Plumbing Service in Scarborough

Scarborough: the housing stock and its plumbing

Much of Scarborough was built after the Second World War, as farmland gave way to streets of brick bungalows, back-splits and side-splits. Later decades brought townhouse complexes, high-rise apartments and newer subdivisions in the northeast. Bluffs and ravines carve through the south and along the Rouge and Highland Creek.

A standard postwar home here pairs copper supply with cast iron or first-generation plastic drains, and its lateral is often clay or the old fibre pipe that deforms. After sixty or seventy years, all of those materials can show their age.

Trouble we run into most often

• Original toilets and fixtures that waste water and parts that are hard to find.
• Pinhole leaks in aging copper.
• Basement flooding in some low-lying areas during big storms.
• Split-level drainage, where lower-level bathrooms sit close to the depth of the sewer.

Below the floor: drains, sewers and wet basements

Several Scarborough neighbourhoods have seen basement flooding in severe storms. The City has studied many areas and carried out sewer upgrades, but protection inside the house still matters. A backwater valve and a sump pump where groundwater is a problem are the main tools.

Bungalows with a basement apartment add load to the main drain and raise the stakes if it backs up. A camera inspection of an older lateral is worthwhile before finishing or renting out a basement.

Townhouse complexes

Many Scarborough townhouses are part of condominium corporations. Responsibility for pipes in walls, under slabs and outside the unit is defined in the declaration. Check with your management before booking work on anything beyond your own fixtures, and read condo plumbing for how that usually plays out.

Mid-century copper and drains

Copper in houses from the 1950s and 60s has held up remarkably well in many cases, but joints made with older solder and thinner wall pipe can begin to pinhole. Several pinhole leaks over a short span usually means a section of pipe is tired, and replacing that run beats patching leak after leak. Cast iron drains in the floor can also rust through from the bottom, which shows up as slow drains or a damp patch on the slab.

What happens when you ring us

Call with what is going on and a rough age of the house. Scarborough is large, so we will confirm your area and plan the timing. On arrival we look at the problem, explain the cause, and offer clear options. Bigger jobs, like a water service or drain replacement, are quoted in writing with the permit steps explained.

If you are buying an older home in the area, our older-home buyer's homework covers the plumbing to check. We also work in East York, Markham and North York.