Est. 1986
A Vanier-based, family-owned plumbing & heating house, owned and operated by the Cundell family since the year Bill bought the first truck. Three generations on the books. The same number on every invoice.
The Founding
1986
Bill Cundell — 27, newly journeyed, $1,200 to his name — registers Cundell Plumbing in a Vanier garage. One Ford F-150. One toolbox. A handwritten ledger.
1994
Bill adds gas-fitting and hydronic heating after eight years of residential. The first commercial job: a Beechwood Ave. Italian bakery's boiler that nobody else could keep running.
2001
After five years apprenticing across Ontario — Sudbury copper, London new-builds, Kingston heritage — Mark Cundell signs on full-time. Two trucks now. Two Cundells on the masthead.
2010
By 2010 the company is doing work from Orleans to Kanata. The third van goes on the road. Mark assumes day-to-day operations; Bill stays in the field five days a week.
2018
Bill's grandson, Mark's nephew, signs his first apprenticeship papers at 19. Three generations of the same family on the same payroll for the first time in the company's history.
2024
Bill steps back to two days a week — quoting heritage homes only. Mark and Jason run day-to-day. Forty years on the books. The same name on the truck.
The Family
Founder · Master Plumber
in the trade since 1979
“Started this in 1986 with $1,200 and a Ford pickup. Forty years later the truck's better. The standard isn't.”
Master plumber, gas-fitter, founder. Trained in Cornwall under a Lebanese pipefitter who refused to use solder paste. Bill's been knee-deep in Ottawa basements since the Mulroney years.
Operations · Master Plumber
in the trade since 1996
“I joined in 2001 after five years apprenticing across Ontario. I've made every mistake a plumber can make. Now we don't make them.”
Operations, scheduling, and most of the heavy diagnostic work. Mark is the one homeowners speak with when something has gone genuinely wrong. He has the patience for it.
Apprentice · Heating Specialist
in the trade since 2018
“Third generation. I grew up in this. Algonquin's plumbing program 2020. Hydronic heat is what I love most.”
Third-generation. Graduated Algonquin College's plumbing program in 2020 with honours. Specializes in hydronic and radiant heat. Will be running the company in 2040.
The Cundell Standard
“We don’t do quick fixes.
We do it once, right, forever.”
No apprentice unsupervised. Every job we attend has a master plumber on site or within ten minutes’ drive. Jason is a fine plumber. He still has Mark’s number on speed-dial. That’s how the trade works in this family.
The number on the quote is the number on the invoice. Forty years and we’ve never sent a homeowner an invoice with a surprise on it. If we miss something on the quote, we eat it. That’s the agreement.
A ten-year workmanship warranty. Manufacturers warranty their fittings; we warranty the work that put them in. If something we installed fails because of how we installed it, we come back and fix it for free. For ten years. Written on the invoice. Always has been.
Cleanup is part of the job. Drop-cloths, shoe-covers, vacuumed floors, debris hauled away. When we leave, the only evidence we were there is that the plumbing works. There is no “disposal fee” line on a Cundell invoice.
Trade Services
We are a residential and light-commercial plumbing & heating house. We do not subcontract. Every service below is performed by a Cundell, supervised by a Cundell, and warranted by a Cundell.
There's no cheap fix for a slow drain. There's the right one — and we own the machine that does it.
Galvanized, copper, PEX, cast-iron — we've replaced miles of all four. The wall comes down clean and goes back the same way.
Tank, tankless, hybrid heat-pump. Installed in a morning, warranted for ten years, the old one hauled to the curb.
Forced-air, hydronic, radiant in-floor. We design it, size it properly, and warranty the labour for the life of the system.
Rough-ins for a renovation, fixture upgrades, full re-plumbs. Sloan, Toto, Kohler. Done as if the wall were never coming back open.
Annual testing, certification, installation. The City of Ottawa's paperwork done correctly the first time.
Viessmann, Navien, Weil-McLain, IBC. Annual service contracts for established customers — booked in September, executed by November.
January, two a.m., -28°C, water through a ceiling. We answer the phone. Established customers go to the front of the line.
Featured Restoration · No. 47
The owners of this 1908 Edwardian on Bank Street, in the Glebe, inherited the original galvanised supply lines — sixty-two metres of three-quarter-inch pipe that had been progressively choking themselves shut for a hundred and sixteen years. The flow at the second-floor sink had become, by their own description, “a polite cough.”
We assessed the home over a Tuesday afternoon. Mark walked the basement, mapped every supply branch on graph paper, and quoted the work that evening. The estimate ran to seventeen pages. The owners signed it the next morning.
Over eleven working days we replaced every supply line in the house with type-L copper, re-stacked the second-floor bathroom waste in cast-iron-look ABS, repaired the lath-and-plaster walls behind us as we went, and installed a Viessmann Vitodens 100 to replace the 1976 oil-fired boiler in the basement. The original clawfoot tub was preserved, the original radiators re-piped, and the period-correct Sloan flushometer in the powder room kept on a new isolation valve.
We do this work. Three generations of it.
Cundell Territory
Three generations of these neighbourhoods knowing our trucks.
The Bench
Brand matters when it’s behind your wall.
Annual Maintenance
$189 / year
An annual visit from a master plumber. We inspect every faucet, every drain, every supply line, the hot-water tank, and the heating system. We give you a written report and a one-page action list.
The way our regulars stay regulars.
Enrol — 613-355-3512→Selected Work
Clients are not named. The work speaks for itself.
completed 2019
Full repipe — galvanized supply lines replaced with type-L copper. Two bathrooms re-rough'd. Seven days on site.
completed 2022
Boiler replacement — 65-year-old oil-fired unit out, Viessmann Vitodens 100 in, hydronic balancing across three zones.
completed 2023
Rough-in plumbing for a 3,400 sq ft new-build. Three full baths, kitchen, laundry, basement wet-bar, exterior hose bibs winterised.
completed 2021
Radiant in-floor retrofit through a finished basement slab — pex looped at 9-inch centres, manifold in mechanical, original floors preserved.
A Written Promise
If anything we install fails within ten years from defective workmanship, we’ll fix it without an invoice.
That is how we have operated since 1986. Three generations of warranty, honoured. The promise is printed on every invoice we issue. It is signed by Mark or by Bill. If it’s our work, we stand behind it.
— Bill Cundell, Founder
on every Cundell invoice since 1986
Questions for the Family
Request an Estimate
We’ll text 613-355-3512 within an hour during business hours.
Three Generations · One Phone Number
Mon–Fri · 7am–6pm · 24/7 emergency line for established customers