David Lumbley has spent most of his life in North Texas, but his connection to the plumbing trade runs even deeper.
David Lumbley has spent most of his life in North Texas, but his connection to the plumbing trade runs even deeper.
Born and raised in Dallas, David entered the industry over three decades ago and spent most of that time learning the trade from those around him at Herndon McFarland Plumbing.
Rather than taking a short path from training to management, he built expertise through years of hands-on work, solving plumbing problems that require patience, technical judgment, and a willingness to find the real cause.
Today, after 32 years in the trade and 29 years with the company, David is a Dallas slab leak specialist whose experience extends well beyond finding a leak.
Below-slab plumbing presents a very different challenge than a leak you can see and reach directly.
David’s expertise is understanding what happens beneath a concrete slab and determining how to locate, test, and repair the problem without treating the symptom as the full answer.
He has spent much of his career working with these hidden systems, developing an understanding of how testing can narrow down a leak’s location before invasive repair begins.
David’s specialization grew from precise field experience. His approach is straightforward: test carefully, interpret the results, and use that information to make a sound repair decision.
David became the company’s responsible master plumber in 2004, a milestone that expanded his role from technical work into the broader responsibility of managing plumbing operations.
That transition allowed him to improve more than individual jobs. He helped design and implement the company’s safety policy, updated testing forms and procedures, and refined the final reports the company provides.
For David, that responsibility extended what he had learned in the field: good plumbing depends on careful testing, proper procedures, accurate documentation, and accountability for the final result.
David’s expertise has also taken him beyond everyday plumbing work.
Over the past decade, he has been consulted as a plumbing expert in several court cases. He has also helped design continuing education courses covering sanitary sewer and domestic water systems.
Those courses address the design and installation of plumbing systems, methods for testing systems to identify commonly encountered leaks and other issues, and repair approaches for both above- and below-slab plumbing leaks.
That educational work reflects an important part of David’s character. He doesn’t see expertise as something to keep to himself. For him, technical knowledge is more valuable when explained clearly and passed on.
In 2025, David took another significant step in his career when he joined Shawn Stanford and Blake Brice in purchasing Herndon McFarland Plumbing from its original owner.
For David, ownership is more than a title change. It continues a career built largely within the same organization, carrying forward the technical standards, procedures, and practical knowledge he helped develop over nearly three decades.
David’s commitment to North Texas extends beyond plumbing.
Over the years, he has participated in food drives supporting local shelters and taken part in blood drives through Carter BloodCare.
After 32 years in the trade, his career has many technical accomplishments. But his story is ultimately about something more grounded: learning a demanding trade, taking responsibility for the work, teaching others what he has learned, and serving the community.
