Quick Comparison
| Firm | Founded / Tenure & Credentials | Services & Specialties | Geographic Focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gold Star Plumbing | 2018 firm founding; Rocky Burrell founder and owner with 35+ years of plumbing-trade experience (career origin 1989); husband-and-wife founded business; licensed, bonded, and insured; 4.9-star customer rating; one-year labor warranty plus manufacturer parts warranty; owner-answers-the-phone customer model | Residential plumbing, commercial plumbing, water heaters (tankless and conventional), 24/7 emergency, preventative maintenance (Silver and Gold plans), repiping, drain cleaning, fixture replacement | La Vergne HQ (208 McGreevy Drive, La Vergne, TN 37086); 25-mile Middle Tennessee radius covering La Vergne, Nashville, Murfreesboro, Smyrna, Franklin, Hendersonville, Brentwood, Mount Juliet, Lebanon, Columbia, Spring Hill, Gallatin, Goodlettsville, Nolensville, Antioch |
| Jack Ward and Sons Plumbing | Continuous family operation since 1947 (78 years), founded by Jack Ward; three-generation Ward family lineage running through son Tommy Ward to grandson Bartley Burnette (Tommy’s nephew, current operating leadership); Tennessee Master Contractor License #MCN07740 plus contractor and plumber licenses #CRW000716, #XC242, #VC789, and #PC2268; 24-hour service | Residential plumbing, commercial plumbing, kitchen and bathroom remodeling, fixture installation, water lines, drain services, emergency plumbing | East Nashville HQ (1100 Tuckahoe Drive, Nashville, TN 37207); Nashville and Davidson County |
| Wehby Plumbing | Continuous family operation since 1959 (66 years), founded by Charles Wehby Sr.; second-generation Wehby family ownership running through sons Andy Wehby and Charles Wehby Jr.; Tennessee-licensed plumbing contractor; BBB-listed | Installation, repair, remodeling, water line work, backflow installation and repair, drain cleaning, residential and commercial work | South Nashville HQ (2703 Grandview Avenue, Nashville, TN 37211); Nashville and Middle Tennessee |
| Morton Plumbing, Heating & Cooling | Continuous family operation since 1986 (40 years), founded by Nashville-native Jimmy Morton (started as a one-employee operation, himself); family-owned with son and step-son in current operations; Nashville Scene “Best Plumbers” winner across 2012-2017 (six consecutive years of recognition); licensed, bonded, and insured | Plumbing repair and installation, water heater work, drain cleaning, HVAC (heating, air conditioning), residential and commercial service | South Nashville HQ (2426 Winford Avenue, Nashville, TN 37211); Nashville and surrounding Middle Tennessee communities |
1. Gold Star Plumbing
- Address: 208 McGreevy Drive, La Vergne, TN 37086
- Phone: (615) 290-9860 (24/7 emergency line)
- Founder / Owner: Rocky Burrell (husband-and-wife founded; 35+ years of personal plumbing-trade experience with career origin in 1989)
- Operating Since: 2018 firm founding (7 years under the Gold Star name); founder’s plumbing-trade career reaches back to 1989, producing 35+ years of cumulative trade experience that pre-dates the firm-name founding by nearly three decades
- Operating Status: Family-owned (husband-and-wife founded); licensed, bonded, and insured
- Team: Rocky Burrell (Founder, Owner, lead plumber) plus a small operating crew including Steven Brown (water heater technician documented in customer service records)
- Customer Rating: 4.9 stars across verified customer reviews
- Warranty: One-year labor warranty plus manufacturer parts warranty on every job
- Service area: La Vergne, Nashville, Murfreesboro, Smyrna, Franklin, Hendersonville, Brentwood, Mount Juliet, Lebanon, Columbia, Spring Hill, Gallatin, Goodlettsville, Nolensville, Antioch (15-community Middle Tennessee service zone within a 25-mile radius of the La Vergne base)
- gold-starplumbing.com
Rocky Burrell Founding Plus 35-Plus-Year Plumbing Trade Career
Rocky Burrell, the founder and owner of Gold Star Plumbing, brings 35-plus years of personal plumbing-trade experience that pre-dates the firm’s 2018 launch by nearly three decades. Rocky’s plumbing career began in 1989, producing a cumulative trade tenure that covers the late-1980s through the contemporary Middle Tennessee residential and commercial market. The 35-year founder career reach extends across Nashville’s transformation from a regional Tennessee capital into a major national metropolitan corridor, with the residential and commercial construction wave that has reshaped Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford, Sumner, and Wilson Counties across the same period. The deep founder operating-experience profile distinguishes Gold Star from typical recent-founding Middle Tennessee plumbing competitors, with Rocky’s long career reach grounding the firm’s institutional-knowledge depth across multiple Nashville-area development eras.
