Big Birge Plumbing — Build vs. Modeled Comps

Modeled comp: Smock HVAC (tournament runner-up, both rounds): card-in-photo hero with the review count inside the card. Smock's public capture is hero-plus-fold only (their page defeats full-page capture), so below-the-fold sections are judged against DorMar HVAC (semifinalist, fully captured at 1440x8860), per the Ironwood precedent. Verdicts use the Straightline framing: sections with no comp evidence are "Uncontested," not automatic wins.

All trust numbers on the build were verified live on 2026-07-06: Google 4.9 / 322 reviews (shown as "320+"), BBB A+ since 2012 (not accredited, so the page never says "accredited"), Best of Omaha badge (2023 proven; page says "Voted Best of Omaha" with no year claims). Every photo and review quote is a real Big Birge asset scraped from their site; nothing is generated or fabricated.

Hero, desktop (vs Smock, the modeled comp)

Hero, mobile fold

Mobile menu open

Full page (vs DorMar, fully captured)

Section-by-section scorecard

Section	Toughest comp	Verdict	Why
Hero	Smock (modeled)	WIN	Structure parity with the winning pattern (white card over photo, review count inside the card), plus pieces Smock lacks: keyword H1 under the ribbon, 4 checkmark proof bullets, dual CTA (book + call), and a photo that carries the brand (the real pin-up-wrapped van with the Best of Omaha decal visible) instead of a generic tech-at-door. Smock counterpunch: their photo has a human face, ours is mostly van; flagged in gaps.
Header & nav	Smock	TIE	Both: utility bar, service dropdowns, phone with hours, pill CTA. Smock shows a 24/7 answering line; Big Birge's honest Mon-Fri 7-4 can't match that and shouldn't fake it.
Credential strip	DorMar ("Trusted by" logo strip)	WIN	Four verified, specific signals (Best of Omaha, BBB A+ since 2012, licensed/bonded/insured, 170+ combined years) on a plaid-edged band vs a generic trusted-by strip that rendered empty in DorMar's own capture.
Services grid	DorMar (4 category tiles)	WIN	Six icon cards with specific, folksy copy, one anchored to a real named review (John Hast's same-day water heater), plus an all-services CTA. DorMar's tiles are bare category links.
Why-us / team	DorMar ("HVAC Heroes" split)	WIN	Real 14-person crew photo at the red shop door, the real Best of Omaha badge art, and four concrete proof points vs DorMar's text-only split (its photo circle failed to render even in its own capture).
Stat band	None (neither comp has one)	UNCONTESTED	320+ reviews, 4.9 rating, 170+ combined years, family-owned since 2012, with count-up animation.
Named crew roster	None	UNCONTESTED	10 real plumbers with real headshots and names, with "named in reviews" flags on Dennis and Cameron. Neither comp, and crucially not Big Birge's current site homepage, puts the crew's faces and names on the front page. This is the build's centerpiece differentiator.
Owners / family band	DorMar (about split)	WIN	Real studio portrait of Brad, Lallenia, and the five kids in buffalo plaid + the real apprentice-to-Master-Plumber story vs a stock-shaped about blurb (DorMar's about image also failed to render).
Reviews	DorMar (3 testimonial cards)	WIN	Verified 4.9/320+ summary pill linking to the live Google profile, plus 5 real named quotes (Barry and Nora, John Hast, M.P., Don, Jared at Life Care Center of Elkhorn) that name the techs pictured in the crew section. Caveat: DorMar's cards rendered white-on-white in its capture, so this is a win against degraded evidence.
Offer band	DorMar (loyalty + rebates bands)	WIN	One concrete number ($89 everyday service fee, their real offer) with a giant retro price lockup and a booking CTA vs two abstract program pitches behind read-more buttons.
Booking form	DorMar (contact form band)	WIN	Booking-shaped form (problem, preferred day, preferred time) matching the "online booking" brief vs a generic 7-field contact form with a newsletter checkbox. Also repeats the honest emergency escape hatch (call instead).
Service area	DorMar (3 location cards)	TIE	City pills for all 10 real service towns + local blurb vs DorMar's three real office addresses. Different jobs, both credible.
FAQ	None on either comp's homepage	UNCONTESTED	Six real-question FAQs with FAQPage JSON-LD; answers sell honestly (hours are stated as Mon-Fri 7-4, no fake 24/7).
Footer	DorMar	TIE	Build: trust strip, 4 columns, social icons, service-area line, exit CTA, back-to-top. DorMar: 3 location cards + socials + hours. Both complete; DorMar's multi-location layout is genuinely good.
Mobile UX	Smock	WIN	3-way sticky bar (call / text / book) + full-screen flyout drawer with one-at-a-time accordions, booking CTA, phone, and hours, all exercised programmatically (open/close, scroll-lock, aria-expanded, no h-scroll at 375px: scrollWidth 375 = clientWidth 375). Smock's bottom bar is phone + burger only.

Tally: 9 wins · 4 ties · 3 uncontested · 0 losses

Alignment measurement (not eyeballed)

Left-edge bounding boxes via getBoundingClientRect(). Desktop 1440: header container 100, hero card 100, services container 100, why-us container 100 (foot-grid 124 = container + 24px gutter, correct since it nests inside .container). Mobile 375: brand 20, hero card 20, foot-grid 20 (section containers at 0 with the 20px gutter as padding). scrollWidth === clientWidth at both widths: no horizontal scroll. Drawer exercised programmatically: open, one-accordion-at-a-time, body scroll-lock, close, all pass.

Honest gaps (flagged, not hidden)

• Logo is a low-res raster. The header/footer lockup is the 411px PNG scraped from their site. The pitch needs their vector logo; already on the ask list.
• Hero photo has lens flare. The real van shot was taken into the sun; it was color-lifted for the build but a reshoot (or their photographer's original) would be better. It was still chosen over the composite family hero because it is authentic and shows the wrap.
• Best of Omaha years unverified. Their badge proves 2023; their copy claims "multiple years." The build says "Voted Best of Omaha" with no year. Verify the actual years before the pitch.
• Two DorMar sections rendered broken in its own capture (testimonials, about photo), so those two wins are against degraded evidence.
• Owner portrait is repurposed. The family band uses the plaid studio portrait (great), but there is no hi-res individual Brad/Lallenia headshot in the scrape.
• Roster drift risk. Headshots and the team photo date to mid-2025; confirm current roster (and the unlabeled probable Joe Kepford headshot) before launch.
• Booking form is a mockup. It simulates confirmation client-side; production wiring (scheduler or GHL) is a build-phase task.

Provenance notes

• "Why sleep with a drip? Call a Big Birge Plumber" is adapted from their own printed ad creative (scraped: call-a-big-birge-plumber.jpg), not invented.
• "Honesty, quality & American craftsmanship," "The Real MVPs," "Omaha's plumbing power couple," "We'll get to the bottom of your plumbing woes," and the $89 everyday service fee are all their own lines, lifted from the current site.
• Typography: Ultra (display) matches the van's circus-slab lettering genre; Yellowtail matches the wrap's script lines; palette hexes anchored to the wrap's brick red / mint / cream and the logo's reds.