About Craftsman Plumbing

Built on a Farm, Forged in Seattle

Every plumber has a story about how they got into the trade. Ours starts on a small farm in Curlew, Washington, long before the first van ever had “Craftsman Plumbing” painted on its side.

Our founder, Dusty Hoerler, was born into a family of plumbers — the kind of trade that gets passed down not through a textbook, but through Saturday mornings spent handing tools to an uncle or a father and asking why things work the way they do. Dusty picked up his first wrench at 12 years old. By 18, plumbing wasn’t just something he’d learned. It was something he understood, the way you understand a language you grew up speaking.

But Dusty’s path to Ballard wasn’t a straight line.

After high school, he headed to commercial dive school. He spent several years working the Gulf of Mexico as a diver for major construction companies — a job that demanded precision, patience, and the kind of calm you can only earn underwater, where there’s no room for guesswork. It was demanding work, and it was far from home.

Somewhere along the way, though, Dusty realized the pull back toward plumbing had never really left. And when Seattle called — specifically, the tight-knit, tree-lined streets of Ballard — he answered it. He completed a five-year plumbing apprenticeship in the city, learning the codes, the systems, and the neighborhoods that would later become his own backyard.

From One Man to a Team

In 2014, Craftsman Plumbing opened its doors — or more accurately, opened the back of a single van.

What started as a one-person operation grew, service by service and relationship by relationship, into a full team. Today, Dusty leads a crew that serves homeowners across Seattle, Kenmore, and the surrounding area, and he stays active in the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors Association (PHCC) of Washington State — not because it looks good on a business card, but because staying sharp on the craft matters to him.

When he’s not solving plumbing problems, you’ll usually find Dusty cooking something ambitious or working on a motorcycle in the garage. Both, he’d tell you, require the same thing plumbing does: patience, attention to detail, and a willingness to actually figure out what’s wrong before you start taking things apart.

Why We Do Things Differently

Ask anyone who’s called a plumber before and had a bad experience. You’ll usually hear some version of the same story: technical jargon they couldn’t follow, a tone that felt condescending, or a decision that got made for them instead of with them.

We built Craftsman Plumbing to be the opposite of that experience.

Our No Mansplaining Guarantee isn’t a marketing gimmick — it’s a genuine reflection of how we believe every homeowner deserves to be treated. The term “mansplaining” traces back to Rebecca Solnit’s landmark 2008 essay, which put language to something people — especially women — had experienced for years: being talked over, talked down to, or having their intelligence quietly underestimated by someone assuming they knew less.

We never want a homeowner to feel that way in their own house.

That means we listen first. We explain clearly, without jargon, and without rushing you toward a decision. We keep you in the conversation about your home’s plumbing system — not standing outside of it, nodding along to words you weren’t given the tools to understand. It’s a simple standard, but it’s one we hold ourselves to on every single call.

A Little Extra Warmth Around the Shop

Not everything about Craftsman Plumbing is serious business.

Around our shop, you’ll occasionally find two unofficial supervisors keeping a close eye on operations: Chef and Elvis Hank, our self-appointed Chief Feline Officers. Chef is the sweet, mischievous one who’ll happily interrupt your paperwork for a belly rub. Hank is quieter, more dignified, and content to observe from a respectable distance — until he decides otherwise.

They’re a small reminder that even in a trade built around pipes and pressure gauges, there’s room for a little joy.

That same spirit is part of why we partner with Canopy Cat Rescue, a Seattle-based organization that’s been rescuing cats stuck in trees since 2009. It’s a niche kind of hero work, and it’s exactly the kind of community effort we’re proud to stand behind — because taking care of people, and the creatures they love, has always felt like part of the job.

The Craftsman Standard

At the end of the day, our name means something to us. A craftsman doesn’t cut corners, doesn’t talk down to the people they’re working for, and doesn’t consider a job finished until it’s done right — not just done fast.

That’s the standard Dusty grew up with on that farm in Curlew. It’s the standard he carried through dive school and apprenticeship. And it’s the standard every member of our team carries into your home today.

We’re not just here to fix a leak or replace a water heater. We’re here to make sure you walk away from the experience feeling respected, informed, and confident in the decisions made about your own home.

That’s the kind of plumber we set out to be. We hope it’s the kind you’ll trust with your home, too.

Craftsman Plumbing — Capable & Honest Serving Seattle, Kenmore, and the surrounding area (206) 855-6110 · craftsman-plumbing.com