Husband-and-Wife Founded Operation Since 2018
Gold Star Plumbing launched in 2018 as a husband-and-wife founded business based in La Vergne, Tennessee. The husband-and-wife founding profile reflects a deliberate small-firm-scale family-business structure that distinguishes Gold Star from corporate-rollup competitors in the broader Middle Tennessee plumbing market. The 2018 firm founding combined with Rocky’s 35-plus year pre-existing trade career produces a profile where the firm-name tenure window represents the seven-year contemporary chapter, while the founder’s plumbing capacity reaches back through a decades-long earlier career. The family-business operating model also shapes the customer experience profile, with the owner directly engaged in scheduling, estimates, and follow-up rather than the dispatch-tier separation typical of larger franchise operations.
La Vergne McGreevy Drive Base With 25-Mile Middle Tennessee Reach
Gold Star Plumbing operates from 208 McGreevy Drive in La Vergne, Tennessee (ZIP 37086), the southeastern Nashville metropolitan suburb in Rutherford County. The La Vergne base position supports rapid dispatch across a 25-mile Middle Tennessee radius covering 15 named communities: La Vergne, Nashville, Murfreesboro, Smyrna, Franklin, Hendersonville, Brentwood, Mount Juliet, Lebanon, Columbia, Spring Hill, Gallatin, Goodlettsville, Nolensville, and Antioch. The geographic positioning places the firm geographically inside the Rutherford-and-Davidson County intersection corridor, with the La Vergne location supporting both the inner-Nashville residential market (Antioch, Nolensville, Brentwood, Franklin southern arc) and the Murfreesboro-Smyrna-Lebanon Rutherford-and-Wilson County tract-development corridor through one operating dispatch model. The 15-community service zone covers the major Middle Tennessee residential growth corridors that the 2010s-onward Nashville metropolitan population surge has reshaped.
Owner-Answers-the-Phone Customer Engagement Model
The Gold Star Plumbing customer engagement model centers on owner-direct access. When customers call (615) 290-9860, Rocky Burrell himself frequently answers, handles estimates, coordinates scheduling, and follows up after every job. The owner-answers-the-phone profile distinguishes Gold Star materially from the dispatch-tier separation typical of larger franchise plumbing operations across Middle Tennessee. The published customer testimonials reflect this engagement model: returning customers report that “the experience is just as good the second time” because the same owner-direct access profile holds across repeat service calls. The small-firm-scale operating structure means customers interact with the person whose name is on the business rather than working through a customer-service intermediary layer.
Same-Day Response Plus After-Hours Service Track Record
Gold Star Plumbing operates a same-day-response service model with documented after-hours availability across the Middle Tennessee service zone. The firm’s published case record includes a customer emergency request submitted at 10:10 PM on a Friday, with Rocky responding by 10:16 PM and completing the water heater repair by 10:00 AM the following morning. The same-day-response profile is not a marketing aspiration but a documented operating norm since the 2018 launch. The 24/7 emergency availability covers burst pipes, major leaks, sewer backups, and other after-hours-critical plumbing failures across the 15-community Middle Tennessee service zone, including nights and weekends.
Residential Plus Commercial Service Stack
Gold Star Plumbing operates a full residential and commercial plumbing service stack covering Middle Tennessee homes and businesses. The residential service categories include leaking pipes, drain problems, running toilets, fixture replacements, water pressure diagnostics, low-water-pressure troubleshooting, and full home repiping. The commercial service categories include plumbing work scheduled around business hours, build-outs, backflow testing, grease trap service, and commercial drain cleaning. The dual residential-and-commercial scope supports customers across the diverse Middle Tennessee market, with the family-business operating scale supporting both single-family residential service calls and small-to-medium commercial plumbing work.
