Our shop is at 45 Grist Mill Road in Holland Landing. East Gwillimbury is not just a place we serve. It is where we are from.
AquaTec Plumbing operates out of Holland Landing, which makes East Gwillimbury the one municipality where we are never driving in from somewhere else. Sharon, Mount Albert, Queensville and Holland Landing itself are minutes from the shop, and the rural roads between them are ones we drive every week.
East Gwillimbury is also the most varied place we work. The old village cores in Holland Landing, Sharon and Mount Albert have houses well over a century old. The subdivisions that have grown around Sharon and Queensville since the mid 2010s are brand new. And between and beyond them are rural properties on acreage that draw from private wells and drain to septic, with none of the municipal infrastructure the new streets take for granted.
That last group is where a large share of our water treatment work comes from. Well water in this area regularly carries iron, hardness and sulphur, and sometimes bacteria, and the right treatment depends entirely on what a test finds. We do that testing, and we design the treatment sequence around the results rather than around whatever unit is on the truck.
Different parts of the municipality, different problems. These are the ones that come up most.
Neighbourhoods we cover in East Gwillimbury: Holland Landing, Sharon, Mount Albert, Queensville, River Drive Park, Holland Landing Road and Yonge Street North, Leslie Street and Woodbine corridor, Rural concessions from Highway 11 to Kennedy Road.
The village cores and the newer Sharon and Queensville subdivisions are on hard municipal supply. Acreage from Highway 11 to Kennedy Road is on private wells and septic.
More on well water treatment in East Gwillimbury and whole-home water filtration.
A clogged drain in a century house in Mount Albert, a newer house in Queensville and a house on septic out on the concessions are three different jobs. Where the house sits decides what we check first.
Older houses in Holland Landing, Sharon and Mount Albert often still drain through original lines, patched for generations and joined to newer pipe. A drain that keeps slowing in one of them is usually catching at a rough joint or a low spot, so we look at the line on camera before running heavier equipment through it.
On acreage that drains to septic, a slow drain can be the house line, the septic tank or the bed. A drain cable only fixes the first, so we check the other two before cabling, and we tell you when the job belongs with a septic contractor.
In their first years, drains in the Sharon and Queensville subdivisions can still be carrying construction debris washed down during the build. Add kitchen grease and wipes, and a floor drain or the main line can block in a house that looks brand new.
A drain snake opens a one-off clog in a sink, tub or floor drain. When the same line clogs again, the camera shows why, and hydro jetting washes grease and debris off the inside of the pipe instead of only opening a path through it.
For a single blockage, book clogged drain cleaning. For a line that keeps clogging, book hydro jetting and a drain camera inspection. When the whole house backs up at once, it is a main line clog.
Water coming up a basement floor drain is coming from the sewer side: the municipal sewer filling in a storm, or a problem in your own lateral. Clear water seeping through the floor or walls is groundwater, and that is a sump pump job.
Old village laterals. The sewer laterals under older homes in Holland Landing, Sharon and Mount Albert can be as old as the houses. Roots work into the joints and old pipe cracks, shifts or sags, so the line backs up in dry weather as well as wet. We run a camera through it and show you the footage before recommending a repair or a replacement.
Sewer surcharge in a storm. On low ground near the Holland River, heavy rain can fill the municipal sewer until it pushes back up the lateral and out of the lowest drain in the house. A backwater valve on the main building drain closes when the flow reverses. In the Sharon and Queensville subdivisions that lowest opening is usually the basement floor drain, and fitting a valve means opening the floor, so it is simpler to decide before the basement is finished.
Septic properties. Acreage on septic has no municipal sewer to surcharge. A backup there points to the house line, the tank or the bed.
The newer houses around Sharon and Queensville came with builder-grade water heaters, and hard municipal water starts working on them from the day the house is finished.
Hard water leaves scale on the bottom of the tank. You hear it as popping or rumbling while the heater runs, and hot water runs out sooner and takes longer to come back. A tank that has started leaking at the base needs water heater replacement, not repair.
