An Island Surrounded by Water

Grand Island is one of those places where water is part of the address. The Niagara River splits at the south end of the island and comes back together at the northwest end, just a few miles upstream of Niagara Falls. Two pairs of bridges tie the island to the mainland, one set reaching the Town of Tonawanda and the other reaching the City of Niagara Falls, and the first spans opened back in 1935.

The island used to be farmland. Over the years much of it turned residential, and a lot of the people who live here commute into Buffalo. That means plenty of homes, plenty of basements, and plenty of pipes running under lawns out to the street. Every one of those homes eventually has a day when the water decides to go somewhere it shouldn't.

When that day comes, it helps to know who to call. For a lot of Grand Island families, the answer is a local shop on Sixth Street called Plumb-Rite Plumbing.

The Master Plumber on Sixth Street

Plumb-Rite's official name is Plumb-Rite of WNY, Inc., and it operates out of 2242 Sixth Street on Grand Island. The master plumber behind it is Mike Vedella. You'll find Michael A. Vedella listed on the Town of Grand Island's roster of licensed master plumbers, and his name turns up on the master plumber lists in Clarence and the Village of Kenmore too. In the plumbing trade, that master license is the one that matters. It's the credential a town wants to see before a plumber is allowed to take on work within its borders.

The company describes itself as family owned and operated, and says it brings more than twenty years of plumbing experience to the job. Its Facebook page says the same thing in plain words: a 24 hour emergency plumbing service, proudly serving the WNY area, family owned.

That's the part that sticks. This isn't a regional chain with a call center two counties away. It's a family business with a Grand Island address, run by a licensed master plumber whose name is right there on the town's list.

"If H2o Runs Through, We Do It"

Every good local business has a line that tells you a little about the people behind it. Plumb-Rite's is printed right on its website: "If H2o Runs through, we do it."

It's a little bit of a wink, and it's also pretty much the whole philosophy. New homes, old homes, water heaters, clogged sewer lines, gas lines for a backyard pool heater. If water or something like it moves through a pipe in your house, they figure it's their job.

They also keep a line open around the clock, which matters more than people realize until the night they need it. A while back, the company posted a friendly note on Facebook asking customers to pick up the phone instead of sending a message, because Messenger wasn't always notifying them. If you call one of their two numbers, they wrote, you'll get an answer pretty quick. It's a small thing, but it tells you they'd rather talk to you than have you waiting on a reply.

The Calls Nobody Wants to Make

Nobody wakes up excited to call a plumber. The calls come on the worst days, and the reviews people leave for Plumb-Rite read like a collection of those days, each with a happier ending.

One customer had a slow moving sewer line. They called in the morning, the crew was there just after lunch, and the line was clear by 2 in the afternoon. The customer said they'd be calling Plumb-Rite first for every plumbing problem from then on.

Another had never used the company before and needed help right away over a holiday weekend, exactly the kind of timing that makes you want to pull your hair out. Mike's son Brandon answered, set up an appointment and finished the job professionally. That customer wrote that at a time when a lot of businesses have excuses for poor service, this one puts good customer service first.

One homeowner described a problem plenty of Grand Island folks will recognize. Every so often, roots and whatnot block the line running from the house out to the front, and water backs up into the stationary tub. Plumb-Rite came out and cleared it.

Then there was the flooding. One family wrote that when flooding and sewer backups hit Grand Island, Plumb-Rite was super responsive when they called, and they'd use them again without a second thought.

The Big Jobs Too

Not every story is an emergency. Some are the kind of project that sounds scary on paper.

One Grand Island homeowner ran into an unexpected problem and found out every underground line at the house needed to be replaced. That's the kind of news that makes your stomach drop. She wrote that Mike and his team were so accommodating that the whole process ended up feeling far from overwhelming. The quote was reasonable, and when they were done, they left everything neat and clean.

Others called for work that makes a house better rather than just fixing it. One family had a gas line run for a pool heater and called the crew responsive, reliable and knowledgeable. Another had a water hookup put in for a new kitchen island and said Plumb-Rite came in with the lowest estimate of the four plumbing companies they contacted.

A Family Business, For Real

Read enough of the reviews and you start to notice the same names coming up. Customers thank Mike. Customers thank Brandon, his son. One customer wrote a simple note thanking both Brandon and Mike for prompt, reliable, quality service and promising to use them again.

When Plumb-Rite says family owned, they mean it. Mike runs the business with his son, Brandon, and his daughter. It's a father and his kids working together, and you can see it on their website, where Mike is pictured with both of them. A customer who hired them for that kitchen island hookup summed them up as great, straightforward and reliable.

That's the thing about a family business in a town like Grand Island. After a while, people stop thinking of it as a company and start thinking of it as the family down the road who fixes things. On Google, Plumb-Rite holds a 4.8 star rating across 23 reviews, which is a lot of neighbors taking the time to say thanks.

Why It Matters Here

Western New York has always been a place that leans on its tradespeople. The folks who fix the furnace in January and clear the sewer line after a storm don't usually get stories written about them. They just show up, do the work and head to the next house.

Plumb-Rite Plumbing is that kind of business. A licensed master plumber, a family-run crew, a shop on Sixth Street, and a phone that gets answered. For an island community tied to the mainland by a couple of bridges, having that kind of help right here at home is worth a lot.

If you want to learn more about the family behind Plumb-Rite, you can find them at plumbrite716.com. And the next time you hear that gurgle from the basement sink, you'll know there's a Grand Island family who's heard it plenty of times before.