DS Plumbing has gone Out of This World

cover by Michael R. Bussière

I love Jim Unger’s British wit, and so when I was given the chance to write about plumbing, a Herman cartoon immediately jumped to mind. Picture newlyweds leaving a chapel, with an honour guard of men saluting them with plungers thrust skyward. The bride turns to the groom and says: “I thought you told me you were a fighter pilot!”

It’s easy to resort to jokes, but the gang at Out of this World Home Services is hardcore serious and proudly sport Canadian flags on their shoulders. If I didn’t know better, I’d have thought they were astronauts. But plumbing is no joke when it breaks down, and it wasn’t that long ago that the indoor variety was a luxury for the few.

Plumbing times have changed and OOTW intends to change them again.

Out of This World Home Services is a Bell’s Corners company founded as DS Plumbing in 2004 by Dave Smythe, a master plumber whose parents were from Britain. He first trained in the UK as a millwright, and worked on industrial maintenance at a site where they tested Rolls Royce jet engines. But it was thanks to his plumber stepfather that Dave first became curious about a new trade, and Canada seemed to be the place to pursue it...