Many calls from these streets come while the heater may still be covered by the builder or the manufacturer, or is a rental. Check that paperwork before booking. Either way, we diagnose the fault first: thermostat, elements or burner, anode or relief valve.
On the wells outside the subdivisions, a rotten egg smell from the hot taps only usually points to the water heater rather than the well. The fix is at the heater, not a new filter on the well line.
A tankless water heater heats on demand and frees up the space a tank takes, but hard water scales its heat exchanger. We check the gas supply and venting first, fit service valves so the exchanger can be flushed, and plan scale protection ahead of it.
More on water heater repair, replacement and tankless installation, and the signs a tank is near the end.
A sump pump handles groundwater, the clear water that seeps in at the floor and walls. How hard it works depends on where the house sits and what water it is on.
On low ground and near the river, a wet spring or a thaw raises the water table and the pit keeps refilling. For a sump pump installation we size the pump to how fast the pit fills, with a check valve and a discharge line that carries the water away from the foundation.
Sump pumps put in when the Sharon and Queensville subdivisions were built are starting to reach replacement age, and many have never been tested. A sump pump replacement before the spring melt is a planned job. The same replacement during a storm is an emergency.
Water-powered backup pumps run on municipal water pressure. On a private well the well pump stops when the power does, so on rural East Gwillimbury properties a battery backup beside the primary pump is the option that works.
We check the float, the check valve and the discharge line, run the pump through a full cycle with water in the pit, and confirm a battery backup takes over when the main pump is unplugged.
In the River Drive Park lowlands by the Holland River? That part of town has its own section on our Holland Landing plumbing page. For new pumps, replacements and battery backups, see sump pump installation and replacement.
Holland Landing is where the shop is. These are the other three communities in East Gwillimbury, each a short drive from Grist Mill Road, and each with its own mix of calls.
Sharon. A small original village with subdivisions that have grown around it since the mid 2010s. The newer houses are on hard municipal water, so scaled water heaters, scaled fixtures and warranty-era repairs are the usual calls there. The older village houses along Leslie Street bring the opposite problems: original drains and supply lines that have been patched over the years.
Queensville. Most of the growth here is new subdivision streets on municipal supply, where basements commonly have a floor drain and a builder-installed sump pump. That makes backwater valve decisions, first replacements of builder sump pumps, and construction debris in young drains the typical Queensville jobs.
Mount Albert. The village core is century housing, with drains and supply lines repaired by several generations of owners. Around it are rural properties whose wells regularly show iron and sulphur, so a Mount Albert call is as likely to be a camera inspection on an old drain as a water test at the well.
The countryside between. From Highway 11 to Kennedy Road, properties draw from private wells and drain to septic. When you call from a rural address, tell us whether you are on a well and septic, because it changes what comes on the truck and what we check first.
From Sharon, Queensville, Mount Albert or the concessions, call 289-470-6221, 24 hours a day, or book online.
Village-core houses and new builds leak for different reasons. Finding the actual source comes before any conversation about repiping.
Century houses in Holland Landing, Sharon and Mount Albert often carry generations of repairs, with galvanized pipe joined to copper and newer plastic. Leaks tend to start where old pipe meets a later repair, and one leak on an old run is often a sign of more along it.
A ceiling stain, a damp basement wall or a musty cupboard means water is escaping somewhere out of sight. We trace the source before opening a wall, then weigh a repair against repiping with the pipe in view, which matters most in an old house.
Pipes split where the cold reaches them: outside walls, crawl spaces, older additions and outdoor tap lines. If one bursts, switch off the well pump if you have one, close the main shutoff, open the lowest tap to take the pressure off, and call 289-470-6221, 24 hours a day.
Builder-grade fixtures in the Sharon and Queensville subdivisions scale up on hard municipal water: fill valves stick so toilets run, and cartridges wear so faucets drip. On well homes, an orange stain in the bowl means the water itself needs treating, and we will say so.
See pipe repair and leak detection, repiping services, toilet repair and faucet repair, plus our guide to preventing frozen pipes.
Every service below is available to East Gwillimbury homes and businesses. Select any service to learn more.
We are already here. Call the shop in Holland Landing or book online.
