Repiping & leaks
Galvanized out, copper or PEX in. Located first so it's one access point, not a wall of holes.
Thornhill
Thornhill has the oldest pipes we work on
Most of York Region went up in the last thirty years. Thornhill didn't. Streets here were finished in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, with a heritage core older still — and the plumbing reflects every one of those decades.
What sixty-year-old plumbing does
Homes in Uplands, Royal Orchard, Baythorn and the streets around the old Thornhill village were built when galvanized steel was the standard water supply pipe and cast iron carried the waste. Both were good materials. Both have a working life, and in a lot of Thornhill houses that life is over.
Galvanized steel rusts from the inside. The zinc coating wears through and the steel underneath corrodes, laying down a rough layer that narrows the pipe a little more every year. A supply line that started at three quarters of an inch can end up with the opening of a drinking straw. That's why the pressure complaint in Thornhill is almost always whole-house rather than one bad tap — and why cleaning it achieves nothing. The metal has gone.
Cast iron stacks scale and crack. The vertical waste stack in a house of this era builds up internal scale that catches everything going past, then eventually cracks at the base where it's been wet longest. Slow drains on every floor at once usually means the stack, not the fixtures.
The trees are the third problem. Thornhill's mature canopy is one of the nicest things about it and one of the worst things for the clay sewer laterals underneath. Roots don't crack a pipe — they find a joint that's already slightly open, thread through toward the water, and thicken until the line is packed solid.
You don't have to do it all at once
The reason people put off repiping is the number, and the number is usually quoted for the whole house because that's the biggest version of the job. It isn't the only version. Repiping run by run, worst first, spreads it out — and if you're already opening a bathroom for a renovation, that's the cheapest moment there will ever be to replace the pipe behind it.
We'll give you both options and tell you which runs are actually urgent. Some are. Plenty aren't.
Which city are you in? Yonge Street splits Thornhill. West of Yonge is Vaughan, east is Markham. It doesn't change anything about how we work, but it decides which city issues your permits and which subsidy programs you're eligible for.
Most requested here
What Thornhill calls us about
Almost everything on this list traces back to the age of the material.
Root-blocked laterals
Mature trees over clay pipe. We find the joint they came through, not just the blockage.
Slow drains everywhere
Every floor draining slowly at once usually means the cast iron stack, not the fixtures.
Renovation plumbing
The cheapest time to replace old pipe is while the wall is already open.
Questions
Old pipes, plainly explained
Why is my water pressure so low?
In an older Thornhill home the usual answer is the pipe itself. Galvanized steel corrodes from the inside out, and the rust narrows the bore year after year. If the pressure is poor at every tap rather than one, and the house still has its original steel lines, that is almost certainly it.
What is galvanized pipe and should I replace it?
Galvanized steel was the standard supply pipe in homes built before roughly the 1960s — zinc-coated steel that rusts once the coating wears through. It shows up as falling pressure, discoloured water, and pinhole leaks arriving in clusters. Replacing it with copper or PEX is the only real fix.
Why is my water brown first thing in the morning?
Brown water that clears after a minute is rust that settled in the pipes overnight. In an older home with galvanized lines it is coming off the pipe walls. If it is only on the hot side, the water heater is the likelier source and may just need draining.
How long does it take to repipe a house?
For a typical bungalow or two-storey, a few days rather than weeks — and the water is only off for part of that. The variable is access. Open joists are fast. Finished ceilings and plaster walls are slow, because the job becomes opening and closing access rather than fitting pipe.
Find out what actually needs doing
We diagnose first and tell you which runs are urgent and which can wait.