Family Owned · Tacoma Based · Licensed, Bonded & Insured
The Crew Behind Big Jake's Plumbing
Big Jake’s Plumbing runs out of a shop at 1326 Tacoma Ave S — close enough to hear the trains down at the Dome. We’re not a franchise, not a private-equity roll-up, and not a call center with subcontractors. We’re a Tacoma family business where the name on the truck answers for the work.
About Us
How This Company Started
Our founder learned the trade the old way: a four-year union apprenticeship, then over a decade running service routes for the big outfits around Pierce County. He was good at the work and increasingly bad at the sales scripts — the “while I’m here” upsells, the quotes that grew once the wall was open. So in the middle of a recession, when everyone said don’t, he bought a high-mileage van at auction, hand-lettered Big Jake’s Plumbing on the doors, and started answering his own phone from the kitchen table.
The first year was word of mouth in South Tacoma. The second year needed a second van. Today the shop on Tacoma Ave S runs a full fleet and crew, and the phone still gets answered by someone standing in the same building as the parts shelves. The owner still takes calls himself most weeks — usually the weird old-house problems nobody else wants, because those are his favorite.
What We Believe (and What It Costs Us)
Every company has values on a wall. Ours cost us money regularly, which is how you know they’re real:
The quote is the price.
If we misjudge a job, we eat the difference. That’s happened. The price you approved is the price you pay.
We talk people out of work.
If a $30 cartridge fixes your shower, nobody here sells you a valve. Our techs aren’t on commission — that’s deliberate.
Small jobs matter.
No minimums. The homeowner with one running toilet this year is the one calling us for the repipe in five.
Show, don't tell.
Camera footage, photos of what we found, readings on the gauge. You should never have to take a plumber’s word for anything.
Rooted in Pierce County
We sponsor a South End Little League team every spring (the Pipefitters — the kids picked it), donate an annual plumbing overhaul to the Tacoma Rescue Mission, and fund a tool scholarship each year for a Bates Technical College plumbing student, because the trade gave Jake everything and somebody has to keep the pipeline going. We’re members of the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce and we’ve fixed the sinks at more school fundraiser pancake breakfasts than we can count — usually for free, usually mid-breakfast.
This is home. Our kids go to school here, our trucks fill up here, and the reputation we’ve built across Tacoma, Puyallup, and the rest of Pierce County is the only marketing that’s ever really worked for us.
What Working With Us Looks Like
Curious what we can do for your home? Start with our full list of plumbing services, browse honest answers in our tips library, or just call the shop — (253) 364-4043. If we’re under a house, you’ll still reach a human.
Our dispatcher works out of the Tacoma Ave shop and can usually tell you an arrival window on the first call.
Marked truck, shoe covers on at the door, a text when we’re 20 minutes out.
You see the problem — on camera, in photos, or on a gauge — and get a flat written price before work begins.
Every repair carries our workmanship warranty, backed by a shop with a fixed address, not a P.O. box.
A Plumber You Can Actually Look Up
Verify our license. Read our reviews. Then call the shop on Tacoma Ave.