Plumbing in Quaker Hill

Area

Quaker Hill

Local focus

Historic Yonge Street

Common calls

Drains, supply pipe, heaters, sumps

Booking

By telephone

Homes and plumbing in Quaker Hill

Older lots near Yonge Street hold a mix of early twentieth-century houses, wartime homes and later infill. Inside, it is common to find layers: a newer copper branch spliced onto older galvanized steel, a cast iron stack that has outlived three kitchens, and a sewer lateral that may be clay or early pitch fibre.

Homes like these were plumbed for one bathroom and a wringer washer. Families today ask far more of them, and the old pipes show it.

Trouble spots in these houses

• Weak pressure upstairs. Galvanized supply narrows from the inside as rust builds, so the second-floor shower dribbles while the kitchen tap seems fine.
• Roots in the sewer lateral. Mature trees and jointed clay pipe are an old partnership, and the result is a basement drain that backs up every few months.
• Electric water heaters in small utility spaces. Some older homes never had gas run to the basement, and their electric tanks need replacing on schedule.

If pressure is your main complaint, read the circular on low water pressure first. It walks through the simple checks before anyone opens a wall.

Services most asked for

Recurring backups usually lead to a camera look and, where the line is broken or offset, sewer line repair. We explain what the footage shows and whether a spot repair will do or a longer section needs replacing.

For homes heated without gas, electric water heater replacement is a steady request. We size the tank to the household and check that the wiring and the relief valve discharge meet current practice.

Living with an older house

Nothing here needs replacing all at once. A sensible order is to deal with whatever is actively failing, then the sewer lateral if it backs up, then supply pipes when you are already opening walls for another reason. Keeping a short record of what was done, and when, helps the next plumber and the next buyer. We are glad to leave notes and photos of anything we find behind the walls.

Where cast iron drains are still sound, we usually leave them alone. Well-maintained iron is quiet and durable, and there is no point disturbing a pipe that is doing its job.

Fixture shut-offs in these homes are often old multi-turn valves that seize. Changing them to quarter-turn stops while we are already there costs little.

Ringing us from Quaker Hill

Call (365) 990-3021 and mention roughly when the house went up and whether you have had backups before. Owners a little north in East Gwillimbury share many of the same old-house questions, and we work there too.