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Who owns them now
The name is old. The owner is new.
By SwiftPro Heating, Cooling & Plumbing · Read October 22, 2026
F.H. Furr's name goes back to February 1981. Its owner, Apex Service Partners, bought it in July 2022. At least 24 Northern Virginia heating, cooling and plumbing brands now answer to an investment firm, a corporation or a public company. Here are the 16 with a dated sale, who owns each one, and what customers have said since.
Who owns them, and since when
A company's age and its owner's age are two different numbers. The name on the van can be 50 years old while the people deciding how many calls a tech runs, what the phone script says and what a repair costs took over last year. Count from the day today's owner took control. That's the business you'd actually be hiring.
| Brand | Owned today by | Under this owner since | That's | On the record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| F.H. Furr · Manassas | Apex Service Partners (Alpine Investors) | July 2022 | 4 years | Crunchbase acquisition record, July 22, 2022 |
| United Air Temp · Lorton | United Comfort Group (Littlejohn & Co.) | April 1, 2024 (first sold January 2021) | 2 years | Summit Park, on the sale of United Air Temp, April 1, 2024 |
| My Plumber Plus · Manassas | Sila Services (Goldman Sachs Alternatives) | June 30, 2025 | 1 year | HVAC Insider, July 7, 2025 |
| CroppMetcalfe (Service Experts) · Fairfax | Service Experts (Brookfield Infrastructure) | April 4, 2024 (first sold March 13, 2019) | 2 years | GlobeNewswire, April 4, 2024 |
| Len The Plumber · Alexandria | The Master Trades Group (L Catterton) | April 2022 (first sold February 19, 2020) | 4 years | Thompson Street Capital Partners, on the completed sale, April 2022 |
| ARS / Rescue Rooter · Manassas | American Residential Services (GI Partners) | September 15, 2020 | 6 years | GI Partners, September 15, 2020 |
| M.E. Flow · Leesburg | Southern Home Services (Gryphon Investors) | November 2, 2022 | 3 years | PR Newswire, November 2, 2022 |
| Snell Home Services · Sterling | Strikepoint Group Holdings (New Mountain Capital) | November 13, 2019 (first sold January 2019) | 6 years | New Mountain Capital, November 13, 2019 |
| John C. Flood · Alexandria | Redwood Services (Altas Partners) | June 15, 2021 | 5 years | Business Wire, June 15, 2021 |
| McCarthy Services · Springfield | American Residential Services (GI Partners) | September 15, 2020 (first sold March 2011) | 6 years | PM Magazine, March 2011 |
| DB's Plumbing and Drain · Woodbridge | Liberty Service Partners (NorthCurrent Partners) | June 4, 2026 | under a year | PR Newswire, June 4, 2026 |
| John Nugent & Sons · Sterling | Sila Services (Goldman Sachs Alternatives) | December 20, 2024 | 1 year | Goldman Sachs Asset Management, on Sila Services, November 12, 2024 |
| HVAC & Plumbing Unlimited · Lorton | Liberty Service Partners (NorthCurrent Partners) | April 21, 2026 | under a year | PR Newswire, April 21, 2026 |
| Brooks Heating & Air · Manassas | Advantage Services Group | July 27, 2026 | under a year | PR Newswire, July 27, 2026 |
| Richard's Heating & Air Conditioning · Falls Church | Northwinds Services Group (TruArc Partners) | September 16, 2025 | 1 year | TruArc Partners portfolio, read October 22, 2026 |
| AirPlus, now M.E. Flow Lorton · Lorton | Southern Home Services (Gryphon Investors) | February 2, 2023 | 3 years | ACHR News, February 2, 2023 |
Northern Virginia brands with a dated change of control, most-reviewed first. “Since” is the later of the day the brand joined the company that runs it today and the day that company's controlling investor took over. Read October 22, 2026.
Others have changed hands with less on the public record: Bowman's, Michael Bonsby, Turner's Service Co. and Parrish Services all show a new owner without a dated announcement, and Roto-Rooter belongs to a public company, Chemed. For every company in the 2026 report, with the record behind each line, see who owns them.
SwiftPro has never been sold
SwiftPro Heating, Cooling & Plumbing is owned and run in Chantilly, Virginia. Every review you read about SwiftPro was written about the company you'd be hiring today.
F.H. Furr: a 45-year-old name, 4 years under Apex
The founding is real. Floyd and Barbara Furr started the company in February 1981, and the Better Business Bureau lists the same start. The website says so everywhere: “since 1981” is on 90 of its 1,735 pages and posts, and 32 pages still call it family-owned. The owner's name, Apex Service Partners, isn't on any of them.
Apex and its investor, Alpine Investors, never announced the deal. The deal records at Crunchbase and PitchBook date it to July 2022, and the rest of the record backs it up: Google's ad library shows APEX Service Partners, LLC paying for 545 of the 585 Google ads that point to F.H. Furr's website, the company's job applications run on Apex's hiring system, and the chief executive changed from Jesse Furr (still signing in November 2021) to Darius Lyvers (by April 2024).
