Water Main Repair near you

In Toronto, the City owns the water service pipe from the watermain on the street to the property line, and the owner owns the part that runs from the property line into the home. When a break turns out to be on the City's portion, the City shuts the water off at the property line and repairs it at no charge to the owner; when it is on the private portion, the repair is the homeowner's responsibility. Pipes inside the house are private too, and the City's advice for them is to call a plumber.

Other municipalities may divide the line differently, for example at the curb stop rather than at the property line. Before paying for a repair, ask your utility to confirm where your responsibility begins, and ask the plumber to pinpoint the leak closely enough to show which side of that point it is on.

A leak in the buried line doesn't always announce itself. Because the meter usually sits inside the house, water lost before it may never show up on your bill, so the clues are often outdoors or at the point where the pipe comes through the wall.

If water is coming in where the line enters the basement, close the main shut-off inside. In Toronto, that valve is part of your private plumbing and typically sits on the foundation wall where the pipe enters, just before the meter. If the leak is on the street side of that valve, closing it won't stop the flow, and the water has to be turned off at the curb stop instead. In Toronto, water turn-off requests are made by calling 311, and the City says staff arrive within two hours.

Leave the curb stop to the utility. It is municipal equipment, often old and stiff, and forcing it can break the valve or the rod that reaches it, turning a leak into a bigger excavation. While you wait, keep away from any wet electrical equipment and note when the leak started for the plumber and your insurer.

A service line buried too shallow, or one that runs under a driveway or path kept clear of snow, where frost reaches deeper, can freeze during a long cold spell. The usual first sign is no water, or only a trickle, at every tap. The City of Toronto says residents with no water can contact 311 and someone will come to investigate; if crews find the freeze on private property, from the property line into the home, you'll be advised to call a plumber. The City also warns never to thaw pipes with an open-flame torch, since it is a fire hazard.

Plumbers thaw buried lines with equipment made for the purpose, without digging in most cases. Once the water is back, the lasting fix is to learn why it froze: a line too close to the surface, poor insulation where it passes through the foundation, or a section exposed in a cold crawl space. If it freezes again, lowering or insulating that stretch, or replacing the line at a proper depth, prevents the next emergency.

Service lines in older homes may be lead, galvanized steel or early copper, while newer ones are usually copper or plastic. A galvanized service that has rusted inside chokes the flow to the whole house and is normally replaced, not repaired. For lead, Health Canada's limit of 0.005 mg/L and its advice to replace the full line, public and private portions, rather than one part apply directly; our water testing page explains how to find out whether lead is reaching your tap.

Municipal programs are built around that shared line. Toronto's priority lead replacement program moves up the replacement of the City's portion when the owner commits to replacing the private side, and Montréal replaces the public portion of lead service lines and requires owners who receive a notice of non-compliance to replace the private portion within 24 months, with a permit from the borough. Scheduling both halves together avoids digging twice and leaving a lead section in the ground.

Open cut is the traditional method: a trench is dug along the line from the curb stop to the foundation, the old pipe comes out, and the new pipe is bedded, tested and backfilled at the proper depth. It works in almost any soil and leaves every joint in view, but it disturbs the lawn, the gardens, the walkway and sometimes the driveway.

Trenchless methods replace the line through small pits at each end. The new pipe can be pulled along the path of the old one with a head that splits the old pipe apart, or pushed through a new bore beside it. They save most of the surface and suit lines under driveways, mature trees or finished landscaping, but they depend on the old pipe material, the soil, other buried services nearby and what your municipality accepts. A good contractor explains why a method suits your line, not just which one they own the equipment for.

Replacing a service line generally needs a municipal permit, and work at the curb stop or on the public side is done or authorized by the municipality; in Toronto, water services appear among the items covered by the City's stand-alone plumbing permits. Buried utilities must be marked before digging: in Ontario, Ontario One Call locates are free and required by law at least 5 business days ahead, and in Quebec, the Régie du bâtiment du Québec asks contractors to request a free Info-Excavation locate at least 4 business days before work begins.

The trench is no place for a do-it-yourself project. Its walls can cave in, gas and electrical services may run close by, and the new pipe has to go back at a depth that protects it from frost. Hire a plumbing contractor licensed for the work in your province, in Quebec one holding the right RBQ licence, working with an excavation crew that handles the locates and the permit.