A Master Plumber who got tired of watching folks get taken advantage of
Stephen Crutchfield started Odyssey Plumbing Co in 2022. The reason was simple: he had seen how some plumbers in East Texas treated customers, and he wanted to run the opposite kind of company.
The short version, in Stephen’s words
“Seeing how the other plumbers were doing jobs and treating people with dishonesty, I wanted to do it the right way: be honest and treat people respectful.”
That is not a marketing line somebody wrote for him. That is the actual answer Stephen gives when people ask why he went out on his own. He had spent enough time in other people’s trucks watching customers get told a repair was bigger than it was, or get handed a bill that did not match the conversation they had at the front door.
So in 2022 he started Odyssey. He runs it as a licensed Master Plumber, and he runs the part most small trade companies get wrong too: when you call, Stephen is the one who picks up the phone. Not a dispatcher working off a script, not an answering service taking a message. The person who answers your questions is the same person who will be looking at the problem, which means you get a straight answer the first time instead of a relayed one.
What veteran-owned actually means here
Plenty of companies put a flag on the truck. For us it shows up in ordinary ways. We give you a window and we hit it. We tell you what we found even when it is smaller than what you were afraid of, which means a smaller invoice for us. We clean up the work area before we leave. If something we installed fails inside its warranty, we come back and make it right without an argument about it.
The credentials, plainly
- Master Plumber license held by Stephen Crutchfield.
- Responsible Master Plumber M-45845, registered with the Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners.
- Water Protection Specialist certification, which covers backflow prevention and protecting your clean water supply from cross connections.
- Insured on every job, residential, commercial, and industrial.
Who we work for
Most of our work is East Texas homeowners: water heaters, leaks, drains, sewer lines, repipes, bathroom and kitchen work, walk-in tubs for folks who want to stay in their house as they get older. We also do a steady amount of commercial work for offices, apartment complexes, and hotels, plus industrial pump and drainage systems where the stakes on a failure are a lot higher than a wet floor.
Builders call us for new construction rough-ins because we show up on the day we said and our work passes inspection the first time. That sounds like a low bar. In this trade it is not.
What you can expect
You call, and you get a person. We come look at the actual problem instead of quoting off a description. We explain what is wrong in language that makes sense, give you a real number before we start, and then do the work. If we open a wall and find something neither of us expected, we stop and talk to you before we keep going. We do not run up a bill and hand it to you at the end as a surprise.
If that sounds like how a plumbing company should have worked all along, that is more or less the point. Get in touch and we will take a look at whatever you are dealing with, or browse photographs of jobs we have actually finished if you would rather judge the work than the writing.
The man behind the name
When you call Odyssey, Stephen picks up. The Master Plumber who holds the license is the one on the other end of the phone, so the answer you get about your water heater or your slab leak comes from the man who will be under the house looking at it. If something goes sideways on a job, he tells you himself, before you find out from the invoice.
Veteran owned and operated is the first thing to know about how he runs it. It is the reason the crew shows up inside the window they gave you, does the job to standard instead of to the minimum, and finishes what it starts. Plumbing with honor is a high bar to put on your own flag. That is rather the point of putting it there.
Questions folks ask before they call
Who actually shows up when I call Odyssey?
Stephen, or one of the plumbers he trained and trusts. We are a small outfit on purpose. You are not getting a rotating cast of subcontractors who have never seen your house before.
What does veteran-owned mean for the work itself?
It means we show up when we said we would, we do the job to standard instead of to the minimum, and we finish what we start. That discipline is the whole reason customers keep our number.
What is a Water Protection Specialist certification?
It is a credential covering backflow prevention and keeping contaminated water out of your clean supply. It matters most on irrigation systems, commercial buildings, and anywhere a cross connection could put something in your drinking water that does not belong there.
Are you licensed and insured?
Yes. Stephen holds a Master Plumber license and our Responsible Master Plumber number M-45845 is on file with the Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners. We carry insurance on every job.
Do you charge to come look at a problem?
Call us and we will be straight with you about what a visit costs before we schedule anything. No mystery fees that show up after the fact.
What areas do you cover from Kilgore?
Roughly 150 miles in any direction, which covers most of East Texas including Longview, Tyler, Gladewater, Gilmer, Henderson, and the small towns in between.
Prefer to talk it through?
Call and talk to Stephen directly. He is a Master Plumber, not a call center, so you get a straight answer from the person who will do the work.
Call (903) 570-3051Prefer to write first?
Tell us what is going on and we will chart the job before we ever show up, so you know roughly what to expect.
Odyssey Plumbing Co is regulated by the Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners (TSBPE), 7915 Cameron Rd., Austin, TX 78754, (512) 936-5200, tsbpe.texas.gov. Stephen Crutchfield, Responsible Master Plumber License M-45845.