It's a 'Guy' thing For 53 years, the Guy family has been fixing local plumbing problems _ with a smile It's a 'Guy' thing For 53 years, the Guy family has been fixing local plumbing problems _ with a smile (July 25, 2001)

By Ramin Setoodeh

Special to the Almanac

The guys at Guy Plumbing and Heating Inc. are good-natured guys. They're guys who swing golf club on their days off. They're guys who breed angelfish in the back rooms of their store. They're guys who wear blue jeans and drive blue trucks.

But more than anything else, the guys at Guy Plumbing are the loyal, likeable plumbing kind of guys.

Got a clogged pipe? Need a new toilet? Looking for the perfect sink?

For 53 years, Guy Plumbing has served the Menlo Park community as a family owned and run business. It all started in 1948, when David Guy opted for a change _ shifting careers from a roofer to a plumber.

He opened the plumbing business out of his West Menlo Park house on Oakley Avenue, servicing tract homes and remodels. He worked hard. The clientele grew. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Now Guy Plumbing operates from a storeroom at 1265 El Camino Real, just off the corner of Oak Grove Avenue.

David died in 1990. But the business has remained all in the family. Today, it's operated by David's sons, Roger and Alan, and his grandson (his namesake) Dave.

Ten-year-old Alex, David's great-grandson and Dave's son, is the fourth generation family member to work at Guy Plumbing. His dad says he'll either be a professional basketball player or follow the family legacy and go into plumbing.

The three owners marvel at how Guy Plumbing has changed over the years.

"We used to do a lot more rough plumbing," says Roger. Now, he says, lighter and more efficient tools for plumbers make the job a lot easier.

"Back in those days [when David opened the store], materials were a ton of money and labor was nothing," says Dave. "Through time, we've found our niche, which is strictly service and repair."

Roger, who has been a plumber for 39 years, remembers his first day on the job. "My dad had me in here the first day I was out of the Navy," he says. "I was cheap labor."

Since 1989, Guy Plumbing has found a new home in a two-story, red brick building near the Park Theatre in Menlo Park. "We grew out of Grandma's backyard," jokes Dave.

Inside the store, customers can browse past model toilets, tubs and mirrors. The black-and-white checkerboard floor gives Guy Plumbing a classic 1950s soda shop atmosphere. Sample faucets, in all shapes and colors, line the walls. Sinks sit in a corner, with special printed patterns ranging from cartoon characters to decorative flowers.

And the service? It's friendly and reliable, but not without the occasional jokes. "Nobody keeps old toilet seats," Dave tells a customer. "Try to sell them as picture frames to your mother-in-law or something."

In the back of the store, the rooms are edged with five tanks of angelfish. Alan says that they started to breed them about a year ago. "Kids who come into the store, love to see the fish," he says.

But the guys at Guy Plumbing are primarily known for their service calls to homes, says Dave. "We replace water heaters, faucets and garbage disposals," he says. "Now we install everything we sell."

And some customers, the owners say, always ask for the same Guy to do service in their home, even if it means waiting an extra day or two. "We had a plumber once that a customer wouldn't let in because he wasn't who she was used to," says Alan.

They say that members of the community have recognized Guy's plumbers for years from their trademark blue trucks. They also hand out two specially marked green pencils before every job, a tradition started by David.

"For the past 12 years, we've gotten to know our customers on a much more personal basis," says Dave. "They can come in and see the faucets and the toilets they are buying from us."

That was something they could never do, he says, back when the business was run out of David's home.

"Most of our customers are really good people," says Roger. "They're more like friends, cause they've known you forever."

But when it comes to telling some old anecdotes on the job, their lips are sealed.

"They're all too dirty," says Alan. "We're plumbers, you know."

Most customers, on the other hand, don't have any problems praising Guy's for its reliable service.

"They're just really terrific," says Len Robinson of Menlo Park, who has used Guy Plumbing for his business, Robinson & Company Realtors, for about 25 years.

"To say they are the best is a gross understatement," he says. "We love them. We consider them family."

Joan Bray, of San Carlos, is a property owner in Redwood City. She and her husband Phil have used Guy Plumbing to service their buildings for about 20 years. "I wouldn't think of going to anyone else," she says. "They are very honest. They don't ever charge more than they need to _ sometimes they charge less than they need to." She adds: "They do whatever they can to [arrive the day they're called], which helps us as landlords. I can't think of any service people that I would recommend more highly."

Ed Johnson, of Atherton, has relied on Guy Plumbing for the past 25 years whenever he needs work done on his home. "Their service is friendly and family-oriented," he says. "They're the quality plumbing in the area. We called Alan the other day, and he was here in a flash."

To celebrate their relationship with customers, Guy Plumbing hosts a golf tournament every Father's Day at Crystal Springs Golf Course in Burlingame. The Menlo-Atherton Glass team won this year. A tall bronze trophy commemorating the event sits on the front counter of the store.

"We always let friends and employees play," says Alan.

"People are pleasantly surprised to see a family member is actually working behind the name," says Dave. "They can usually find one of us in the shop at any time during the day."

He adds, "The success of the business is from loyalty of old customers."

And it's safe to say that most customers return because the guys at Guy Plumbing are their kind of guys.