01What a household call usually covers
Most home calls fall into a handful of families. The list below is the order the phone rings in a typical Scarborough week.
- Drains that slow, gurgle or back up into a floor drain or tub
- Toilets that keep refilling, wobble on the flange, weep at the floor or spill over
- Water heaters that go cold, leak at the tank or trip the relief valve
- Supply leaks: pinholes in copper, rusted galvanized nipples, split hose bibs
- Basement protection: sump pumps, check valves and backwater valves
02How a home visit runs
The visit is short and procedural. The plumber confirms the shut-off, finds the source rather than the wet patch, and writes down what failed and what replaces it. Nothing is cut until you have read that sheet. When the repair is finished, pressure is restored and the joint is watched under load, then the sheet is ticked with you at the fixture.
A home is somebody living around the work, so drop cloths go down, the opening is kept as small as the pipe allows and debris leaves on the truck.
03Pick your path
Use the trade index for a specific repair, the house-type files to see where your stack and shut-off probably sit, or the neighbourhood map for the pipe your street was built with. If none of that fits, the phone does.