About Us

The Tap of Kansas, inc., a plumbing and irrigation wholesaler started in a small shop on East Harry in March of 1994. The Tap has grown into a multi-million dollar wholesale distributor that not only caters to contractors, but municipalities, maintenance people and homeowners.

Don Patry, who had helped build another plumbing wholesaler into one of the largest in Wichita, founded the company. He started The Tap with the idea to offer plumbing replacement parts that were hard to find in other wholesale shops and hardware stores. These parts ranged from various faucet stem assemblies to toilet parts.

The Tap has not only expanded its plumbing replacement part business, but supplies commercial and residential irrigation product, Bradford White water heaters, Rinnai continuous water heaters, hydronic heat products, pumps and well products, commercial and residential faucets and several miscellaneous items.

With the help of his new partners, Steve May, Larry Dougherty and Aaron Brasser, Don has been able to offer this wide array of product and yet provide the expertise needed to ensure the customer not only is buying a quality product, but is provided the pertinent information on how to install and maintenance it.

In 1998, The Tap moved into its new facility at 620 South Washington. Since then we have continued to grow and have upgraded this new facility to include an overhead crane and large mezzanine in the warehouse, along with new offices and a conference room in the front showroom and counter area. We have also brought in new people to help us keep up with the growth. Ron Carpenter in counter sales, Tara Sandusky in shipping and receiving and Stacey Spexarth in bookkeeping.

The Tap continues to grow, but we will never forget what got us here. The customer seeking that hard-to-get faucet replacement part. He has been the key to our success and our service to him will always be our top priority.