A partnership between Alex & Kelly Mantalis — founders of AK Water Works — and Mike & Vanessa Papalios, longtime Northeast Ohio property managers. We launched in April 2026 so your home doesn't need a different stranger every time something breaks.
Alex and Kelly Mantalis founded AK Water Works in 2020 on a simple idea — neighbors deserve a contractor who actually picks up the phone. Six years later, AK Water Works is one of Northeast Ohio's top-rated plumbing and drain companies, with a 4.9-star average across more than 1,000 reviews.
But customers kept telling them the same thing: when the furnace fails on the same night the sump pump quits, they were still juggling two contractors. The fix wasn't a second phone number — it was a second trade under the same roof.
In April 2026, Alex and Kelly partnered with Mike and Vanessa Papalios — two longtime Northeast Ohio property managers who'd lived the customer-side frustration firsthand — to launch AK Heating & Cooling. Same Warren shop. Same neighbors. New trade. Now when something breaks, you make one call and AK answers.
Business Journal Daily covered the AK Heating & Cooling launch, the acquisition of Valley Mechanical Solutions, and the partnership between the Mantalis and Papalios families. The article gets into why a 50-person Warren-based plumbing operation expanded into HVAC — and what it means for Trumbull, Mahoning, and Columbiana county customers.
Read the articleBuilt AK Water Works from a one-truck plumbing shop into one of Northeast Ohio's most-reviewed home-services companies. Alex runs operations; Kelly runs the office. Now they bring the same playbook — pick up the phone, show up on time, do the work right — to heating and cooling.
Longtime Northeast Ohio property managers. After years of relying on outside contractors to keep their buildings running, Mike and Vanessa partnered with the Mantalises to launch the kind of HVAC company they always wished they could hire — same customer-first standards AK Water Works built its name on.
Most HVAC companies stop at residential furnaces. We don't. AK Heating & Cooling is the only Trumbull/Mahoning contractor running HVAC, refrigeration, and Generac under one roof — with the AK family behind every service call.
Three generations of mechanical work, run by the Mantalis family out of one Warren shop. The owner answers his phone.
Our storyResidential HVAC, commercial HVAC, commercial refrigeration, and Generac standby power — under one license and one dispatcher.
What we coverAK Heating & Cooling is part of the AK family alongside AK Water Works (plumbing) and RestoWorks (restoration). Three legal entities, one team you can call.
Meet the familyYou see the price before we start. No mystery line items, no after-the-fact upcharges. If the scope changes, we stop and tell you.
Every person we send is on AK's payroll — not a subcontractor. We're licensed in Ohio for HVAC, refrigeration, and Generac sales/install/service.
Restaurant with HVAC + refrigeration + a backup generator? You're calling one number and getting one invoice. Same for property managers and multi-tenant landlords.
The Mantalises and the Papalioses are partners in the business, not absentee investors. If something goes sideways, you're talking to one of the owners — not a corporate hotline.
I'm the friendly face you'll see across this site, dropping a quick tip from 20+ years in heating, cooling, and refrigeration. Keep an eye out — there's something useful on just about every page.
Three Alex Mantalis companies, one Warren HQ. Each with its own license and insurance — coordinated when you need more than one trade.
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