Residential Plumbing

The housing stock here spans about a century and a half, and the plumbing tells you which era you are standing in. Pre-war semis and Victorians in the old city often still have galvanized steel supply rusted closed from the inside, cast iron stacks, and a lead water service from the street. Post-war and 1960s subdivisions are usually copper in reasonable shape, with the original cast iron drainage below grade. Condo towers have a different problem: the pipe that matters is in a shaft nobody opens without the property manager, and often not without a riser shutdown for every unit on the stack.

Anything built or renovated between roughly the mid-1990s and the mid-2000s may have Kitec, the orange and blue plastic pipe with brass fittings that corrode from the inside and fail with little warning. If your home has it, replacement is a question of when, not whether. We can confirm it from the fittings and the printing on the pipe.

Lead services are the other one worth naming. If the house predates the mid-1950s and the service was never changed, there is a real chance the pipe from the street is lead. The City replaces the portion in the road allowance under its program; the part on your property is yours. Not an emergency, and not something to leave indefinitely either.

The split usually comes down to parts availability and what sits behind the fixture. A dripping single-lever Moen or Delta with a worn cartridge is a genuine repair: cartridges are stocked and the wall stays closed. A no-name big-box faucet from twelve years ago with no parts support is not a repair, it is a replacement, and paying us to chase a cartridge that no longer exists wastes your money.

Water heaters are the other common decision. A tank in the eight to twelve year range with a failed thermocouple, gas valve or element is often worth fixing. The same tank leaking from the shell is finished; the leak is the tank itself and nothing puts that back. If it is rented, the rental company handles it, and we will tell you so rather than sell you a replacement you do not own.

For drainage the real question is how much has to come apart. Replacing a failed section of cast iron stack in a finished wall means opening that wall, and the drywall, tile and paint after us usually cost more than the plumbing did. If a number like that surprises you, get a second opinion from another licensed plumber. A quote that holds up under a second look is the only kind worth having.

A good share of our residential work is in rented units, which adds a layer: access. In Ontario a landlord generally has to give the tenant twenty-four hours' written notice of entry for a repair, stating the time, unless the tenant agrees to let us in sooner. We schedule around that. Whoever books the work gets the invoice and the written findings, so an owner is not deciding from a second-hand description.

One thing helps every visit, rented or owner-occupied: know where your main water shut-off is. In most Toronto houses it is in the basement near the front wall, at or beside the meter. Find it before you need it, and make sure the handle actually turns. A seized main turns a small leak into a much bigger one, and replacing it is a straightforward job on an ordinary day and a miserable one at the worst moment.