Our story

The white trucks
Vancouver has trusted
since 1967.

Uncle Bill's Hillcrest Plumbing & Heating has served Vancouver since 1967 — the same name, the same white trucks, and the same standard on every call.

Look for the white trucks

1967

Serving Vancouver since

59 yrs

BBB member · A rating

10 yrs

Voted Best Plumber, Surrey Now

15 yrs

Little Mountain Baseball sponsor

1967 · How it started

One plumber, one standard.

In 1967, a working Vancouver plumber named Bill Schroeder incorporated Hillcrest Plumbing & Heating. He built the company on a standard simple enough to fit on a work order: show up, do it right, and do it promptly.

That standard is what grew Hillcrest from a small local operation into one of the most recognized plumbing names in the city. Nearly six decades on, it's the same standard the crew still carries out of the shop on 17th Avenue.

The record

Nearly six decades, and counting.

1967

Bill Schroeder founds Hillcrest

Bill Schroeder incorporates Hillcrest Plumbing & Heating in Vancouver and builds it from a small operation into a full plumbing and heating service company.

1980s

The shop comes to 17th Avenue

With a booming retail trade in fixtures and hard-to-find parts, Hillcrest moves to 212 East 17th — the address that's still home today.

1986

A 10,000 sq ft flagship in Surrey

A full showroom, warehouse and service team — and for years, one of the most recognized plumbing names south of the Fraser.

2016

One home, on 17th

The business consolidates everything into the Vancouver shop and leans fully into what it always did best: service.

Today

Still on the road, still white trucks

Same name, same white trucks, same standard — Uncle Bill's is still serving Vancouver, decade after decade.

How you'll know us

The white trucks are ours.

Bill painted the fleet white because he thought it looked sharper on the road. Decades later, it's how Vancouver tells us apart.— A small decision that became the family mark

There's more than one Hillcrest in this city — an old story of its own — but the easiest way to know you've reached Uncle Bill's is simple: ours are the white trucks, and we still run on the standard Bill set in 1967.

The name

Who "Uncle Bill" is.

Around the shop and the trade, Bill Schroeder was always just Uncle Bill — the plumber who founded Hillcrest Plumbing & Heating in 1967 and spent decades building it into a name Vancouver knows. Putting his name on the door keeps the founder at the front of the business he built.

Meet the team

The people behind the white trucks.

A seasoned crew of plumbers — many of them with Hillcrest for years. The people in the trucks are the business.

Brent Black

General Manager

Brent actively manages all of Uncle Bill's day-to-day operations. For many years his focus was entirely on the company's Surrey location — until the business consolidated onto 17th Avenue.

The Uncle Bill's Hillcrest Plumbing crew gathered with their white service vans in Vancouver — The crew behind the white trucks

What we do

A service company, top to bottom.

The big-box stores took over the parts aisle, so we put our focus where the family always did its best work: on the job, in your home or building, getting it fixed right.

Residential

Repairs, replacements and installs for Vancouver homeowners — from a leaking valve to a new hot water tank.

Residential plumbing →

Commercial & strata

Dependable maintenance and service for businesses and strata-managed buildings across the city.

Commercial plumbing →
Strata maintenance →

Emergency repairs

When something's gone wrong and can't wait, we get a plumber to it. Real problems, handled the same day wherever we can.

Emergency plumbing →

In the neighbourhood

Rooted here — and proud of it.

For around fifteen years we've sponsored a team in Little Mountain Baseball, the local Little League association of some 800 kids. Our team plays under one name: Uncle Bill's Hillcrest Plumbing. It's the kind of thing you do when the community isn't a market — it's home.

59 yrs

Better Business Bureau · A rating

'02–'12

Best Plumber, Surrey Now readers

Voted

Best Plumber, Georgia Straight readers