Plumber in Richardson, TX

Richardson straddles the line between Dallas and Collin counties along the US-75 corridor. Our crews work both sides: Canyon Creek, Richardson Heights, and the neighborhoods around the Telecom Corridor.

A lot of Richardson housing dates to the 1960s and 1970s, which makes it some of the oldest stock we work on. Homes from that era that were never renovated might still be running on galvanized supply lines and cast-iron drains, and those two materials behave nothing like the copper, PEX, and PVC in a newer house.

Galvanized Pipe Does Not Leak, It Closes

This is the part that surprises people.

Galvanized steel was coated in zinc to protect the steel underneath. Over decades the coating wears away, the steel rusts, and the rust builds up on the inside wall of the pipe. The opening gets smaller every year.

So the failure mode is a slow strangling of the water supply rather than a burst, and it happens over such a long stretch that nobody notices. The shower gets a little weaker. Two fixtures at once stops working. Somebody says out loud that the water pressure in this house is terrible, and it has been getting terrible since about 1994.

The diagnostic pattern is specific: pressure that fell off across years, across the whole house, and is worse on hot than cold. Hot lines corrode faster, so they close first.

The Question That Follows

Once galvanized pipe is diagnosed, the decision is patch or repipe, and it turns on one thing: whether the failure is local or general.

Galvanized corrodes at an even rate along its length. A system that is the same forty-five years old throughout does not have one bad section. It has a first bad section. Replacing that one stretch and leaving the rest tends to mean paying for the same visit again in a year, somewhere else in the house.

We look at the condition of the pipe where we have it open and tell you which situation you are in. Sometimes a section is the answer. More often the recommendation we owe you is a repipe, and we will say that instead of selling you the cheaper thing four times.

Cast Iron on the Drain Side

The drains in these homes are the same age. Cast iron rusts from the inside and goes rough, catching what used to flow through, so slow drains and recurring clogs are common and get more frequent over time.

A camera inspection tells you whether you have a blockage or a pipe at the end of its life. Those need different work and cost different money, and it is not a distinction anyone can make from the top of a drain.

How We Price It

Everything above is the reason we do not quote Richardson jobs over the phone. In a house this age the same complaint can mean a small repair or a major one, and the only way to know is for a plumber to look at it. We look, we tell you what we found, and then you get a number.

Texas Master Plumber License M-43680 on every job, emergency service around the clock.