Durham Region

Licensed plumbers in Pickering.

We work the whole of Pickering, from the 1960s lakeshore subdivisions to the new builds going up in Seaton. Different houses, different problems.

Request a Quote (742) 688-3747

Pickering is two building stories on one map. South of the 401 you have the planned communities of the early 1960s, Bay Ridges first and then West Shore, followed by thirty years of low-density subdivision spreading north and west through Amberlea, Liverpool and Brock Ridge. In the centre of the city you have Seaton, land the Province assembled in the early 1970s for a city that never got built, sitting frozen until 2006 and now going up in every direction at once.

The two halves fail differently. In the south it is sixty-year-old drainage, aging services and the slow arithmetic of tree roots. In Seaton it is a new house discovering, over its first winter, which parts of a fast build were done properly.

We work across both for homeowners, landlords, property managers, contractors and builders. Pickering sits at the eastern edge of our normal service area, so anything further out than the city we confirm case by case when the enquiry comes in.

What we run into on Pickering plumbing calls.

What the south end was actually built on

South Pickering went up in waves.

Bay Ridges came first in the early 1960s, then West Shore, and the pattern repeated north and west through Amberlea, Liverpool and Brock Ridge from the 1970s onward. Older than any of it are the village pockets. Dunbarton dates to the mid-1800s, and the streets off Rosebank Road, Fairport Road and Woodview Avenue were built between 1900 and 1940, some of them summer places that were later winterized without much thought for the plumbing.

In practice that means copper of several different vintages, cast iron stacks at the old end, and clay laterals that have had five or six decades to collect roots at every joint.

Seaton, and the fifty years of nothing that came first

The Province assembled roughly 8,000 hectares in central Pickering in the early 1970s for a city of 250,000 people next to a proposed international airport.

That city was never built. Minister's zoning orders in 1974 held the land at agricultural use and it stayed farmland for three decades, until the Central Pickering Development Plan was released in 2006. Seaton is what finally got built there, laid out across six neighbourhood areas including Lamoreaux, Mount Pleasant and Wilson Meadows.

For us that is rough-ins, new services and first-winter callbacks rather than excavation and repair. Permits go through Pickering's Building Services like any other build in the city.

Three parties own the pipe under your property

Water and sanitary sewer belong to the Regional Municipality of Durham, out to your property line.

From that line into the house, the service is the owner's, including the cost of repairing it. Storm sewers, ditches, catch basins and the stormwater ponds are the City of Pickering's. So a single backed-up drain can involve any of the three, and which one depends entirely on where the blockage sits.

A camera run down the lateral settles that for a fraction of what guessing costs. Worth knowing before you make any phone calls: if the fault is on the private side, no amount of calling the Region will move it.

Durham's basement flooding money is a loan, not a grant

Durham Region has a basement flooding program for homeowners who have had a sanitary sewer back up into the basement.

It is an interest-free loan repaid in instalments on the quarterly water and sewer bill, covering labour and materials for an approved backwater valve and a sump pump installation. Caps, eligibility and the approved device list have been on the books for years and can be revised, so confirm the current terms with the Region before you budget around it.

The process is the part that catches people. Building permit from Pickering first, then a licensed plumber, then a passed final inspection, then original invoices. Skip the permit and you are outside the program no matter how good the work is.

Most requested

What Pickering customers call us about most.

Questions

Plumbing in Pickering.

Do I need a permit for plumbing work in Pickering?

Often, yes. New plumbing, relocating fixtures, changing drainage or venting, and installing a backflow prevention device all require a permit from City of Pickering Building Services. Like-for-like repairs and straight fixture swaps generally do not. We are a licensed plumbing contractor with Red Seal certification and a Master Plumber licence, and we take permits out through Pickering's building department the same as any other contractor working in the city.

Who is responsible for the water and sewer line in my front yard?

Durham Region maintains the water and sanitary sewer infrastructure in the road allowance out to your property line. The connection from that line into the house belongs to the owner, repairs included. Storm sewers and ditches are the City's. If a lateral backs up more than once, a camera inspection will tell you which side of the property line the problem sits on before anybody starts digging.

Does my Pickering property need annual backflow testing?

If it is industrial, commercial, institutional, or residential with more than six self-contained units, Durham Region's backflow prevention by-law likely applies to it. It calls for premise isolation, a cross-connection survey, and annual testing of the device to CSA B64 by an authorized tester. Reports are filed with both the Region and the City of Pickering. We hold the tester certification, so the test and the paperwork are one visit.

Can you work on a house in Claremont, Whitevale or Greenwood?

Usually, with one thing understood up front. There is no municipal water system in the rural hamlets, so they run on private wells and private septic. We handle the plumbing inside the building: supply lines, drains, fixtures, water heaters, valves and shut-offs. We do not drill wells and we do not pump septic tanks. Septic system approvals in Durham go through the Region's health department rather than the City.

Do you charge a trip fee to come out to Pickering?

No. There is no trip fee anywhere inside our service area and Pickering is inside it. It does sit at the eastern edge, so work further out than the city gets confirmed case by case when you call, rather than booked and then cancelled. We work Monday to Friday, nine to five, with Saturdays by appointment. Messages left outside those hours are returned the next business day.

Get a quote

Working in Pickering?

Send the details through the quote form and we will come back to you with next steps. For anything urgent, call the office. A phone call always beats a web form.

Call the office(742) 688-3747 Request a Quote

Mon–Fri 9:00am–5:00pm · Saturday by appointment. We do not advertise 24-hour emergency service. Messages received outside regular business hours are returned as soon as possible on the next business day.