Before You Call a North York Plumber

Before you call: four checklists from the counter

Most of what makes a plumbing visit go fast happens in the ten minutes before the truck shows up. These four sheets cover those minutes.

Every job laid out with what we check and replace

Residential and commercial, same counter

Call with the symptom; we take it from there

Licensed and insured (details on the call)

Price agreed before work starts

North York and next door

Why we keep these sheets by the phone

A good share of our calls open with water moving where it should not, and nobody in the house is sure which valve stops it. The other half start calmer, with a slow drain or a heater that takes forever to recover, but the plumber still loses time hunting for the clean-out or moving boxes off the floor drain. The sheets in this section are the same short lists we read out over the phone. Print them, tape one inside the furnace room door, and the next visit starts with tools in hand instead of questions.

None of this replaces the call. If a ceiling is dripping, a sewer is backing into the basement or you smell gas near the water heater, phone first and read later. For gas, get everyone out, then phone Enbridge Gas once you are outdoors.

What each checklist covers

Shut off the water. Where North York houses usually hide the main valve, how to close it without snapping an old stem, and the fixture stops that let you keep the rest of the house running.
What to tell the plumber. The handful of facts that decide which tools come off the truck: the age of the house, the pipe you can see, what you already tried and which fixtures are acting up together.
Clear the work area. Moving storage away from the floor drain, the clean-out, the heater and the stack so the plumber can get a wrench and a drum machine where they need to go.
Photos and notes for insurance. How to record wet drywall, the failed part and the water line on the wall before anything is cut, dried or thrown away.

A good share of our calls open with water moving where it should not, and nobody in the house is sure which valve stops it.
From the counter

The thirty-second version

Stop the water at the closest valve that works, or at the main.
Turn the breaker off for an electric heater, or set a gas heater to pilot, if the leak is at the tank.
Take three wide photos and three close ones.
Clear about a metre around the problem and the main shut-off.
Call and tell us the cross streets, the symptom and what you already closed.

When to skip the list and just call

Raw sewage on the basement floor, water near the electrical panel, a ceiling that is sagging with water, or any pipe you cannot isolate. In those cases the fastest help is a plumber on the line telling you what to do in your house, room by room, while the truck is on the way.