Ostroski Plumbing & Heating Inc.

Call at 8:45 in the morning with a dead hot water heater and, by one March 2026 customer's account, the truck is in the driveway at 10:30. That is the thread running through Ostroski Plumbing & Heating: same day, and usually cheaper than the other quote. Another March 2026 customer wrote that two other companies wanted an additional thousand and two thousand dollars for the same water heater job. The North Billerica shop's Massachusetts plumbing licence is active, confirmed against the state registry. Across 239 Google ratings averaging 4.9, 43 more on Thumbtack at the same average, and 167 written reviews going back to 2022, the names repeat the way they do at a small family company: Greg working out on the phone what actually needs doing, Tina booking it, and Brent, Stephen, Rob, Nick, Junior and Dave in the vans. What separates the better accounts is diagnosis before demolition. In April 2026 a homeowner described Rob and Nick arriving for a shower leak inside a wall and deciding to pressure test before cutting any wallboard. In October 2025, Stephen and Nick cut an access hole in a basement ceiling for a leak the owner had blamed on a toilet running upstairs, found the tub spout at fault instead, and replaced it. And in January 2026 a customer wrote about a long-standing steam heat problem — loud water hammering, inefficient operation — that several plumbers and HVAC companies had theories about but none had traced to a root cause, which is what brought Greg out. The heating half is not incidental. Reviews cover gas furnace cleaning, boiler servicing, a full heating system installation in December 2025, tankless water heaters installed in March 2026, and gas stove hookups. One December 2025 customer listed water lines, a dishwasher, boiler service, leaking pipes and a water heater across repeat visits. The one hard complaint is from October 2023 and it is specific: the customer said the crew swore while talking to them, did not protect the floors while working, and that a neighbour complained about how fast the truck tore off down the road — and that the price did not justify any of it. It stands alone against a very large positive run, and nothing resembling it appears among the 28 reviews from the last six months, none of which are negative. Still worth raising if drop cloths matter to you. On Reddit, an r/northshore commenter in June 2025 described the owner handing out his cell number and answering by text, called the pricing fair, and said the family business went out of its way for them on a house that came with undisclosed problems. The right call for a failed water heater, a leak nobody can locate, or a heating system that has defeated other companies. Get the price up front — the customers who praise it say the quote came first.