Plumbers in Arlington, MA

Single-families, two-families and no triple-deckers

By Census estimates, Arlington's median home was built in 1945, and 47.1% of its 20,746 housing units dating from before 1940. The population grew by more than 90% during the 1920s, and Arlington was one of the Massachusetts towns that had banned triple-decker construction by then. The result is a different mix from the cities next door: detached single-family houses make up 37.9% of homes and two-unit buildings another 23.9%, while buildings with three or four units hold only 5.5%.

Most homes are owner-occupied (61.6%), so the person who finds the problem is usually the one paying for it. In a two-family, both units typically depend on one water service and one building sewer, which means a main-line clog or a failing service pipe is a shared repair. And in houses of this age, the town itself notes, many service lines are old and have no record of what they're made of, which is where the lead program comes in.

Lead service lines: the town covers the private side

Arlington has roughly 12,700 water service lines, and as of November 2024 it had identified the material of about 9,000. That month the town mailed letters to about 3,500 properties whose service material was unknown, 24 with lead lines and 2 with galvanized lines that need replacing. The inventory can be searched online or viewed at Public Works, 51 Grove Street.

The key point for owners: Arlington runs a program to replace the homeowner's portion of a lead service line at no cost. If you received a letter, or the inventory shows your line as unknown, contact the town at 781-316-3106 or waterleadquestions@town.arlington.ma.us before paying anyone for replacement. In-home inspections to confirm the material can take a few weeks to schedule because of demand. For background, see what to know about lead pipes.

The deadlines come from state and federal rules. Arlington filed its initial inventory in October 2024, owes MassDEP a baseline inventory in October 2027, and by October 2037 must have identified every unknown line and removed all lead and galvanized-requiring-replacement lines on both the public and private sides.

Alewife Brook and the low ground of East Arlington

Along Alewife Brook, Arlington's eastern edge, the land falls to about 4 feet above sea level. The combined sewer outfalls on the brook are owned by Cambridge, Somerville and the MWRA rather than by Arlington, but East Arlington lives with the consequences. The Mystic River Watershed Association counted about 26 million gallons of combined sewage overflowing into the brook in 2023 and reported in October 2024 that the brook can spill into yards in East Arlington, North Cambridge and West Somerville.

The town's own sewers can overflow as well. Arlington says sanitary sewer overflows can occur anywhere in town but generally hit low-lying areas, when a downpour, a clog or a broken pipe pushes flow past what the system can carry. Email notices of both kinds of overflow are available by subscription. To keep rainwater and groundwater out of the sewers, the town runs a numbered inflow and infiltration program; Phase 16 ran from December 9, 2024 into spring 2025.

If your basement is in East Arlington or another low spot, it's worth asking a plumber whether the lowest drains need a backwater valve, and getting a camera look at an old lateral before a wet season. Our emergency plumber page covers what to do if water is already coming in.