you an opportunity to help people. You know, sometimes you’ll go into a home on a service call, and you’ve got an elderly person living there by themself, and you realize they’re living from one Social Security check to the next. One of the benefits of owning a small company is that you can help those people, change the numbers where it doesn’t cost them so much.”
His technicians are sensitive to spot and advise him of such situations, he says. “Sometimes they’ll call and say, ‘Boss, these people don’t have any money, but this person really needs the help.’ I’ll take care of it, somehow.”
As far as future business plans are concerned, Lamp says, “I really want to add another technician, and I’d love to continue to grow.” Chuckling, he adds, “And one day make someone the same deal Roy made me all those years ago.”
Roy’s Air Conditioning
318 S Main St
Conroe, TX 77301
936-539-3213
TACL # A010432C
roysair.com
Postcards Magazine
936-293-1188
PO Box 690
Huntsville, TX 77342
