City of Toronto

Licensed plumbers in Scarborough.

Scarborough is a postwar district, which means its plumbing runs on a schedule. The cast iron and clay laid down in the fifties and sixties is reaching the end of it now.

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Scarborough was farmland and a string of small villages until it joined Metropolitan Toronto in 1953. Most of what stands today went up between then and the early 1980s, subdivision by subdivision. That gives the district something the old city does not have: streets where every house is the same age, by the same builder, failing the same way. Guildwood was laid out from 1957. Malvern's first residents moved in during 1972.

That uniformity works in your favour. If we have already opened a drain on your block, we have a fair idea what is under your floor before we arrive, which is usually cast iron inside the house and vitrified clay running out to the street, both laid by the same crew in the same season.

We work right across Scarborough for homeowners, landlords, property managers, contractors and builders, from a blocked lateral through to a full basement rough-in with a permit and an inspection at the end of it.

What we run into on Scarborough plumbing calls.

A postwar district ages on a schedule

Because most of Scarborough was built after the mid-1950s, lead water services are far less common here than in the old city.

The build era does most of that work for you. What you get instead is a generation of cast iron drain stacks and vitrified clay laterals now sixty or seventy years old. Cast iron rusts from the inside and usually fails first at the base, where it has sat in waste and damp concrete for decades.

Clay fails at the joints, and roots find joints. If your main drain has backed up twice in two years, that is not bad luck, it is a condition, and a camera costs less than guessing at it.

Planned communities, and why a whole street calls the same year

Guildwood was laid out from 1957 by Rosa and Spencer Clark, with winding roads, cul-de-sacs, rear-lot walkways and the utilities buried, which was unusual for the time.

Malvern came later: CMHC expropriated the farms in the late 1950s and the first residents arrived in 1972. Agincourt, Wexford, Bendale and Woburn filled in around them. The practical effect is sameness. Same builder, same year, same fixture layout, often the same undersized branch vent.

When one neighbour finally replaces a stack, we usually hear from two more on that street inside a season.

Highland Creek, the Rouge, and what a backwater valve actually does

Read the City's list of basement flooding study areas in Scarborough and one name keeps repeating: Highland Creek.

South Scarborough east and west, Agincourt east and west, plus Rouge River north and south. Ravine-adjacent ground drains toward the creek and so does a good deal of what sits above it. The City subsidizes backwater valves, sump pumps and severing foundation drains, though the amounts and eligibility have changed more than once, so check the current terms before budgeting.

The distinction that matters: a valve keeps the municipal sewer out, a sump pump removes groundwater your weeping tile collected. Buying the wrong one fixes nothing.

Basement apartments, ejector pumps and the Bluffs

A lot of Scarborough bungalows and backsplits have a second suite downstairs, and that is where we spend a good share of our time.

A bathroom or kitchen sitting below the sewer invert cannot drain by gravity. It needs a sealed sewage ejector basin with a proper vent, not a laundry tub pump and a length of hose. Done correctly it takes a permit and an inspection.

One honest limit while we are on the subject: if your real problem is the Bluffs themselves, slope movement at the top of a ninety-metre bank of glacial sand and clay, that is a geotechnical question and we are the wrong trade for it.

Most requested

What Scarborough customers call us about most.

Questions

Plumbing in Scarborough.

My Scarborough basement drain backs up every spring. What is actually wrong?

Usually the lateral, not the fixture. Most Scarborough houses from the fifties and sixties were connected to the street with vitrified clay, laid in short sections with joints every few feet. Roots get into those joints and hold back paper and grease. A camera down the cleanout shows you where and how bad before anyone quotes a repair or a dig.

Do I need a permit to put a bathroom in my Scarborough basement?

Yes. New drainage and venting need a plumbing permit through Toronto Building, and an inspector signs it off. If the new fixtures sit below the sewer invert, which is common in a bungalow basement, they also need a sealed sewage ejector basin rather than a gravity connection. We pull the permit and meet the inspector as part of the job.

Is my Scarborough house likely to have a lead water service?

Less likely than in the old city, because lead services were generally a pre-mid-1950s thing and most of Scarborough was built after that. It is worth confirming rather than assuming. Look at the pipe where it enters the house near the meter: lead is dull grey, soft enough to scratch with a coin, and will not hold a magnet.

Do you charge a trip fee for Scarborough, and when can you come out?

There is no trip fee anywhere in our service area, Scarborough included, from Birch Cliff out to West Rouge. We book Monday to Friday, nine to five, with Saturdays by appointment. Anything that comes in after hours gets picked up the next business day, so if water is running, shut off the main valve before you message us.

Can a cast iron stack be replaced without gutting the house?

Usually, but not invisibly. The wall has to open where the stack runs, floor to roof, plus wherever branches tie in. In a typical Scarborough two-storey that is a chase in a bathroom wall and a section of basement ceiling. We will show you the intended openings before we cut, so you know what the drywall repair is going to look like.

Get a quote

Working in Scarborough?

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.