California's Capital Region: The Sacramento Valley

the ground up, including the main plant in Alameda. The
firm also installed the plumbing for eleven Burger Kings in
Southern California.
“My father worked out of our home and we became used
to seeing half-a-dozen plumbers at our kitchen table setting
up their work day,” Marcelle recalls. “My father was a hard
worker and my mother found her joy working from home
taking care of the ‘Vance Empire’.”
In 1985, Tom decided to move to Sacramento and purchase
another small plumbing company, Armstrong
Plumbing, a residential service plumbing shop located at the
corner of 20 th and Capital Avenue in Midtown Sacramento,
in a building that had formerly housed Capital Dawg hot dog
stand and is now Plan B Café. “Armstrong had only one
plumbing truck that looked like it should have been recycled
during World War II, but my dad immediately began bidding
work as he had done in Anaheim, working from a little
card file of customers begun by Bob Armstrong in the early
1950s,” explains Marcelle. “Little was done to promote the
service side of Armstrong Plumbing, but my father wanted to
keep the name so that those who were interested in the occasional
toilet repair could find us under the A’s rather than the
V’s in the telephone book.”
In 1993, Marcelle was pregnant with her youngest son
and working full-time in a cardiology clinic. However, she
realized her father needed help in modernizing his operation
and agreed to help out. “My father’s work ethic was
unparalleled by any I’ve ever known, but his business
acumen was seriously in need of some assistance,” she
recalls. “He believed in contracts based on a handshake
and felt a man’s word was his bond.” Unfortunately, life
around him was changing rapidly and receivables had
begun to climb. For the next decade, Marcelle helped
her father grow the business while developing several
home-based businesses of her own and raising two
sons. By 2004, Tom was thinking of retirement and
Marcelle was ready to return to the business full-time
and invest in the future.
“We began to grow the commercial business and
kept the door open for our few remaining service
customers. Then the unimaginable happened,” she
Above: Armstrong Plumbing’s trenchless team with tools of the trade.
Below: The Vance kids.
CAPITAL REGION PARTNERS - BUILDING A BETTER CAPITAL REGION
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