Thornhill's housing is older than most of York Region, and its plumbing shows it. That is the work we are built for.
Thornhill straddles Yonge Street across the Vaughan and Markham line, and it is one of the older residential areas we serve. Large parts of it were built from the 1950s through the 1970s, with further phases in the 1980s, which gives it a plumbing profile closer to old Toronto than to the newer York Region subdivisions to the north.
That means cast iron drain stacks, galvanized steel supply lines that have narrowed with decades of corrosion, original water services from the street, and clay laterals with mature trees overhead. It also means plenty of homes that have been renovated and extended more than once, with the plumbing of three different decades meeting somewhere in the basement.
We work in Thornhill constantly, and the older housing is a large part of why. Diagnosing a 1960s side split takes a different eye than a 2005 subdivision home, and it is an eye we have.
The failures that come with 1950s to 1980s housing. Each has its own section below.
Homes extended two or three times over the decades often have new fixtures hung off old, undersized or poorly vented drains. Gurgling, slow drains and odours trace back to those junctions.
Neighbourhoods we cover in Thornhill: Thornhill Village, Uplands, Bayview Glen, Royal Orchard, Thornhill Woods, Brownridge, Glen Shields, Yonge and Steeles corridor, Bathurst and Centre Street, Bayview and John Street.
The tree canopy over Royal Orchard and Bayview Glen is one of the best things about those streets, and it is behind many of the clogged drain calls we get from them.
Snaking, root cutting and jetting on these older lines are covered in full on our page for drain cleaning in Thornhill, or call 289-470-6221.
In a 1950s or 1960s Thornhill house the drain system is often largely original, from the stack inside the wall to the lateral under the front lawn.
Cast iron stacks from the 1950s and 1960s scale on the inside and crack along their length. The first sign is usually a damp patch on the wall beside the stack or a sewer smell that will not clear. We open the wall, replace the failed pipe and test the new connections before the wall is closed.
The lateral that carries everything from the house to the municipal sewer is often clay on these streets. A camera shows whether a backup is roots in one joint, an offset section or a collapse, and sewer line repair replaces the damaged length when the rest of the pipe is sound.
Dirty water rising through the floor drain in a heavy storm is the municipal sewer pushing back into the house. Backwater valve installation puts a valve on the main drain that closes when the flow reverses. We camera the pipe first, because the valve has to connect to sound pipe.
Yonge Street is the line. West of Yonge, from Glen Shields to Thornhill Woods, the house is in Vaughan; east of Yonge, from Royal Orchard to Bayview Glen, it is in Markham. That decides which city looks after the municipal part of the lateral and whose programs apply. Ask us about municipal subsidy programs.
Many older Thornhill homes still have galvanized steel supply lines, and that shapes what a whole house water filter can and cannot do for them.
Galvanized pipe corrodes from the inside, and flakes of that rust break loose and travel with the water. It shows up as brown water from a tap that has sat unused, grit in aerators and showerheads, and a washing machine inlet screen that keeps plugging.
A water filtration system with a sediment stage on the main line catches particles arriving at the house, including rust from an original galvanized water service, before they reach fixtures, the water heater and appliances. It cannot catch rust that breaks loose from galvanized pipe past the filter.
A sediment filter keeps aerators and appliances clean. It does not bring back pressure, because the restriction is corrosion narrowing the pipe itself, and only replacing the galvanized runs does that. Our repiping services replace it whole house or in stages.
When a repipe is planned, we set the filter at the main shutoff with a bypass and isolation valves, sized so it does not become a restriction of its own. The stages are explained on our whole-home water filtration page.
In an older Thornhill house the venting, the gas line and even the heater's location have usually changed since it was built, so a replacement is rarely a straight swap.
A pilot that will not stay lit, a faulty thermostat or a failed element on an electric tank that is otherwise sound calls for water heater repair. Water leaking from the tank body cannot be repaired and means water heater replacement. Either way, you get a written price before work starts.
Older homes often vented the furnace and the water heater together into the chimney. When a high efficiency furnace goes in with its own vent, the heater is left alone on a flue built for two appliances. We check the draft and the vent path before a new heater is connected to it.
A tankless unit burns much more gas while it fires than a tank does, and the gas piping in these houses was sized for a tank. Tankless water heater installation starts with the size and length of that line, which is upsized where it falls short. The unit also needs its own vent.
Basements renovated more than once often have the heater moved into a closet or under the stairs, with the vent, gas and water lines stretched to follow. Before replacing it in the same spot, we check clearances, service access and where the relief valve discharges.
Many older homes in Thornhill were built without a sump pit, so in a post-war or 1960s basement the first question is often whether to add one.
Pumps, backups and servicing are covered on our sump pump installation and repair page.
Galvanized steel supply is behind much of the low pressure we see in Thornhill, and the same corrosion that narrows the pipe eventually leaks through it.
Original galvanized pipe corrodes from the inside until upstairs taps and showers slow to a trickle, worst at the fixture farthest from the main. We confirm it with a pressure reading at the main and a flow test upstairs before recommending anything.
Corrosion thins the pipe wall, most of all at the threaded joints, until a pinhole leak or a split appears. Leak detection starts at the water meter, which keeps registering when nothing is running, then moisture readings narrow the search before a wall is opened. Burst pipe repair cuts out and replaces the failed section.
Loose rust lodges in faucet aerators, cartridges and toilet fill valves. A tap that sputters or drips, or a toilet that fills slowly or keeps running, often needs only a cleaned aerator, a new cartridge or a new fill valve or flapper. See faucet repair and toilet repair.
You do not have to open every wall at once. We usually start with the main line from the meter, since a narrowed trunk starves every branch, then the risers to the upstairs bathrooms, and pick up the rest as rooms are renovated. See pipe repair and leak detection.
Every service below is available to Thornhill homes and businesses. Select any service to learn more.
Older homes are our specialty. Call now or book online.
