From heritage Unionville to new builds in Cornell and Box Grove, we measure the hardness at your own tap before sizing a softener for your Markham home.
Hard water leaves a chalky ring in the kettle, crust on shower heads and a toilet that runs because minerals stiffened its fill valve. Scale also settles in the water heater, and a tankless unit in a larger Markham home needs protection from the first day.
A new build is no exception. If the reading in a Cornell or Box Grove home comes back hard, its new heater and fixtures start collecting scale from the day they are first used. A softener removes calcium and magnesium at the entry point, so nothing downstream collects it.
The pipe matters too, and in a city built in waves it may be galvanized, polybutylene or Kitec. Our Markham plumbing page covers each era.
A softener only protects what it is plumbed into, so we check the pipe at the main as closely as the water.
Heritage homes may keep galvanized supply, where scale can be holding a corroded line tight. Softening may expose weak spots, so we inspect first.
A house from these years may have grey polybutylene (Poly-B) supply pipe, which is known to fail at its joints. If that is what we find at the main, the stretch we connect to is replaced with new pipe.
A house from these years may have Kitec, orange or blue pipe joined with brass fittings that can corrode and leak. If we find it at the main, we do not connect to it; that section is replaced where the softener ties in.
The pipe is modern, but finished basements often box in the water service, so we route the drain and power without cutting walls.
We test hardness at the kitchen cold tap, gauge incoming pressure and check whether any old unit still softens.
We find the main shut-off, sometimes closed in by renovations, identify the pipe and pick a serviceable spot near a drain and outlet.
Isolation valves and a bypass are fitted at the main. The regeneration line ends above a floor drain or standpipe with an air gap, never in the sump pit. That open space stops drain water or sewage from being drawn back into the drinking water supply.
We program the control for your hardness and household, add salt, run a regeneration, check each joint and retest the kitchen tap.
Chalky flakes stop forming, so descaling becomes rare.
After one last scrub, crust stops rebuilding, and fill valves and faucet cartridges stop gumming up.
Laundry, dish and hand soap work harder once the minerals are gone, so cut the dose back a little at a time until results look right.
Water running to the drain in the early hours is normal. If the salt level never drops, call us.
Your hardness reading and household size set the capacity. Beyond that, price follows the plumbing: Kitec, polybutylene or galvanized to swap out at the connection, a main shut-off that no longer closes, how far a finished basement puts the unit from a drain and outlet, any added filter stage and removing an old unit. You get the price in writing first.
Every few weeks, make sure salt sits above the water in the brine tank, and break up any crust.
When the household changes size, adjust regeneration so the unit neither wastes salt nor runs short.
In galvanized Unionville and Markham Village homes, a sediment cartridge before the softener traps rust. Falling pressure usually means it needs changing.
If flakes come back in the kettle or the salt level sits unchanged for weeks, the unit has likely stopped regenerating. Book softener repair and servicing.
Each fixes a different complaint. A softener handles hardness, the cause of scale in every room. Whole-home water filtration adds carbon for chlorine some households smell in a hot shower. Reverse osmosis systems in Markham improve drinking water at one sink and remove the little sodium softening adds. Testing shows which you need.
From AquaTec Plumbing, licensed plumbers across York Region.
Call for a test at your tap. You see the readings and get a written price before we start.
