Lalande Plumbing was opened in 1954 by Jacques and Rita Lalande. The couple started the business out of their home on 36 Marlborough Street North and nearly seven decades later the business is still going strong with three generations of Lalandes having served Cornwall and areas’ plumbing needs.
“It started back in the early 50s with my mom and my dad. This was our home, so that part that you see there is the kitchen/living room, bedrooms upstairs and the front part of this here was the store so that was it back then,” explained current owner Claude Lalande as he pointed out different areas of the showroom, “Through the years we grew, and we added on, we built, and we extended as the business got a little bit busier and bigger.”
Working in the same location as his childhood home, Claude has many fond memories from over the years.
“Well, I remember growing up here, this was our neighborhood. So back then when they had heavy storms my mom used to put our swimsuits on, and we’d run up and down the sidewalk here,” he reminisced.
Despite all the fond memories, Claude shared that he is going to be a little relieved after closing the shop.
“The thing is, at the age that I am at the last quarter of my life I want to do something different… so that’s why I took the initiative to close it down. I’ve been talking about it for the last three four years and this year I guess if you want to call it, I ‘pulled the plug’, relatively speaking because of our bathtubs,” he said with a smile.
“I must say that I want to thank the community and surrounding areas for all the support that we’ve received through the years. We’ve done numerous beautiful bathrooms in this town and served a tremendous number of clients,” he said, “Our motto here was if we don’t have it, I’ll look anywhere else. We were known for unusual parts and servicing the clients.”
Customers will be happy to hear that even though the store is closing, this is not the end for Lalande Plumbing. Claude’s son Pierre, who is a licensed plumber, will keep the company name and phone number and continue to do complete bathroom renovations for the people of Cornwall and area.
