When Josh Shelton talks about leadership or the future of the trades, he’s not speaking from theory. He’s speaking from a lifetime spent absorbing the values, work ethic and resourcefulness that shaped Shelton Plumbing, long before he ever considered taking over the business his father founded the same year Shelton was born.
“My dad started Shelton Plumbing in 1983,” Shelton recalls. “He grew the company to around 20 employees at one point, but he found out that he didn’t really enjoy the management side. It got out of his control, and he decided to downsize.”
For more than a decade, his father, John, operated as a one-man shop — just him, a truck, deep roots in Pennsylvania’sAlle-Kiski Valley and a loyal customer base built on trust, craftsmanship and doing right by people. During those years John regained control of his schedule and re-centered the business around service.
Eventually, a decision had to be made about the future. One day John approached his son with a direct question: Either take over the business or it would be sold. It wasn’t a path Shelton had expected.
Finding purpose
Despite spending his childhood summers digging, repairing and tagging along on plumbing jobs, Shelton never planned to become a plumber.
“I didn’t choose the plumbing path because I spent my childhood helping my dad to make money, and I just didn’t really like plumbing when I was a kid,” he says.
But he also didn’t choose college; instead, he chased work, any work, traveling the country doing labor-intensive jobs at fossil fuel and nuclear power plants. He says at that time he was someone who “loved to work,” but hadn’t yet found purpose.
The turning point came quickly after his father’s ultimatum.
“Two weeks later, I was enrolled in plumbing school and never looked back,” Shelton says.
From the first day in the field as an apprentice, everything changed. Working beside his father not only taught Shelton the trade; it reshaped their relationship.
“Those first two years were such an eye-opener,” Shelton says. “I got to go into his world and see what he did to provide for the family, the sacrifices he made. It built a bond we never had before.”
By the time Shelton earned his journeyman’s license and eventually his master’s, Shelton Plumbing was growing again slowly, and intentionally.
Learning another language
After years focused solely on technical excellence, Shelton reached a new realization: to really grow, he had to truly understand business.
In 2018, he began working with business coach John Laslavik of ThistleSea Business Development.
“For the first three years, I thought he was talking another language — P&Ls, balance sheets, personalities, DiSC profiles,” Shelton says. “But you can’t advance yourself or grow a company if you don’t have people guiding you.”
This period marked the transition from skilled technician to strategic leader. Understanding people, not pipes, became the real growth curve. The shift to developing his team, building processes and learning to delegate would ultimately lay the foundation for the innovations that came next.
Trenchless takeover
As Shelton Plumbing grew, Shelton gradually shifted from traditional plumbing work into areas requiring higher skill, more technology and stronger problem-solving. It wasn’t a strategic plan at first; it was a response to the needs of the community.
“We started purely based on service and repairs,” Shelton says. “My dad was huge into remodeling but over the years, I saw that wasn’t the most profitable area. I want the most for my team, better trucks, good equipment, bonuses. That meant shifting our services.”
The shift accelerated as local regulations changed. Western Pennsylvania’s sewer inspection requirements for home sales created a surge in demand for repair, rehabilitation and replacement of failing sewer lines. That opened an opportunity and a challenge. Shelton started with trenchless technologies like Perma-Liner CIPP lining, Picote epoxy brush coating, and eventually, UV-cured lining systems like LightRay.
“Years ago, projects took six, seven, eight days with saw-cutting, jackhammering, hauling everything in and out,” Shelton says. “It was hard, backbreaking labor. We called it the bucket brigade. With trenchless, we do bigger jobs faster. Some projects that used to take eight days, we now do in three or four. Efficiency is up, profitability is up and my guys couldn’t be happier.”
Efficiency wasn’t the only motivator. Safety, customer experience and preserving property all played equally important roles. In the hilly, dense, older neighborhoods surrounding Pittsburgh, traditional excavation is often impractical or impossible.
“You have sewer lines under driveways, under retaining walls, under hundred-year-old trees, even under a neighbor’s driveway,” Shelton says. “You can’t just excavate that. Trenchless provides a better product and a better experience.”
When Shelton first embraced trenchless, the industry wasn’t structured the way it is today. There were no Facebook groups, no massive online communities and few resources for troubleshooting.