Apex describes itself as the country's largest residential heating, cooling, plumbing and electrical company: 75 local brands in 46 states and more than 13,000 employees. On May 28, 2026, Apollo agreed to buy a minority stake. Nearly 800 heating, cooling, plumbing and electrical companies were bought by private equity from 2022 to late 2024, by PitchBook's count of the larger deals.
Founded in 1981. Owned by Apex Service Partners since July 2022. Both are true, and you need the second half to read the reviews.
What F.H. Furr's customers have said since the sale
Away from Google, the picture is rough on both sides of the sale. On its five Virginia Yelp listings F.H. Furr averaged 1.74 stars before Apex and 1.60 since. Every BBB customer review and every Trustpilot review on record was written under Apex, and they average 1.1 and 1.8 stars. (Its BBB letter grade is a separate measure, and it's high.) BBB lists 170 complaints in three years, 53 in the last twelve months.
| Where | Before the sale | Since the sale |
|---|---|---|
| Yelp, five Virginia listings | 1.74 from 485 (72% one star) | 1.60 from 438 (78% one star) |
| Yelp, Manassas listing | 1.75 from 472 (72% one star) | 1.50 from 304 (80% one star) |
| BBB customer reviews | BBB shows the last three years only | 1.12 from 115 (92% one star) |
| Trustpilot | first review August 2023 | 1.80 from 35 (77% one star) |
| Angi, Manassas | 4.69 from 1,674 (3% one star) | 4.74 from 379 (5% one star) |
| Google, Manassas | 4.75 from 18,336, all years together | Google shows too few dates to split it |
F.H. Furr's reviews either side of July 2022, average stars from the number of reviews, with the share at one star. Read review by review, October 22, 2026.
Angi held up, mostly on a burst of reviews in the first year and a half: 268 in 2023, then 48 in 2024, 4 in 2025 and 8 so far in 2026. Since March 2024, 10 of its 24 Angi reviews are one star. Google's 4.75 from 18,336 reviews can't be split: Google doesn't show enough dates to count the reviews written since the sale.
What changed in the complaints
- No-shows: 4.9% before, 13.5% since (of one-star Yelp reviews)
- Automated or AI phone agents: 2 before, 16 since (mentions)
- The ownership change: 1 before, 20 since (mentions)
- Pricing and upselling: 44.3% before, 37.0% since (of one-star Yelp reviews)
Price complaints led before the sale and still do. The new ones are about running the front office: techs who don't show, phones answered by an automated agent, and customers who noticed the company had been sold.
A sale is a date, not a verdict
Across more than 5,000 dated Yelp reviews of eight sold companies and five locally owned ones, the sold companies as a group moved in step with the local ones over the same years. Company by company, it splits.
| Sold company | Sale | Before | Since | Against local companies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| John C. Flood | June 15, 2021 | 2.32 (73) | 3.96 (224) | +1.87 |
| Len The Plumber | March 2022 | 2.16 (125) | 3.02 (224) | +1.13 |
| CroppMetcalfe | March 13, 2019 | 2.41 (251) | 2.76 (173) | +1.04 |
| John Nugent & Sons | December 2024 | 3.57 (173) | 3.82 (39) | +0.35 |
| F.H. Furr | July 22, 2022 | 1.74 (485) | 1.60 (438) | -0.54 |
| Snell Home Services | November 13, 2019 | 3.64 (112) | 2.72 (143) | -0.14 |
| United Air Temp | April 2024 | 2.11 (500) | 1.57 (67) | -1.30 |
| M.E. Flow | November 2, 2022 | 2.87 (217) | 1.59 (87) | -1.90 |
Yelp averages on each company's Northern Virginia listings, every review before the sale against every review since. The last column compares the 24 months either side of the sale with five locally owned companies over the same months: below zero means the sold company fell further.
M.E. Flow fell hardest: 2.87 stars before its sale to Southern Home Services, 1.59 since, and its one-star share went from 45% to 77%. United Air Temp fell further than the local companies too, and its Lorton headquarters closes on November 10, 2026, 96 jobs, by its own notice to the state. Three rose after their sales: John C. Flood, Len The Plumber and CroppMetcalfe.
That's why the rule is simple: read the reviews written since the sale. It lifts some sold companies and sinks others, and it always describes the business you'd hire.
Why Google and Yelp tell different stories
Google lets a business ask every customer for a review, as long as it doesn't pay for them or ask only the happy ones. Yelp tells businesses not to ask anyone, and keeps the reviews it thinks were asked for out of the star rating. People who were asked rate up to half a star higher than people who showed up on their own (Askalidis and Malthouse). On F.H. Furr's Manassas Yelp listing, the pile Yelp doesn't recommend (948) is bigger than the one it shows (776). A company that asks at scale looks like two different businesses, depending on where you read.
SwiftPro asks for reviews too, which is why we put every platform side by side. Every SwiftPro count, dated, and every review under five stars, word for word.
Find out who owns the company coming to your house
- Find the license number. It's on the van, the estimate or the bottom of the website. Look it up with Virginia's contractor license lookup. The name on the license is the company that answers for the work.
- Look that name up in the State Corporation Commission's business search to see where it's registered and what else it trades as.
