About
We Can Do It! Plumbing is an Oakland-based plumbing contractor serving homeowners, restaurants, apartment buildings, and small businesses throughout the East Bay. We provide plumbing service and repair, remodeling, repiping, water heater installation, drain cleaning, and system upgrades for residential and light commercial properties.
With extensive experience in older homes, historic restaurants, and aging apartment buildings, our team specializes in diagnosing complex plumbing problems and modernizing existing systems while respecting the character and function of established buildings. We also work with customers on renovations, additions, and infrastructure improvements in newer properties.
As a signatory contractor with UA Local 342, We Can Do It! Plumbing is proud to support union apprenticeship, continuing education, family-supporting wages, healthcare benefits, and retirement security. We believe investing in skilled plumbing professionals helps us provide better service and craftsmanship while strengthening the East Bay communities we serve.
Meet the Team
Carbo has been plumbing since 2014 and founded We Can Do It! Plumbing in 2022. Before entering the trades, Carbo was a high school math teacher. They eventually decided to pursue a childhood dream of becoming a mechanic, applied to the plumbers union without knowing much about plumbing, and discovered a trade that was an unexpectedly perfect fit: hands-on work, constant problem-solving, and the satisfaction of leaving a customer with something that works better than when they arrived.
Carbo started We Can Do It! Plumbing to build the kind of company they wanted to work for: one where customers get clear explanations without being talked down to, where quality and craftsmanship matter, and where queer and trans people can feel comfortable both as customers and as people working in the trades. As a trans, nonbinary plumber, Carbo knows firsthand how valuable it can be to have someone enter your home who makes you feel respected and at ease.
Carbo especially loves projects where the finished work will serve a home for decades—from thoughtful remodels and underground plumbing to whole-house repipes built to last. They also genuinely enjoy the puzzle of plumbing: figuring out why something isn’t working, finding the right solution, and getting the satisfaction that comes from finally cracking a difficult problem.
Lauren “Carbo” Carbonell — Owner & Founder
Lily Hamilton
A Bay Area native, Lily has spent many years working across the building trades. Plumbing speaks to their love of solving puzzles and their curiosity about how things work. They enjoy the challenge of figuring out what’s happening behind the walls, finding a solution, and putting everything back together the way it should be.
When they’re not plumbing, Lily can usually be found riding their motorcycle, dancing badly to good music, or spending as much time outdoors as possible.
Pristine Shin
Pristine is an apprentice plumber, lifelong problem-solver, and maker of things. After years of teaching high school math and studying carpentry and digital fabrication, they traded lesson plans for pipe wrenches and found a career that brings together many of the things they love most: working with their hands, staying active, solving puzzles, and making things work.
A longtime Oakland resident and proud trans, nonbinary member of the queer community, Pristine especially enjoys service plumbing for its variety and the satisfaction of helping people solve problems in their homes. Their background in math and making shapes how they approach the trade—with curiosity, precision, and an appreciation for good craftsmanship. They’ve developed a particular love for clean copper work: thoughtfully laid out, precisely measured, and beautifully parallel.
When they’re not plumbing, Pristine can usually be found building something, cooking something, climbing on something, or spending time with their loved ones and community.
Samuel Ramirez
Sam grew up around the plumbing industry, with family members working both as plumbers and in plumbing supply. That early exposure eventually led him to work in a plumbing supply warehouse himself, giving him a unique perspective on the trade before he ever started working in the field.
What Sam enjoys most about plumbing is the combination of hands-on work and problem-solving. Every job brings something a little different, and he likes figuring out what’s going on, finding a solution, and seeing the tangible result at the end of the day. For Sam, plumbing is also a way to serve his community and do work that makes a real difference in people’s everyday lives.