What happens when you phone
You dial (365) 334-6645 and describe what the water is doing. Backing up through the floor drain? Weeping from a solder joint above the furnace? Pouring out of the tank drain on the heater? Those answers decide what goes on the truck: a drum machine and cutter heads for a main line, a press tool and copper fittings for a pinhole, a replacement anode or element for a tired heater.
On site we shut off what needs shutting off, open the trap, cleanout or access panel, and show you what we found before anything gets cut. You get the options with a price for each, you choose, and the written job sheet at the end lists every part changed and every fitting we touched.
Water and sewer in urban Pickering are run by the Region of Durham, and the City of Pickering issues plumbing permits.
The pipes under Pickering houses
Pickering runs from the Lake Ontario shore at Frenchman's Bay up to farm country around Claremont, Brougham and Whitevale, and the plumbing changes every few kilometres:
- Lakeside streets in Bay Ridges and West Shore: 1950s and 1960s cast iron stacks, clay laterals that take in maple roots, and a high water table that cycles sump pumps every spring.
- The 1970s to 1990s subdivisions in Amberlea, Dunbarton, Liverpool and Brock Ridge: original gate valves seizing, copper with pinholes at the elbows, and second or third water heaters due for change.
- Duffin Heights and Seaton: PEX manifolds, ABS drains and capped basement rough-ins waiting for a toilet, shower and vanity.
- The hamlets: submersible well pumps, pressure tanks, pressure switches and septic lines that need a plumber who knows their quirks.
Water and sewer in urban Pickering are run by the Region of Durham, and the City of Pickering issues plumbing permits. When a job reaches the lateral or the water service at the property line, we tell you which office is involved before we dig.
Do this today: find your main shut-off, usually on the front wall of the basement beside the water meter, and rock the handle gently back and forth. If it will not move, that valve is the first job on your list. Our shut-off valve guide shows how.
The jobs we do most
Augering sink, tub and floor drains. Cabling main lines and pulling out roots. Camera inspections of the lateral, with the footage shown to you on the screen. Flushing, repairing and swapping tank water heaters. Replacing sump pumps, adding battery backups and installing backwater valves. Cutting out leaking copper and galvanized sections. Rebuilding toilets, setting new wax rings and flanges, replacing faucets and shower cartridges, and roughing in basement bathrooms. Gas piping goes only to licensed gas technicians, and anything that needs a City permit is flagged before work starts.
Lines we hold
No firm quote over the phone for a pipe nobody has looked at yet. No swapping out a whole heater when a twenty-dollar part fixes it. If the cure is pulling hair out of a pop-up stopper, you will hear exactly how to do it yourself.
Read before the next clog
The almanac holds practical notes: shutting off and draining outdoor taps before the first frost, testing a sump pump with a pail of water, checking a heater's age from the serial number, and what to look at under the sinks before you buy a resale house.
