How did we pick these?
Every plumber in Texas is licensed to a person rather than to a company. A plumbing business trades under the licence of one designated responsible master plumber, an RMP, and the Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners publishes the entire licensee list as a free download.
That changes what a list like this can be. We did not rank these companies on reviews. We took the licence number off each company's own website, then looked it up in the board's own file to confirm that the number is current, that it belongs to the company trading under it, and which named human being holds it. Four of the six print a number. Two do not, so we found them in the state file instead and have said which is which in each entry.
Then we read the endorsements, which is where the file earns its keep. Endorsements are recorded against the individual licence and they decide what the plumber may legally touch. Strutton's RMP carries the medical gas endorsement, which is what a clinic or dental surgery needs. Nick's carries the multipurpose residential fire sprinkler endorsement, which matters on a substantial Heights remodel. Neither company leads with it. Both facts came out of the state data.
After that, the ordinary tests: a Houston street address, a founding year, a trade scope that matches the licence, and whichever independent local source exists. In this category that is mostly the Houston Chronicle's readers' award, which Abacus has taken twice.
What we cut, and why. Texas Premier Plumbing's master licence, 16188, is current and genuinely Houston, but the company publishes no street address, which is the same test that cut two companies from our San Antonio list. A&T Plumbing has unusual depth on medical gas, seven endorsed plumbers by its own account, and its licence M-15866 checks out, but it also publishes no address and gives two different founding years, 1988 in one place and 1997 in another. Santhoff, trading since 1974, and John Moore, since 1965, are both real and substantial Houston firms whose websites refused every request we made, so we could not verify their own addresses and phone numbers from their own sites and will not publish details we could not read first hand. Several more candidates turned out to be in Spring, Humble or Sugar Land rather than Houston.
No business on this page is a client of ours and none paid for its place.
Which Houston plumber fits which job?
| Company | Trading since | Licence on its own site | Endorsement in state file | Best for |
| Abacus | 2003 | M-20628 | None recorded | Most houses, any hour |
| Village | 1946 | RMP 46347 | None recorded | Three trades, one call |
| Nick's | 1979 | MPL 38548 | Residential fire sprinkler | The Heights and Garden Oaks |
| Strutton | 1971 | Not published | Medical gas | Clinics, commercial, new build |
| Texas Quality | 2007 | 40075, with the RMP named | None recorded | Cypress and the northwest |
| Houston Plumbing Services | Not stated | 41714 | None recorded | Sewer and drain work at odd hours |
What should you check before anyone starts work?
Three things, in this order.
Confirm the licence, then the city registration. The state licence makes someone a plumber. Registering that licence with the City of Houston is what allows them to pull your permit, and they are separate steps. Ask for both, and remember that Houston's own water heater notice says the permit is to be obtained by a master plumber registered with the city.
Insist on the permit for anything that touches a water heater, a gas line or the sewer. An unpermitted water heater is a problem you inherit at resale, not a saving. Houston does let a homeowner permit work on their own homestead when they are doing it themselves, which is the one case where you are the one filing.
Get the diagnosis separated from the quote. On Houston's clay soils, pipe movement and age interact, as a University of Houston study of repeat water line breaks found, and the honest sequence is always camera first, then scope, then price. Any company that quotes a sewer replacement without showing you the line is quoting a guess.
What should you do next?
For an ordinary house, call Abacus first and Village second. If you live in the Heights, Garden Oaks or Norhill and the problem is in old cast iron, call Nick's. If you manage a clinic, a restaurant or a build, call Strutton. In Cypress and the northwest, Texas Quality. At 2 a.m. with a sewer backing up, Houston Plumbing Services keeps the longest hours on this page.
Then look at the rest of our Houston coverage, the other cities on the plumbing hub, and our Houston roofing rankings, which asked the same question about a trade Texas does not license at all.