Water Heater Plus Tankless Plus Whole-Home Repiping Specialty
The Gold Star water heater specialty covers traditional tank water heaters, tankless water heater installation, repair, and replacement. The Middle Tennessee water heater service market is driven by hard-water mineral content (Cumberland River source water carries moderate hardness levels), routine anode-rod consumption, and the contemporary energy-code-driven shift toward tankless water heater specification. The Gold Star tankless specialty addresses customers seeking on-demand hot water systems with longer service life and reduced energy consumption compared with traditional tank units. The whole-home repiping service category covers older Nashville-area homes with galvanized supply piping or aging copper lines requiring full-house replacement, with the residential repiping scope supporting the late-1940s through mid-1970s Nashville housing stock that increasingly enters the repipe cycle.
Preventative Maintenance Plans Plus Silver-and-Gold Tier
Gold Star Plumbing offers preventative maintenance plans across two service tiers: Silver and Gold. The maintenance plan structure provides scheduled inspections and routine care designed to catch small problems early before they escalate into emergency calls. The plan-based maintenance model distinguishes Gold Star from purely reactive service-call operators, with the Silver and Gold tiers offering customers a recurring relationship rather than a one-off transaction. The preventative care category covers fixture inspections, water heater flush service, drain maintenance, water pressure verification, and the broader routine-plumbing-health categories that ongoing residential plumbing maintenance requires.
One-Year Labor Warranty Plus Manufacturer Parts Warranty
Every Gold Star Plumbing job includes a one-year labor warranty plus the underlying manufacturer parts warranty. The warranty profile means that if something goes wrong within the warranty period, Gold Star returns at no additional cost to make the work right. The published customer testimonials reflect the warranty model in practice: when an issue arose after an initial installation, the firm “responded with professionalism and took full responsibility” rather than avoiding the situation. The combined one-year labor plus manufacturer parts warranty structure produces a customer-protection profile that few small-scale plumbing operations match across Middle Tennessee.
4.9-Star Customer Rating Plus Honest Pricing Positioning
Gold Star Plumbing maintains a 4.9-star customer rating across verified customer reviews, supplemented by published testimonials emphasizing on-time arrival, professional service, efficient job completion, and clean work practices. The published pricing model emphasizes clear estimates before work begins, with no hidden fees and no unnecessary upgrades pushed on customers. The customer feedback record reports that Gold Star’s prices typically come in below the larger franchise plumbers serving the Nashville area, supporting the firm’s positioning as a small-firm-scale honest-pricing alternative to corporate-rollup competitors. The honest pricing profile combined with the 35-plus year founder career, the husband-and-wife founded family-business model, the owner-answers-the-phone customer engagement profile, the same-day response track record, and the one-year-labor-plus-manufacturer-parts warranty produces a customer-experience profile that distinguishes Gold Star Plumbing across the contemporary Middle Tennessee plumbing market.
2. Jack Ward and Sons Plumbing
- Address: 1100 Tuckahoe Drive, Nashville, TN 37207
- Phone: (615) 227-2811 (24-hour service)
- Founder: Jack Ward (1947)
- Generational Succession: Jack Ward (founder, 1947) → Tommy Ward (Jack’s son, second generation) → Bartley Burnette (Tommy’s nephew, Jack’s grandson, current operating leadership)
- Operating Since: 1947 (78 years of continuous Ward family operation across three generations)
- Licenses: Tennessee Master Contractor License #MCN07740; Contractor License #CRW000716; additional plumber licenses including #XC242, #VC789, and #PC2268
- Service area: Nashville, Davidson County, and surrounding Middle Tennessee
- Website: jackwardandsonsplumbing.com
Three Ward Family Generations Across 78 Years
Jack Ward founded Jack Ward and Sons Plumbing in 1947, with the firm now operating across 78 years of continuous Ward family service. Tommy Ward, Jack’s son, carried the business through the second-generation operating period. Bartley Burnette, Tommy Ward’s nephew and Jack Ward’s grandson, now leads the business under the founding-era principles of hard work, integrity, value, and 100% customer satisfaction. The three-generation Ward family operating succession produces a tenure profile that few Nashville-area plumbing practices match, with the 1947 founding date placing Jack Ward and Sons among the oldest continuously operating plumbing companies in Davidson County. The 78-year service span covers the full Nashville building stock evolution from the post-World-War-II residential expansion through the contemporary tech-and-music-economy-driven luxury renovation cycle.
