Plumbing in Cambridge, ON

A deeper look at how Cambridge conditions shape the plumbing work owners actually need.

Cambridge's plumbing service calls cluster around three recurring failure modes that the city's building stock and climate reliably produce. The first is supply pipe failure in the postwar bungalow belt. Preston and Hespeler bungalows built between 1950 and 1975 carry galvanized steel supply piping that corrodes from the inside out over decades of contact with Cambridge's municipal water supply. The corrosion product builds up on the interior pipe wall, narrowing the bore and reducing flow, until the weakened pipe wall splits under pressure. That split typically happens during a January cold snap when the pipe has been thermally stressed repeatedly by freeze cycles, and the result is a burst in an exterior wall or rim joist cavity that fills the wall cavity with water before the supply is shut off. Bridgepoint plumbers assess galvanized supply lines during any plumbing call in a pre 1980 Cambridge home and document the pipe condition and bore reduction in the property file. When a controlled repipe is the right approach, copper or cross linked polyethylene replacement is quoted flat rate and scheduled at a time that minimizes disruption to the property. The second failure mode is cast iron drain deterioration in the Galt Core heritage buildings.

Cast iron drain stacks and soil lines in buildings constructed before 1940 have been in service for 80 to over 100 years. The exterior surfaces of underground cast iron soil lines corrode from contact with surrounding soil and the alkaline minerals in Cambridge's ground water table. A sewer scope inspection, performed by passing a camera through the drain stack from a clean out, documents the interior condition of the drain and soil line, identifies any existing root intrusion or collapse, and allows Bridgepoint to issue a repair versus replace scope with flat rate pricing before any excavation is planned. The third failure mode is water heater failure in the Saginaw and Centennial subdivisions. Tank water heaters installed at construction in the 1995 to 2005 period have well exceeded their expected 8 to 12 year service life. An aging tank water heater in Cambridge faces increased risk of anode rod exhaustion, tank corrosion from the inside, and pressure relief valve failure. Bridgepoint provides water heater assessment on any plumbing call to a Saginaw or Centennial address and issues a flat rate replacement quote for natural gas or electric tank or tankless units, with TSSA certification for gas connections under the Technical Standards and Safety Authority.