Our shop is ten minutes up Yonge Street in Holland Landing. Newmarket is home ground, not a service area on a map.
Newmarket is the closest town to our shop and the one we know best. The drive from Holland Landing down Yonge Street to Davis Drive takes less time than most companies quote for a call back, which is why same day service here is normal rather than a promise we have to stretch for.
It is also a town with two very different kinds of plumbing. The historic core around Main Street South, Park Avenue and the older streets off Eagle and Srigley has houses from the late 1800s through the 1920s, many of them still carrying original clay sewer laterals, cast iron stacks and galvanized supply lines somewhere in the system. The subdivisions that grew out from there, Glenway and Stonehaven through the 1980s and 1990s and then Summerhill and Woodland Hill, have a completely different set of issues. A Newmarket house built in the 1980s or early 1990s may have grey polybutylene (Poly-B) supply pipe, and one built from the mid-1990s into the 2000s may have Kitec; both are known to fail at the fittings.
Newmarket water is York Region municipal supply, and it is hard. Scale on kettles, white crust on shower glass and water heaters that fail early are ordinary here, which is why water softening and water heater work make up so much of what we do in town.
The problems that keep the phone ringing from Newmarket, and what is usually behind them. Each one has its own section below.
Neighbourhoods we cover in Newmarket: Main Street South and the historic core, Glenway, Stonehaven, Woodland Hill, Summerhill, Huron Heights, Quaker Hill, Armitage, Gorham and College Manor, Bristol Road and Yonge Street corridor.
In the historic core around Main Street South and the older streets near Fairy Lake, many houses still drain through their original clay sewer laterals, and mature trees find the joints. The result is a main line that backs up every spring. We cut the roots out from the cleanout, then run a camera down the line, because a cracked or offset section will keep letting roots back in however often it is cleared.
Glenway and Stonehaven are a different job. Their drain lines are newer and roots are rarely the cause, so a clogged drain there is usually kitchen grease built up along the pipe wall. A snake only punches a hole through that. Hydro jetting scours the wall clean, so the grease takes far longer to come back.
More detail on each step is on our page about drain cleaning in Newmarket.
Newmarket sits along the Holland River and its tributaries. When water rises out of a basement floor drain in a heavy storm, it is usually coming from the sewer rather than the ground, and it needs a different fix from a sump pump.
In a downpour, the municipal sewer serving the lower streets near the river can fill faster than it empties. Sewage then pushes back up the lateral toward the house and out of the lowest opening, which in most basements is the floor drain.
Around Main Street South the lateral itself can be the problem. If the floor drain also backs up in dry weather, we camera the clay line first and quote sewer line repair or replacement only where the footage shows a break, a sag or roots.
A backwater valve fitted to the main building drain lets water leave the house but shuts when the flow reverses, then opens again once the street sewer drains down. Fitting one means opening the basement floor at the main drain, so we confirm the backups really are surcharge before cutting concrete.
Several York Region towns have run subsidy programs for backwater valves, and the terms change. Ask us about municipal subsidy programs when we quote, and check with the Town of Newmarket on what is currently offered before the work is booked.
More on sewer line repair and replacement. Clear water seeping in through the walls or slab is groundwater instead, covered under sump pumps below.
Newmarket homes are on York Region municipal supply, which is hard and treated with chlorine. Scale is one complaint. The other is a chlorine taste or smell at the kitchen tap and in the shower, and a whole house water filter deals with it where the main comes into the house, so every tap gets the same water rather than one pitcher in the fridge.
The century homes around Main Street South add a third problem. Houses from the 1880s to the 1920s that still have galvanized supply somewhere in the walls can shed rust and scale that clogs aerators and stains sinks. A sediment stage stops it before it reaches fixtures and appliances, but that treats the symptom, and we will tell you if the lasting fix is replacing the galvanized pipe.
A typical water filtration system here is a sediment filter followed by carbon, sized so it does not starve the upstairs bathrooms of flow. Filtration does not remove hardness. If scale is the bigger issue, that is a softener, covered on our page about water softener installation in Newmarket, and we test the water before recommending either.
Municipal supply here is hard enough that tank water heaters routinely fail well short of their rated life from scale build up. A good share of the heater calls we take in town trace straight back to it.
No hot water often means a failed part, such as a thermocouple, gas valve or element, on a tank that is otherwise sound. A tank that rumbles, weeps from the bottom or sends rusty water to the taps has usually scaled through, and replacement is the honest answer. We tell you which before quoting.
Every time the heater fires, more hardness settles on the bottom of the tank, where it insulates the water from the heat and makes the heater work harder. Put a new tank on the same untreated water and the clock simply starts again, which is why softening comes up at the same visit.
A tankless heater pushes water through a narrow heat exchanger, and hard water scales it faster than it scales a tank. On Newmarket water we fit scale protection ahead of the unit and isolation valves for flushing as part of the install, not after the first error code.
Older houses near Main Street South often vent the existing tank up a masonry chimney. A tankless or high efficiency heater usually needs its own vent through a side wall instead, so we work out the vent route on the first visit, before the install is booked.
More on water heater repair and replacement and the signs a water heater is near the end.
The other half of the basement water story near the river is groundwater. If the water on the floor is clear and it comes in where the wall meets the floor or through cracks in the slab, rather than out of the floor drain, the sewer is not the problem. The water table is, and on the lower streets along the Holland River and its tributaries it tends to rise every spring.
For a sump pump installation we look at how quickly the pit fills in a thaw or a long rain, then size the pump and discharge line for a wet spring rather than an average week. For a sump pump replacement we also check the float, the check valve and where the discharge lets out, because a new pump on a sticking float, or one that empties against the foundation, fails the same way the old one did.
The storms that fill the pit are often the ones that knock out the power. A battery backup pump sits beside the main pump and takes over when it stops, and an alarm can let you know it is running.
Grey polybutylene (Poly-B) supply pipe is known to fail at its fittings, often without warning. We repair the failed section, and we repipe whole homes or partial runs.
When a fitting does give some notice, it is usually a slow weep before it lets go. Watch for the dial on the water meter creeping when nothing in the house is running, drywall going soft below a bathroom, or a musty patch on the basement ceiling. Leak detection at that stage means opening a small section of wall, not burst pipe repair and a room of wet insulation.
Hard water is behind a lot of the toilet and faucet calls we get in Newmarket. Mineral build-up stops a fill valve from closing cleanly, so the toilet hisses and refills through the night, and it wears the cartridge in a single-lever tap until it drips. Replacing the worn part is normally all it takes, and we check the shutoff valves under the fixture while we are there.
Every service below is available to Newmarket homes and businesses. Select any service to learn more.
We are a short drive from our Holland Landing shop. Call now for same day service or book online and we will confirm a time.