Tennessee Master Contractor License #MCN07740 Plus Multi-License Stack
Jack Ward and Sons operates under an unusually broad five-credential license stack covering Tennessee Master Contractor License #MCN07740, Contractor License #CRW000716, plus plumber licenses #XC242, #VC789, and #PC2268. The multi-license configuration supports the firm’s residential and commercial scope, with the Master Contractor credential providing the lead permit-pulling authority across Davidson County and the broader Middle Tennessee market. The five-credential stack reflects the firm’s deep operating scope across plumbing, contractor-tier work, and the regulated specialty categories that contemporary Nashville residential and commercial work requires.
East Nashville Tuckahoe Drive Headquarters and 24-Hour Service Profile
The 1100 Tuckahoe Drive headquarters places Jack Ward and Sons in east Nashville (ZIP 37207) within the broader Davidson County operating zone. The position supports rapid dispatch across Nashville proper plus the surrounding Davidson County residential and commercial markets. The 24-hour service availability extends the operating-hours profile beyond standard business-hours competitors, with the around-the-clock dispatch supporting emergency plumbing service calls across the contemporary Nashville market. The service scope covers residential plumbing, commercial plumbing, kitchen and bathroom remodeling, fixture installation, water lines, drain services, and the broader plumbing-trade categories that contemporary Nashville-area homeowners and businesses require.
3. Wehby Plumbing
- Address: 2703 Grandview Avenue, Nashville, TN 37211
- Phone: (615) 255-7424
- Hours: Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM (closed Saturday and Sunday)
- Founder: Charles Wehby Sr. (1959)
- Current Ownership: Andy Wehby and Charles Wehby Jr. (Charles Sr.’s sons; second-generation Wehby family operation)
- Operating Since: 1959 (66 years of continuous Wehby family operation)
- Credentials: Tennessee-licensed plumbing contractor; BBB-listed
- Service area: Nashville and broader Middle Tennessee
- Website: wehbyplumbing.com
Two Wehby Family Generations Across 66 Years
Charles Wehby Sr. founded Wehby Plumbing in 1959, with the firm operating continuously across 66 years of Wehby family service. The contemporary operating leadership runs through Charles Sr.’s two sons, Andy Wehby and Charles Wehby Jr., who now run the family business as second-generation operators. The two-generation Wehby family succession produces a 66-year continuity profile that covers the full post-1960 Nashville building stock evolution from the early-1960s suburban tract development through the contemporary luxury renovation cycle. The Wehby family operating model distinguishes the firm from corporate-rollup competitors in the broader Nashville plumbing market.
South Nashville Grandview Avenue Base Plus Backflow Installation Specialty
The 2703 Grandview Avenue headquarters places Wehby Plumbing in south Nashville (ZIP 37211) inside the broader Davidson County operating zone. The position supports dispatch across the Nashville metropolitan plumbing market, with the standard Monday-through-Friday operating-hours profile reflecting the firm’s residential-and-commercial scheduled-service business model. The service scope covers installation, repair, remodeling, water lines, backflow installation and repair, and drain cleaning. The backflow installation specialty addresses Davidson County backflow-prevention-assembly testing compliance requirements that Metro Nashville Water Services administers across the broader Nashville service area.
Tennessee Plumbing Contractor Compliance and Two-Generation Operating Continuity
Wehby Plumbing operates under Tennessee plumbing contractor licensing through the Tennessee Board for Licensing Contractors administered by the Department of Commerce and Insurance. The BBB-listed status provides third-party reputation verification. The combined 66-year continuous family-business tenure plus the second-generation Wehby family operating continuity plus the backflow specialty produces a credential profile that few Nashville plumbing operations match across all three dimensions.