- Read the privacy policy. “Our parent company” or “our affiliates” is often the first place a new owner shows up.
- Ask. “Who owns the company, and since when?” A local owner answers in one sentence.
- Read the reviews dated after that. They're the ones about the company you'd hire.
Questions
Who owns F.H. Furr?
Apex Service Partners, the home services company built by the investment firm Alpine Investors, has owned F.H. Furr since July 2022, per the deal records at Crunchbase and PitchBook. The F.H. Furr name dates to February 1981.
Is F.H. Furr still family owned?
No. Floyd and Barbara Furr founded it in 1981, and it was sold to Apex Service Partners in July 2022. Its website still calls it family-owned on 32 pages (read October 22, 2026).
Who owns M.E. Flow?
Southern Home Services, backed by the investment firm Gryphon Investors, since November 2, 2022. AirPlus in Lorton joined the same company on February 2, 2023 and now runs as M.E. Flow Lorton.
Who owns CroppMetcalfe?
Service Experts, controlled by Brookfield Infrastructure, since April 4, 2024. CroppMetcalfe first left its founders in March 2019, when HomeServe bought it; Brookfield took control of HomeServe in January 2023.
Who owns United Air Temp?
United Comfort Group, backed by Littlejohn & Co., since April 1, 2024. An earlier investor, Summit Park, recapitalized it in January 2021. Its Lorton headquarters closes on November 10, 2026.
Do an HVAC company's reviews get worse after private equity buys it?
Not as a rule. On Northern Virginia Yelp listings, sold companies as a group moved in step with locally owned ones. M.E. Flow and United Air Temp fell further after their sales; John C. Flood, Len The Plumber and CroppMetcalfe rose. Read the reviews written since the sale: they describe the company you'd hire.
How can I find out who owns an HVAC or plumbing company in Virginia?
Look up its license number with the Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation, then look up the license holder in the State Corporation Commission's business search. Read the privacy policy for a parent company, and ask the company who owns it and since when.
Is SwiftPro locally owned?
Yes. SwiftPro Heating, Cooling & Plumbing is owned and run in Chantilly, Virginia, and has never been sold. Its Virginia Class A contractor license is 2705192276.
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Keep reading
- Why a 4.7 on Google can be a 1.7 on YelpF.H. Furr is 4.7 on Google and 1.7 where nobody asked. 26 companies, Google against Yelp, BBB and Trustpilot, and how to read any company's reviews.
- Who in Northern Virginia shows you the price first?Who prints a price for the 14 jobs people call about, who has an online estimator, and who makes you call for a quote.
- Who owns Northern Virginia's HVAC and plumbing companiesAll 71 companies in the 2026 report, with the record behind every owner
- Questions to ask before you hire anyoneNine questions, and how to check the answers
- How we count SwiftPro's reviewsEvery platform, every count, every date
Sources
- Crunchbase acquisition record, July 22, 2022
- Summit Park, on the sale of United Air Temp, April 1, 2024
- HVAC Insider, July 7, 2025
- GlobeNewswire, April 4, 2024
- Brookfield Infrastructure filing with the SEC, May 3, 2023
- Thompson Street Capital Partners, on the completed sale, April 2022
- GI Partners, September 15, 2020
- PR Newswire, November 2, 2022
- New Mountain Capital, November 13, 2019
- Business Wire, June 15, 2021
- Kirkland & Ellis, on Altas Partners and Redwood, May 2025
- PM Magazine, March 2011
- PR Newswire, June 4, 2026
- Goldman Sachs Asset Management, on Sila Services, November 12, 2024
- PR Newswire, April 21, 2026
- PR Newswire, July 27, 2026
- TruArc Partners portfolio, read October 22, 2026
- ACHR News, February 2, 2023
- Google, Ads Transparency Center: APEX Service Partners, LLC, read October 22, 2026
- Apollo, on Apex Service Partners and Alpine Investors, May 28, 2026
- Alpine Investors, on its continuation vehicle for Apex, October 2023
- Better Business Bureau, F.H. Furr profile, complaints and customer reviews, read October 22, 2026
- Yelp, F.H. Furr listings in Manassas, Lorton, Ashburn, Fredericksburg and Warrenton, read October 22, 2026
- Angi, F.H. Furr Manassas and Lorton profiles, read October 22, 2026
- Trustpilot, F.H. Furr, read October 22, 2026
- fhfurr.com, every page and post, read October 22, 2026
- Yelp, Northern Virginia listings of the eight sold companies and five locally owned companies compared, read October 22, 2026
- ACHR News, on United Air Temp's Lorton layoffs, September 2026
- American Investment Council, summarizing The Wall Street Journal on PitchBook data, October 2024
- Google, review contribution policy, read October 22, 2026
- Yelp Support, Don't Ask for Reviews, read October 22, 2026
- Askalidis and Malthouse, on prompted and self-motivated reviews, 2016
- Virginia DPOR license lookup
- Virginia State Corporation Commission business search
Read October 22, 2026. Published by SwiftPro Heating, Cooling & Plumbing, which competes with the companies named here. Spot something wrong, or has something changed? Email info@goswiftpro.com and we'll fix it.