Matley Plumbing & Heating Co

Matley Plumbing & Heating works out of 18 Lomar Park in Pepperell, where it also runs a parts counter, and describes itself as a family business now in its fourth generation of plumbers — a history it traces to Handel Matley Sr., who started in the trade in 1927, with the Pepperell shop established in 1958. A 2022 obituary of Handel Matley in the Lowell Sun described the company as the oldest plumbing and heating firm in town. Customers hire them for the ordinary emergencies of an older housing stock: leaks, toilets, sinks, water heaters, boilers and furnaces, and air conditioning. Google carries a 4.8 average from 24 ratings, and the reviews on file are unusually specific about who did the work — Nick, Chris Boucher, Nick Crawford, Kim in the office, and Gary. A homeowner who closed on a house wrote in 2022 that after a leak the day after Thanksgiving the crew arrived within an hour, fixed it and gave them advice as new owners; another wrote in 2022 that they came the next day in a snowstorm and traced a ceiling leak within two hours. Price comes up repeatedly and favourably. A 2024 reviewer called the work on a toilet leak "perfect work at a very reasonable price"; a 2023 customer said a tankless hot-water installation two years earlier had been reasonably priced and that Gary came out within hours when the unit finally gave trouble; a 2022 reviewer said the repair "didn't break the bank". The same reviews describe technicians who explain what they are doing and clean up after themselves. The firm also services pools and spas alongside the plumbing, and that is how neighbours talk about it: a 2024 reviewer had a hot tub diagnosed and fixed in one visit, a 2021 reviewer praised "both plumbing and pool" work, and two Nextdoor neighbours answering a 2025 hot-tub-technician request named it — one as "Matley pools and spa in Pepperell", the other simply "Matley's". Two things are worth confirming yourself. The record is thin and one-sided — 14 reviews, all five-star, the newest from 2025 — so there is no unhappy customer's account to weigh against them. And the paper trail disagrees with the company's own story: the Better Business Bureau, which accredited the business in 2023 and grades it A+, lists the business as started in 1963 and names Gary McQuaide as president, while the company's site tells a 1927/1958 Matley-family history. The licence numbers on the BBB profile and on the company's own site are self-reported and directory-listed rather than confirmed here, so ask for the master plumber licence number and check it with the state board before a large job.