Verified record
Alewife Co is a Cambridge plumbing shop built on repeat business — the same names show up in review after review across ten, fifteen, even twenty years of hiring the company for boilers, toilets, and everyday repairs. The recent work holds up: this spring, one customer had a boiler serviced along with a new toilet and a gas dryer hookup and said the heating ran better than it had all winter. Pricing comes up as a plus more than once — a customer wrote in February 2026 that a toilet replacement requiring repiping came in under the original estimate, and a 2021 review described a shower valve swap that likewise beat the quoted price. Several long-time customers, writing between 2022 and 2024, describe a decade or more of plumbing work at their properties without complaint. Not every account lines up with that. In March 2026, a longtime customer said a repair request and a quote for a second issue went unanswered for a week despite phone and email follow-up, calling it a break from what had otherwise been a good relationship. Earlier reviews describe curt service on a few calls — a 2024 review called the pricing steep and the staff condescending toward a customer asking questions, and a 2021 review said a technician broke a valve while installing a pressure tank, leaving a shower without water. Worth asking about directly: Alewife's Massachusetts plumbing license shows as expired in state records. Alewife has been plumbing in Cambridge for 45 years according to its BBB profile, which lists no accreditation or rating. For routine repairs and installs from a shop plenty of repeat customers trust, it's a reasonable call — just confirm the license status and get a clear response-time commitment before booking.
Typical Greater Boston range for this kind of work, from regional averages — not a quote from Alewife Co. Use it to sanity-check bids, then get the real number in writing.
Estimated range
$290 – $710
Typical plumbing job around $500
Frank was terrific. he hooked up new gas dryer to gasline and also installed new toilet flush button i had procured from Monique's on his advice. His last visit, he serviced my boiler including replacing two valves. it has never run so efficiently as this winter. THANK YOU, FRANK!
In the past I've had decent experiences with Alewife Co and recommended them to others. Unfortunately my most recent experience will be the last. I asked them to come out a fix 1 issue and quote the repair of another. It's been a week and I've reached out via phone and email and they've given zero response. The work quality might be good but the communication is terrible.
Mike is the best! Need plumbing service at your property? Highly recommend calling Alewife Co.
The plumber (Greg or Craig) came over to fix the faucet in the bath tub and told me he'll need to replace it and I said sounds good call me if you need something and I went to the living room to work. He calls me and shows me the detached faucet and tells me something and I said "that's a lot of calcium buildup" and the guy says "the house is old" and goes on and says something about the door frame which I don't really understand. I told him "the house is old and you can feel the floor slanted" and the guy goes "the house is settling in" and somehow become condescending and lecture me to say "if you want to live in a new place go live in a new place" and I'm thinking what is this guy talking about. He continues to say things in an aggressive and condescending ways and I'm just thinking how bizarre this situation is. Having to tolerate this rude and unpleasant person. Just unprofessional and unpleasant. Guarantee this is not the first time the person acted like this and most likely not the last time either.
I've been using Alewife for years. They have always done great work. I recently had a new toilet installed that also required repiping and the final cost came in below their estimate.
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1 change recorded — last scanned Jul 1, 2026.