Mountaintop Plumbing comes to town

When Mike and Terisa Dunson visited Bonners Ferry in 2020 to see her father, they didn’t realize it would be a life changing trip.

“He had dementia,” Mike Dunson said, adding that they wanted to come see him “while he still remembered his daughter.” What they found was that their in-laws needed more help than they’d previously indicated.

It didn’t take long for the Dunsons to decide to move to Bonners Ferry. In fact, when they returned home to Boise it took only a matter of weeks to put their house on the market, finish a few ongoing jobs and shut down their business, and make the move a reality.

Once here, Mike Dunson didn’t hesitate to start up the same business he ran in Boise: Mountaintop Plumbing. The business may be new to Bonners Ferry but Dunson isn’t new to the business. He’s been running it since 2004 and working as a plumber since 1987.

His brother-in-law got him into the business because he was worried Dunson didn’t make enough money to take care of his sister, encouraging and mentoring him along the way.

“[One day he] took me down a residential road, and there were houses and cars and trees and he asked ‘what do you see?,’ ” Dunson laughed as he remembered. “And I laughed and said, ‘I don’t know, there’s a truck and a house.’ He said ‘every one of these houses has plumbing in it. You don’t need to be greedy, just do your job and people will call you.’”

“[That] made sense to me and so I just applied that to my business model and I said if I do my job and I do it the right way, [I won’t] have to worry about work,” he said.

Dunson knows he’s a new guy in town.

“[I have] no name recognition but I’m committed to the community,” he said. “[We] go to Mountain Springs Church and we’re always actively looking to participate in the community,” he said. “We didn’t come here to change anything, we like it just the way it is.”

He stressed that he’s more interested in doing residential repair work.

“My preference is small jobs, helping homeowners,” he said. “I’m semi-retired, not looking to build a huge empire, just help when I can.”

It’s a job he takes seriously, Dunson said. “I see people in very crisis-oriented moments and so my responsibility is to put them at ease, find the problem and not add to their problems.”

He sees it as his job to “give them peace of mind.”

It’s also important to him to be honest with his customers. “If it’s something I can’t help with I’ll refer them to someone else,” he said. “Honesty is a key, loyalty is a key. I thrive on repeat business and I take pride in personal referrals.”

You may have seen him about town in his truck with his faithful companion Chase, a blue heeler. “Chase rides with me most of the time unless it’s too hot or way too cold.”

When he’s not working, Dunson loves to ride his motorcycle and garden. “I’m an avid motorcycle rider, so I do a lot of cross country travel. I like to ride and camp,” he said. “And if I’m not riding, I’m working in the garden.”

If you are interested in Mountaintop Plumbing’s services, you can call 208-267-1386, where you will probably get Dunson’s “beautiful bride, Terisa. She’s going to be helping me in the office,” he said with a smile.