Heritage Unionville, the big 1980s and 1990s subdivisions, and the newest streets in Cornell and Wismer. Markham has every era of plumbing, and we work on all of them.
Markham was built in distinct waves, and each one left a different kind of plumbing behind. Unionville and Markham Village have main streets and side streets going back to the 1800s. Milliken, Thornlea and the streets around Woodbine and Highway 7 filled in through the 1970s and 1980s. Berczy, Wismer and Cornell are 1990s and 2000s. Box Grove and the newest phases are more recent still.
For a plumber, that timeline is a map of what to expect. The heritage cores mean original drains and galvanized supply. A home built in the 1980s or early 1990s may have grey polybutylene (Poly-B) supply pipe, and one built from the mid-1990s into the 2000s may have Kitec, which is orange or blue pipe joined with brass fittings. Both are known to fail at the fittings, so on any visit we note what your supply pipe is made of.
Water is hard municipal supply, and the size of Markham means we schedule it carefully from our Holland Landing shop, but we are in town regularly and emergency calls are handled with the same urgency as anywhere closer.
Different neighbourhoods, different eras, different failures.
Grey Poly-B is flexible plastic pipe, often stamped PB2110, with crimp rings at the joints, and those joints are where it fails. If your home has it, we repipe the whole house or in stages around your renovation plans.
Markham's newest homes are only a few years old, but builder grade water heaters and fixtures are already scaling on hard municipal supply. Softening early protects the investment.
Neighbourhoods we cover in Markham: Unionville, Markham Village, Cornell, Wismer, Berczy, Milliken, Box Grove, Cachet, Thornlea, Greensborough, Woodbine and Highway 7 corridor.
A clogged drain in Markham means something different depending on which wave of building the house came from.
Houses in Unionville and Markham Village still drain through original clay and cast iron in places. When a line there backs up again soon after being cleared, the pipe itself is the suspect, so the camera goes in before any more cabling.
In the 1970s and 1980s streets, a kitchen sink that slows down after years of cooking grease usually has a clogged branch line, the pipe that serves that sink alone. We clear it from the nearest access point and run a full sink to prove it drains.
Whether the house is in Thornlea or Berczy, a basement floor drain that gurgles or seeps while the washing machine empties points past the branch lines to the main. We clear the main from the cleanout, then check it on camera.
Jetting scours grease and scale off the whole pipe wall, so we use it where the footage shows that build-up. Where the camera shows a single blockage in a sound pipe, a cable does the job.
What affects the cost: how easily the cleanout can be reached, whether a finished basement sits over the line, and what the camera finds once it is in. You get a written price before the work starts. See drain cleaning for clogged sinks, tubs and floor drains, hydro jetting and drain camera inspection, and why a drain keeps clogging.
Along the old main streets of Unionville and Markham Village, some houses still connect to the sewer through original clay or cast iron laterals. Once a clay joint has opened or a length of cast iron has corroded through, clearing the line again only buys time. The camera shows where the damage sits and how far it runs, and that decides between a repair at one spot and replacing the lateral.
Older basements in Thornlea and Milliken bring a different call: water rising through the floor drain during a heavy storm. That is usually the municipal sewer surcharging back toward the house. Installed on the main drain, a backwater valve lets wastewater out and shuts when the sewer pushes back. Ask us about municipal subsidy programs when you call, before the installation is booked.
Part of Thornhill lies within Markham, and its older streets see the same problems. For those homes, see plumbing in Thornhill.
Markham's municipal water is hard and chlorinated. A whole house water filter treats it once, where the line enters, so every tap and appliance downstream gets the same water.
The chlorine that disinfects municipal water is something some Markham households taste in a glass of water or smell in a hot shower. A carbon stage at the point of entry removes it for the whole house, upstairs bathrooms included.
In a finished basement the water service is often boxed in. We plan the filter location, the clearance needed to change cartridges and, for backwashing systems, the drain connection around the finish, so servicing the system never means cutting drywall.
Where a Unionville house still has galvanized supply pipe, flakes of rust collect in aerators, washer inlet screens and the bottom of the water heater. A sediment stage catches them; replacing the galvanized pipe is what stops them.
