Older homes need a careful plumber
Somerville has some of the oldest housing we work in. The median home dates from 1960, about a quarter were built before 1940, and many neighborhoods are full of Victorian houses. Plumbing that old has usually been changed piece by piece over the years, so one house can have galvanized steel, copper and PEX all feeding the same bathroom.
That patchwork is where problems start: rusty water, low pressure, and leaks at the joints between old and new pipe. When leaks keep coming back, it's usually time to repipe instead of patching again.
Drains and sewer
Old cast-iron drain lines crack and scale up inside, and roots find their way into old sewer laterals. New Jersey American Water bought Somerville's sewer collection system in 2023, but the lateral from your house to the main is still yours. If drains back up more than once, we camera the line before recommending a repair.
Peters Brook
Ida in 2021 put up to eight feet of water on residential streets along Peters Brook and displaced more than 150 people from the Brookside Gardens apartments. Some flooded homes weren't in a mapped flood zone at all. If your basement is anywhere near the brook, keep a tested sump pump and a battery backup.
