Al Reuter — founder, master plumber.
Al runs the inversion rig on every CIPP install. He pulls the cable on every burst he is on site for. He is in the basement at every job whose customer specifically asked for him. He answers the phone on weekends and after hours. He is the first to arrive in the morning and the last to leave after a long install. Eighteen years at Cellino, eighteen years here. Born in Cheektowaga, lived on Hertel Avenue since 1982.
§ I · Background
Al graduated from Cheektowaga Central High in 1985. He started in the trades that fall as a UA Local 22 apprentice through a referral from his uncle Jim Reuter, a master pipefitter at Bethlehem Steel before the 1983 closure. Al completed the five-year apprenticeship at Local 22 and became a journeyman plumber in 1990. He worked residential and light commercial in Erie County until 1989, when he was hired by Cellino Plumbing.
At Cellino he ran the underground crew from 1996 through 2006. He was one of the first three trenchless-certified plumbers in Western New York, completing the original Insituform installer training in 2002 and the inaugural NASSCO PACP program in 2004. By 2006 he was running an underground crew of eleven people on roughly 280 jobs a year. He left Cellino in February 2007 to take the Niagara Street lease.
§ II · What he does at the shop
- Operates the Perma-Liner Quik-Shot 50 inversion rig on every CIPP install.
- Pulls the cable on every pipe-burst job (Dani drives the bursting head; Al runs the basement-side connection).
- Answers the phone Monday morning before Linda arrives.
- Trains apprentices on inversion technique and on the not-trivial skill of judging cure timing by the texture of the resin runoff at the termination point.
- Personally signs off on every dossier the shop produces (Marie writes them; Al countersigns).
- Picks up Charlie from the kennel on Friday afternoons.
§ III · Certifications & credentials
| NYS Master Plumber | Lic. #PL-22-1148-NY (1995, renewed 2024) |
| UA Local 22 Journeyman | Card #1985-114 (since 1990) |
| NASSCO PACP v8 | Cert. #PACP-2004-0047, recertified 2023 |
| NASSCO MACP | Cert. #MACP-2008-0142, recertified 2023 |
| NASSCO LACP | Cert. #LACP-2018-0238, recertified 2024 |
| Insituform installer cert | Original 2002 (no longer maintained) |
| Perma-Liner trainer | Authorized 2014 |
| NYSDOH Backflow Tester | Cert. #BFT-NY-1488, current |
| OSHA 30 Construction | Current |
§ IV · How customers describe working with him
"Al came to my house on a Saturday in February to look at a backed-up basement. He told me what was wrong, told me what it would cost, and told me what would happen if I didn't fix it. None of those three things changed when I called him back on Monday for a second opinion. The job ran on schedule and on budget. The lateral has been quiet for four years." — J.S., Bidwell Parkway, dossier RKT-DOS-094, 2022
§ V · Outside the shop
Al volunteers as a Local 22 apprentice instructor (one Wednesday evening a month at the union hall on Broadway). He coaches a 14U Buffalo Stars softball team in the spring. He has owned the same 1996 Ford F-250 since 1999. He has read every published volume of Robert Caro and is currently working through the Lyndon Johnson series for the second time.