Our Story

In 1937, two German immigrants became business partners when they purchased Tobin Sheet Metal, a 500-square-foot shop located on State Street in downtown Olympia.

William Schmidtke and Helmut Klein opened Capital Sheet Metal, where they created products such as metal and copper roofs and gutters. They even made the hand-formed original copper leaves for the Tivoli fountain replica on the Capitol campus.

When they eventually started providing custom ductwork, the company became a full-fledged heating and air conditioning contractor.

The company grew over the next three decades, moving around town to accommodate more and more customers. In the late 1950s, they moved from their original location to the west side. They incorporated the company in 1963 and became an authorized General Electric dealer. (When GE sold this division to the Trane Company in 1980, Capital remained a dealer. We still sell Trane products today!).

We moved to our current Lacey location in 1973.

William’s son, Larry, and his wife, Dianne, took over the company when William Schmidtke passed away in 1980. Larry and Dianne diversified the company’s services, specializing in residential and commercial HVAC systems, air duct cleaning and system repair and maintenance. The company has never stopped creating custom sheet metal work.

Larry and Dianne retired in 2003 and their sons, Bill, Chuck, and Dean, took over as joint owners in 2007 and named the business Capital Heating & Cooling, to describe the company’s focus on HVAC system design and installation.

Today, Bill leads commercial clients and installations, Chuck is the service manager, and Dean serves as General Manager.