4. Morton Plumbing, Heating & Cooling
- Address: 2426 Winford Avenue, Nashville, TN 37211
- Phone: (615) 255-2527
- Founder: Jimmy Morton (1986, Nashville native who started Morton Plumbing as a one-employee operation, himself)
- Operating Since: 1986 (40 years of continuous Morton family operation)
- Current Operations: Jimmy Morton plus son and step-son on the operating team (current staff of approximately 10)
- Credentials: Licensed, bonded, and insured; Nashville Scene “Best Plumbers” winner across 2012-2017 (six consecutive years of editorial recognition)
- Service area: Nashville and surrounding Middle Tennessee communities
- Website: mortonplumbing.net
Jimmy Morton Founding Plus 40-Year Native-Nashvillian Trade Career
Jimmy Morton founded Morton Plumbing in 1986 as a Nashville-native plumber who had worked for a couple of small plumbing companies before branching out on his own under the operating philosophy that “I went in business (for myself) because I felt like I could control the quality.” Morton started the firm with one employee, himself, and grew the business through local word-of-mouth (“I need Jimmy to come over and fix something”) into a family-owned operation that now includes his son and step-son on the operating team. The 40-year Morton family service span covers the post-1985 Nashville residential expansion through the 2008-2012 housing-market reset, the 2015-onward tech-and-music-economy-driven Nashville population surge, and the contemporary luxury renovation cycle.
Nashville Scene “Best Plumbers” Six-Year Editorial Recognition
Morton Plumbing earned Nashville Scene “Best Plumbers” recognition across six consecutive years from 2012 through 2017, supporting an unusually deep editorial-credibility profile that distinguishes Morton from typical small-scale Nashville plumbing competitors. The Nashville Scene local-media recognition supplements the underlying license-and-insurance credentialing with third-party editorial verification across a multi-year period. The repeated “Best Plumbers” recognition through the mid-2010s reflects sustained customer-satisfaction performance and trade-community standing across the same period that the Nashville metropolitan population surge reshaped the broader residential service market.
Integrated Plumbing Plus HVAC Service Stack From South Nashville Base
The 2426 Winford Avenue headquarters places Morton Plumbing in south Nashville (ZIP 37211) inside the Davidson County operating corridor. The integrated plumbing-plus-HVAC service stack distinguishes Morton from plumbing-only competitors, with the dual-trade scope supporting residential customers needing plumbing service plus heating and air conditioning work under one operating relationship. The service categories cover plumbing repair and installation, water heater work, drain cleaning, and the broader HVAC heating-and-cooling categories that whole-home service work requires. The roughly 10-person staff size combined with the family-owned operating profile (Jimmy plus son and step-son) supports both small-firm-scale customer-relationship continuity and the operational capacity to handle the integrated plumbing-and-HVAC scope.
Reference Notes
Tennessee plumbing licensing runs through the Tennessee Board for Licensing Contractors administered by the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance. The Board issues Contractor and Limited Licensed Plumber credentials through sequentially numbered records, with classification-based licensing covering plumbing contractor, master plumber, and limited licensed plumber tiers. Verification runs through the Department of Commerce and Insurance public licensee database at tn.gov/commerce. The Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County Department of Codes and Building Safety issues building permits within Nashville-Davidson Metro limits. Metro Water Services administers water-and-sewer service connections plus annual backflow-prevention-assembly testing compliance across Davidson County. Outside Davidson County, the surrounding Rutherford, Williamson, Sumner, Wilson, Maury, and Cheatham County jurisdictions plus the suburban municipalities (Murfreesboro, Franklin, Brentwood, Hendersonville, Mount Juliet, Lebanon, Columbia, Spring Hill, Gallatin, La Vergne, Smyrna) run their own permit-and-utility frameworks.
Nashville-area residential housing covers nearly 200 years of construction history. Pre-1900 Victorian-era housing remains in East Nashville’s Edgefield district, Germantown, Salemtown, and Lockeland Springs. Belle Meade, Hillsboro-West End, Belmont-Hillsboro, and Sylvan Park filled out with Craftsman, Tudor-revival, and Colonial-revival housing across 1900-1940. Postwar suburban tract construction built out Madison, Donelson, Inglewood, Bellevue, and the inner Davidson County corridor through 1945-1970. The 1980s-1990s drove the Brentwood, Franklin, and Mount Juliet master-planned-community surge in Williamson and Wilson Counties. Murfreesboro and the Rutherford County eastern corridor extended outer-suburban growth through the 2000s and the contemporary 2010s-onward Nashville-metro tech-and-music-economy-driven population growth wave. Hard-water mineralization from the Cumberland River source supply plus expansive-clay-soil substrate plus tornado-season storm exposure across spring months shape recurring service categories.
