Plumbers in West Roxbury

Detached houses, most of them older than they look

Census estimates for ZIP code 02132 count about 11,980 homes, and 59% of them are detached single-family houses, nearly five times the city-wide share of 12%. Two-families add another 13.5%, while the three- and four-unit buildings found all over the rest of Boston make up under 4% here. The leafy setting hides the age: 44% of West Roxbury homes were built in 1939 or earlier and another 21% between 1940 and 1959, for a median year built of 1948. Only about one home in 27 dates from 2010 or later.

That pattern goes back to how the area filled in after Boston annexed it in 1874, first along the West Roxbury branch railroad and then along the electric streetcar lines. For plumbing, it means one owner answers for everything from the street to the upstairs bathroom: original cast-iron drains, a main shutoff that may not have been turned in years, a long buried sewer run across the front yard and, in many basements, a boiler.

Heating is the other thing that sets the neighborhood apart. About 14% of homes in 02132 still burn oil, more than twice Boston's overall rate of 6.7%, with gas at 68% and electricity at 14%. Boston treats a water heater or boiler swap as permitted plumbing work even when nothing else changes, and only a contractor holding a current Massachusetts license may apply, so be wary of any quote that leaves the permit out. Our water heater repair page covers the repair-or-replace decision.

The sewer pipe under your lawn is yours, all the way to the main

BWSC maintains the sewer main in the street. The lateral, the pipe that carries everything from your basement out to that main, is the owner's along its entire length, and BWSC states that owners carry all the costs of maintaining and repairing it. On a single-family lot set back from the road, that can be a long run of old pipe, and on tree-lined streets, root intrusion at the joints is a common cause of blockages. Slow drains throughout the house or a gurgling basement floor drain are the early warnings.

BWSC softens the cost through its Sewer Lateral Financial Assistance Program, a one-time grant with a maximum reimbursement of $8,000 for an 8-foot relay or $6,000 for a full lateral line, as the commission lists them. BWSC has to verify that the lateral is blocked, collapsed or leaking, you need three estimates from BWSC-licensed and bonded contractors, and a property can use the program only once every ten years. Line up the inspection and estimates before any digging starts. Our sewer line repair page explains how plumbers diagnose a failing line with a camera.

Heavy rain and hard freezes on Boston's southwest edge

Being far from the harbor helps: the city's 2016 Climate Ready Boston study found no coastal flood exposure in West Roxbury in any of its scenarios. Rain is another matter. The same study projected that about 240 acres, 7% of the neighborhood, would flood in a 10-year, 24-hour storm by the 2030s to 2050s, the second-largest area in the city after Dorchester, and it warned that Boston's drainage already struggles with a storm of that size.

If your basement has a bathroom, laundry or floor drain, ask whether it is protected. Massachusetts plumbing code calls for a backwater valve wherever fixtures sit lower than the top of the manhole cover on the sewer that serves the building, and in Boston it is the owner who installs and maintains that valve. BWSC advises collecting three estimates from licensed plumbers.

Winter brings a different risk. A detached house exposes more of its plumbing to outside walls, and BWSC's own tips include insulating pipes that run through garages, basements and crawl spaces. The commission also makes the owner responsible for keeping both the service pipe and the water meter from freezing, replaces a frozen meter for a fee based on its size, and says drafts from an open basement door or window cause most frozen meters. If a pipe has already frozen, see our frozen pipes page.