Plumbing in {City}. Two systems, one building.
Supply lines, drains, and the shutoffs that put you back in control.
Thesis
Half your plumbing has nothing pushing it.
The supply side is under pressure. Open a tap and the building pushes water at you.
The drain side has none of that. It runs on gravity and on air, which is what the pipe standing through your roof is for.
Which half you are dealing with changes the whole job.
The system
Where the system is reachable
Every one of these is somewhere you can act before anyone arrives.
- 01
The main shutoff
supplyOne valve stops water to the whole building. It sits where the supply line comes in, before anything branches off it.
- 02
The trap
drainThe bend under every drain holds water. That water is a seal, and it is the only thing between the room and the sewer line.
- 03
Fixture stops
supplySmall valves behind a sink or a toilet. Each one isolates a single fixture, so a repair does not shut the building down.
- 04
The vent stack
drainThe pipe standing through the roof is not a drain. It lets air in behind the water so the water can leave.
- 05
The water heater
supplyIt has a shutoff of its own on the cold line above it, and a drain valve at the bottom of the tank.
- 06
The cleanout
drainA capped fitting on the main drain line. It is the access a drain gets cleared from, and it is why a wall does not have to come out.
Services
The work itself
Put the problem in the right column and the fix stops being a mystery.
01Leaks
Finding where the water is actually coming from, which is rarely where it shows up.
02Drains
Clearing a line that has slowed or stopped, worked from the fixture or from the cleanout.
03Water heaters
Repair and replacement, plus the shutoff and the drain valve that make either one possible.
04Fixtures and valves
Taps, toilets, and the small stops behind them that decide how big a repair has to be.
05Repiping
Replacing supply runs rather than patching them, for when the pipe itself is the problem.
06Sewer and cleanout
The line from the building to the street, and the access fitting anyone has to work through.
Two sides
Pressure on one side, gravity on the other.
Before you call anyone
Worth finding before you need it
None of this needs a tool, and all of it is easier to do dry.
- 01
The main shutoff
Find it once, and turn it once. A valve nobody has moved in years is stiffer than one that gets used.
- 02
The heater's own shutoff
It sits on the cold line going into the top of the tank. Closing it leaves the rest of the building with water.
- 03
The cleanout cap
A capped fitting at ground level on the run between the building and the street. Knowing where it is saves the looking.
- 04
Under each sink
Two small valves, hot and cold. They shut one fixture off without touching anything else in the building.
Demonstration only. This form does not send, and nothing typed into it reaches anyone.
Tell us which half it is.
Say what it is doing and where it is doing it. That is enough to start.