Kirkland and Shaw Inc.

When a water heater failed on a Sunday and flooded a Burlington basement, this plumbing and heating shop had someone on the emergency line almost immediately and walked the homeowner through shutting off the water before a truck even arrived. That kind of response is what keeps people calling Kirkland and Shaw, a family business that traces back to 1953, when Henry Kirkland opened it in Lexington before partnering with Bob Shaw and moving the shop to its current Burlington location in 1961. It's now run by Steve Kirkland and covers MetroWest towns from Arlington and Lexington to Waltham and Weston. Reviewers keep coming back for the same crew year after year — one customer says they've used the company for ten years and calls the technicians reliable, and another says the crew showed up same-day twice within a few months to resolve issues at a new house. A heat pump installation earlier this year drew praise for a thorough walkthrough that worked around a tricky layout. In a 2025 review, mini splits installed the year before were still running well, and another 2025 review described a boiler leak that took months to get replacement parts for, with the crew staying on it until it was fixed. Two separate Reddit threads in r/massachusetts name the company as a local favorite. Its Massachusetts plumbing license is active on the state registry, held by Stephen Gardner as the company's registered master plumber, and the Better Business Bureau has given it an A+ rating. Not every account is glowing. A caller in a late-2024 review described the manager as rude and dismissive on the phone during a quote request, and a review from earlier that same year advised getting estimates from other plumbers first. For a plumbing emergency, a boiler repair, or a mini-split or heat-pump install, Kirkland and Shaw is a strong call; if the first phone conversation feels off, ask for a different technician or a callback before writing the company off.