We test the water and read the incoming pressure before choosing equipment, then size each stage to the household's flow so the filter never becomes the reason a far bathroom loses pressure.
What affects the cost: how many stages the water needs, the equipment chosen, and how much piping has to change to reach a spot that can be serviced. Read about whole-home water filtration systems and replacing galvanized supply pipe.
Builder-grade water heaters in Markham's newer homes collect scale early on the hard municipal supply. A tank that rumbles while it heats, runs out of hot water earlier in the shower than it once did or sends rusty water to the tub is telling you so. If the tank itself is sound and a thermostat, element or gas valve has failed, water heater repair is the sensible call; a leaking tank needs replacing.
In a home built from the mid-1990s into the 2000s, the water heater is often where Kitec first comes to light, because the pipe, usually orange for hot and blue for cold, is easy to see at the connections. When we find Kitec there during a replacement, we replace those connections at the same visit rather than tying a new heater into fittings that are known to fail.
Larger Markham homes are where tankless sizing matters most. A tankless unit is chosen by how many fixtures may run at the same time and how far hot water has to travel to the farthest bathroom, and on hard water it needs scale protection from day one. Price depends on the heater type and size, the venting, and whether any connections have to be replaced.
In a finished basement, the sump pump is what stands between a heavy storm and new flooring.
Many homes in these neighbourhoods have finished lower levels. When the pump stops partway through a storm, water reaches flooring, baseboards and drywall before anyone upstairs notices.
A pump that hums without emptying the pit, keeps switching on and off, or has a float that sticks is near the end. Sump pump replacement on a dry day, with the check valve and discharge line looked over at the same time, beats an emergency call in a downpour.
For sump pump installation in a basement being finished, or a pit being reworked, we set the pump, check valve and discharge line before the walls close in, and leave access so the pump can be serviced later.
The storms that fill a sump fastest are often the same ones that knock out power. If the power drops or the primary pump fails, a battery backup pump steps in and the pit keeps emptying.
What affects the cost: whether a pit already exists, the pump chosen, the route the discharge line takes outside, and whether a battery backup is added. Details on sump pumps and battery backup systems.
Unionville is Markham's heritage village: Main Street and the older houses on the streets around it. Many of those homes have been renovated more than once, and each round left its own layer, so a newer bathroom can sit on galvanized supply and original drains that nobody went near.
Layouts rarely match any drawing. Drains moved for an addition, a supply line rerouted around a kitchen, a shut-off valve closed in behind a finished wall: before we quote, we trace what is actually there, so the written price is based on the house in front of us rather than on assumptions.
A renovation is where old plumbing and new plans meet. With walls and floors already open, replacing galvanized supply and checking the drain under the floor is far less disruptive than doing it after the new finishes go in. Tell us what is being opened, and we will tell you what is worth doing while it is.
If your Markham home has orange or blue Kitec supply pipe, its brass fittings are the part most likely to fail.
Kitec's brass fittings corrode and eventually fail, most often at a joint inside a ceiling or behind drywall. A slow drip there can go unnoticed until a stain or a soft patch of drywall gives it away.
With every fixture off, a meter dial that is still turning confirms a leak somewhere in the house. We narrow it to one wall or ceiling before opening anything, then cut only what the repair needs.
If a fitting bursts, close the main shut-off and call us, any hour. We repair the failed section and get the water back on, then plan the repipe on your timeline: the whole house at once, or a floor at a time alongside work you already have planned.
Minerals from the hard supply build up on toilet fill valves and flush seals until the tank runs between flushes, and they stiffen faucet cartridges until the tap drips. We rebuild or replace the worn parts, and suggest a new fixture only when the body is cracked or corroded.
What affects the cost: where the leak is, what has to be opened to reach it, and how much of the house is still on Kitec. Related services: pipe repair and leak detection, Kitec and polybutylene repiping, toilet repair and faucet repair.
Every service below is available to Markham homes and businesses. Select any service to learn more.
From Unionville to Cornell, we cover it. Call now or book online.