“We didn’t have anybody to call,” he says. “Everything we developed for ourselves is now part of our training curriculum, how we plan jobs, how we use equipment, why we choose one method over another.”
That hands-on experience of solving problems in the field with limited support gave Shelton Plumbing a deep understanding of the tools they used. It also opened the door to a new business opportunity.
A helping hand
Rob Larsen from Waterline Renewal Technologies began to notice the Shelton team’s growth and the increasing demand created by Pennsylvania’s regulations. As the local need outpaced the capacity of national suppliers, Shelton found himself serving as a bridge between technology makers and the plumbers who needed these solutions.
That evolved into In-Line Renewal Solutions, a full-service equipment, training and support resource for trenchless contractors.
“I’ve lived a life of service in plumbing. Moving into the service side of supplying equipment felt natural,” Shelton says. “The retail part is just the byproduct of the service.”
The model is simple: Help plumbers choose the right equipment, train them using real-world scenarios, provide phone support when they’re stuck, repair equipment fast and keep people working.
Behind this is a lesson born from Shelton’s early days in trenchless — he doesn’t want others to struggle for five years learning what he had to learn alone.
“There were so many pieces I didn’t have access to like materials, repairs or rentals. Now we fix everything we sell. We diagnose over the phone. Sometimes we get parts out the same day.”
In short, he built the resources he wished existed when he started.
Although In-Line Renewal Solutions is strongest in the Northeast, the company supports contractors from Florida to Michigan to New England.
“We don’t put restrictions on ourselves. We find a way,” Shelton says.
One contractor recently drove four and a half hours to have a piece of equipment repaired.
“We had it done in 30 minutes and he was back on the road. That’s what service looks like.”
Protecting people
One of Shelton’s core philosophies is protecting his people from the burnout he experienced earlier in his career. The company no longer markets itself as a 24/7 emergency service provider. They have on-call staff, but they prioritize sustainable workloads. The result? Higher morale, better performance and a culture built on mutual support.
“My team does an insane amount of work each day, but they’re not burned out,” he says. “When we add team members, the whole company feels like it just got a major break even though we’re actually doing more.”
Maximizing time and efficiency, rather than maximizing hours, has become a defining metric of success.
While revenue and profit matter, Shelton is clear that profitability is essential to providing good wages, tools and equipment and he doesn’t measure success by dollars alone.
“I think too much weight gets put on money. Society says success is based on how much money someone made,” he says. “But I look at success as, have I outdone myself? What areas can I be better in this year, next year?”
For Shelton, it always comes back to people.
“I’m nothing without my people. I’ve got a bunch of trucks and equipment, and I can’t do anything with it if I don’t have them.”
Whether it’s technicians in the field, family members in the office, or contractors calling In-Line Renewal Solutions for guidance, relationships are the common thread that sustains both sides of the business.
Delegating pays dividends
If there’s one lesson Shelton says he wishes he’d learned earlier, it’s that delegating isn’t losing control. It’s gaining more of the time and freedom needed to lead effectively.
“Learn to delegate and learn that it’s OK to let things go,” he says. “If other people don’t do it your way, it’s OK. If they make mistakes, that’s OK too.”
He knows firsthand how hard this is for many plumbing business owners, especially those who started as technicians.
“Once you’re an owner-operator, it’s hard to trust people and let go because this is something you built with your own two hands,” he says.
But the reward is immense. Delegating builds people. And as they grow, the company grows. The most meaningful successes Shelton points to aren’t financial milestones but human ones, watching employees advance their skills, seeing them gain confidence and helping them achieve goals in their own lives.
“If I can help a person, it might take two years to develop them. But the time and energy you put in will help you, and it will help them,” he says. “It’s a reciprocal relationship.”
Core values
From his father’s humble one-man operation to Shelton’s multifaceted plumbing and trenchless enterprise, the throughline has always been service — to customers, to employees, to other contractors and to the community.
The future looks bright for Shelton Plumbing and In-Line Renewal Solutions. Demand for trenchless technology continues to rise, and Shelton says he’s planning the next phase of expansion. But even with major growth ahead, one thing remains unchanged: The company’s commitment to serving others with integrity, innovation and heart.
Says Shelton, “The more you invest in others, the more you give back to yourself.”
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