SAN CARLOS PARK, FLORIDA — Jose Lopez, owner of My Plumbing Friends in southwest Florida, has built his business on quality craftsmanship, reliable materials, and strong word-of-mouth referrals. After years working as an apprentice, Lopez earned his Florida plumbing license in 2025 and launched his own company, now serving residential and commercial customers throughout Collier County.
“I started off as an apprentice, and over the years I just kept doing more plumbing and fell in love with it,” Lopez says. “Once I got my license, I opened my own company, and it’s really taken off through word of mouth and doing good work with good materials.”
Lopez began building his company’s presence on Instagram in early 2024, using the platform to showcase his work and connect with other industry professionals. Through both hands-on experience and engagement with the online plumbing community, he has consistently relied on trusted brands like Oatey to deliver dependable results.
“Since I started in plumbing, I’ve seen Oatey products everywhere, from glues and solvents to other essential materials,” Lopez says. “I’ve never had any issues with them, so I trust they’ll be reliable for my customers.”
Today, Lopez regularly uses a range of Oatey solutions in his daily work, including washer boxes, ice maker boxes, Teflon tape, pipe joint compound, and solvent cements.
For shower installations, he also values the precision and reliability of the Oatey® Perfect Slope® system, which helps plumbers create the proper pre-slope beneath shower liners to ensure effective drainage and long-term performance.
Putting Quality to the Test After Storm Damage
The Perfect Slope system simplifies a process that traditionally requires careful mortar shaping and time-consuming adjustments. Guiding installers to achieve the correct pitch, it helps prevent standing water in shower pans, a common cause of long-term moisture issues.
For Lopez, well-designed products play a key role in delivering clean, professional results that stand the test of time.
“I’m a bit of a perfectionist,” he says. “I always think about how the finished job will look and how it’s going to perform. When you use products that are designed well, the install just comes out cleaner and more professional.”
Lopez recently put that philosophy into practice during a home restoration project after Hurricane Milton flooded a client’s house with more than 20 inches of water. While completing repairs, he identified an aging polybutylene water line supplying the refrigerator and recommended upgrading the setup using an Oatey ice maker box.
Published on August 06, 2026