GEM Plumbing & Heating

GEM Plumbing & Heating is not a neighborhood shop — it's a Rhode Island-based company with branch offices across Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut, including its Plymouth, MA location, and it says it has been family-run since 1949, founded by Larry Sr. and Gloria Gemma and now led by their sons Larry, Lenny and Eddy. A 2019 trade-press account put it at more than 250 employees and over 165 trucks, among the larger residential service companies in the country, and it has since become part of HomeX Services Group's platform of home-service brands. The Massachusetts side holds active state licenses for both plumbing (2763-PL-C) and HVAC (803-SM-B). But the written customer record captured here is thin for a company this size, and what's there skews negative: a BBB review describes a technician sent for a leaking ceiling who checked for the source with only a cellphone light from the basement floor, found nothing, then said a wall would need to come out; another BBB review describes a bypass duct installed so close to a humidifier filter that changing the filter knocked it loose, leading to water on a window. BBB also lists 50 complaints filed against the company. One reviewer's account reads more favorably, closing out a plumbing-repair evaluation with what they called an "A+ rating." Worth asking about directly: how a diagnostic visit is scoped before walls or ductwork get opened up, and how the company handles a callback if a duct or filter-access issue turns up after installation. For plumbing, HVAC or electrical work in the Plymouth area, GEM is a licensed, established option with the scale to handle a bigger job; its BBB grade is A-, but given the specific complaints on file, it's worth getting a clear, written diagnosis and scope before work starts, especially for anything involving walls or ductwork.