The four firms profiled cover four positions on the Nashville-area market arc. Gold Star Plumbing leads the contemporary chapter with its 2018 firm founding (7 years), Rocky Burrell’s 35-plus year cumulative plumbing-trade career reaching back to 1989, husband-and-wife founded family-business model, owner-answers-the-phone customer engagement profile, same-day response and after-hours track record, 4.9-star customer rating, one-year labor plus manufacturer parts warranty, and 15-community Middle Tennessee service zone within a 25-mile radius of the La Vergne base. Jack Ward and Sons leads tenure with its 1947 origin and three Ward family generations through Jack Ward, son Tommy, and grandson Bartley Burnette, plus the unusually broad five-license Tennessee credential stack covering Master Contractor #MCN07740 and four additional licenses. Wehby Plumbing brings 66 years of two-generation Wehby family operation (Charles Sr. 1959 founder, sons Andy and Charles Jr. current) plus the backflow installation specialty. Morton Plumbing carries 40 years of Jimmy Morton family operation since 1986, plus the integrated plumbing-and-HVAC service stack and the Nashville Scene “Best Plumbers” six-year editorial recognition across 2012-2017.
Verification paths run through tn.gov/commerce, BBB Middle Tennessee listings, the PHCC of Tennessee directory, and the Metropolitan Nashville Department of Codes and Building Safety contractor records. The 15-community Middle Tennessee service zone fits Gold Star Plumbing’s contemporary family-business operating model. Three-generation Nashville-Davidson plus seven-decade tenure fits Jack Ward and Sons. Two-generation south Nashville plus backflow specialty fits Wehby Plumbing. Forty-year integrated plumbing-and-HVAC plus Nashville Scene recognition fits Morton Plumbing. National rollup brands operating in the Middle Tennessee market (Authority Brands’ Benjamin Franklin Plumbing, Neighborly’s Mr. Rooter, Service Experts, Roto-Rooter, Wrench Group, Redwood Services, Master Trades Group, ARS, Apex Service Partners, Turnpoint Services) sit outside the four-firm independent profile.
Selection Methodology
Selection follows four criteria. First, continuous family ownership or founder-operator continuity outside the national rollup pattern. Second, verifiable Tennessee plumbing license cross-checked via the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance public lookup. Third, BBB listing or equivalent third-party recognition. Fourth, minimum operating-tenure threshold with documented Nashville-area or Middle Tennessee service coverage. Firms acquired by national franchise networks (Authority Brands’ Benjamin Franklin Plumbing, Neighborly’s Mr. Rooter, Service Experts, Roto-Rooter, Wrench Group, Redwood Services, Master Trades Group, ARS) are excluded.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I verify a Nashville plumber’s license?
Use the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance public licensee database at tn.gov/commerce. Search by license number or business name. Confirm active status, classification, bonding, and insurance before authorizing work.
What credentials should a Nashville plumber hold?
At minimum: Tennessee Limited Licensed Plumber or Master Contractor (with plumbing classification) credential plus general liability insurance and workers’ compensation coverage. Specialty work (gas line, backflow prevention, fire sprinkler, sewer lateral) requires additional credential layers.
How can I tell if a Nashville plumber is locally owned versus a national rollup?
Check ownership disclosures and acquisition history. National franchise brands typically operate under parent company branding. Search the firm name plus “acquired” or “parent company” to surface ownership structure. The four firms in this directory all run as independent locally owned operators.
When should I call an emergency plumber in Nashville?
Burst pipes, sewer backups, gas leaks, no-water events, and water heater failures justify after-hours dispatch. Cold winter snaps drive freeze-burst pipe demand across Middle Tennessee. Spring tornado-season storms can produce service surges. Each firm in this directory offers either 24/7 emergency service or scheduled emergency response.
Editorial Note
Compiled by the editorial team. Firm details cross-verified through state license databases, BBB business profiles, and firm-published websites where available. License numbers should be re-verified through the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance public lookup before authorizing work. Information current as of the date below; firm details may change without notice. Last updated: 2026-05-10.