Fixed on managing flow

TREATED RIGHT: Thomas Lydon, owner of Bardon's Water Services in East Greenwich, started the company out of his apartment in the 1980s. Today, it is operating in all six New England states and in New York. Above, Lydon speaks with project assistant Angie Crackford. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
TREATED RIGHT: Thomas Lydon, owner of Bardon's Water Services in East Greenwich, started the company out of his apartment in the 1980s. Today, it is operating in all six New England states and in New York. Above, Lydon speaks with project assistant Angie Crackford. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

Thomas J. Lydon started Bardon’s Water Services & Technologies Inc. out of his apartment in 1985. It has grown into a multistate business with annual sales exceeding $2 million.

Lydon, formerly a chief engineer for the Federal Aviation Administration, was living in Warwick when he started Bardon’s. He joined forces with his future wife, Eileen Ann Barry, who started as the company’s primary chemicals salesperson while Lydon developed the water-treatment business.

“We worked fingers to the bone for a couple of years,” Lydon said.

The company quickly grew into a storefront before transitioning into a larger manufacturing space in Cranston. Now headquartered in East Greenwich, the company is celebrating its 30-year anniversary and is operating in all six New England states and in New York, billing itself as one of the leading midtier water-treatment providers in the region.

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But Lydon, now a certified water technologist, doesn’t pretend to have accomplished it all on his own.

“If it wasn’t for my wife knocking on the doors we wouldn’t have even gotten started,” Lydon said. “She was the one making the money, which allowed me to study the chemistry I needed to succeed.”

The company during the last three decades has been in continual transition. The focus has changed from industrial chemicals to water-treatment sales and services. Lydon opened Bardon’s first manufacturing facility in Cranston and did a lot of his business in Rhode Island, but as the manufacturing industries began leaving the state and country, he was forced to expand his reach and entered into the other New England states.

Bardon’s now operates out of a 5,000-square-foot manufacturing and administration facility and specializes in manufacturing-corrosion controls, scale control and microbiological-control chemistries for steam boiler, hot water boilers, cooling towers and other cooling systems.

It also specializes in design and equipment, on-site engineering, cleaning capabilities and legionella remediation. His client base includes Millstone Nuclear Power Plant, Memorial Hospital and Aramark, among others.

Lydon says competition is tight, but he tries to bid low on projects and build rapport with mechanical contractors so they might consider Bardon’s for future work.

“The harder you work the luckier you get,” Lydon quipped, quoting a mantra once kept hung on the wall above his desk.

Joking aside, however, Lydon works seven days a week, because he says a lot can get done on the weekend.

Unsure exactly what the future holds, Lydon has already turned down one offer for his business. He enjoys his work, despite being challenged at times, and for now is content.

“I’ll probably work here forever,” he said with a laugh. •

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