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Double kitchen sink with faucet under a window
Checking flow at the kitchen tap.

Home service

Aisle 7 · Supply

Fixing water pressure problems in North York

Pressure problems have three kinds of cause: the street, the pipe into the house and the pipe inside it. Testing at a few points tells us which.

  • We start at the shut-off valve and the open wall
  • On the van: moisture meter and thermal camera
  • You see the broken part before you hear a number
  • Every fixture on the run tested before we leave
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  • Licensed and insured (details on the call)
  • Price agreed before work starts
  • North York and next door

What we test first

  1. Resting pressure, gauge threaded onto the laundry tap or an outside bib.
  2. Flow at the kitchen and the top-floor shower with everything else off.
  3. Whether hot and cold are both weak or only one.
  4. Whether the whole house is weak or one fixture.

One fixture weak

That is local. Aerators and shower heads clog with mineral grit, especially after the City has done water main work on your street. Unscrew the aerator and rinse it. A weak shower with a strong tub spout points to the head or the valve cartridge.

That is local. Aerators and shower heads clog with mineral grit, especially after the City has done water main work on your street.

From the counter

Only hot water weak

Head to the water heater. A partly closed inlet valve, a heat trap nipple full of scale, or sediment in an old tank can choke the hot side.

The whole house weak

  • Galvanized steel pipe: common in North York houses built before the 1960s. It rusts shut from the inside over decades.
  • Small or lead service line: a 1/2 inch lead line from the street limits flow to every fixture.
  • Failed pressure reducing valve: some homes have one after the meter; when it fails it can drop pressure or let it spike.
  • Partly closed main valve: an old gate valve may have dropped its gate.
Too high is a problem too. If the water heater's T&P valve keeps dripping and taps bang shut, pressure may be above what fixtures are rated for.

Fixes

Cleaning aerators costs nothing. Replacing a failed PRV or main valve is a short job. Repiping galvanized lines or replacing a lead service is bigger, and we lay out the scope before anything gets cut.

Questions

Did City watermain work drop my pressure?

Work on the street can stir up sediment that clogs aerators and valves. If pressure stays low after cleaning them, call us.

What is normal household pressure?

Many homes sit somewhere in the middle range that fixtures are built for. We measure yours and compare it to what your fixtures need.

How the job runs

  1. You callDescribe what is dripping, backing up or cold, and the cross streets.
  2. We ask questionsAge of the building, pipe type if you know it, where the shut-off is.
  3. We open it upTrap off, clean-out open or wall cut: find the actual fault before quoting the fix.
  4. We test itOpen each tap on that run, watch the joints dry and show you what came out.