Plumbing Service NYC | NYC Plumber Co

The first sign is usually small. A ceiling stain that was not there last week, a shower that takes four minutes to warm up, a kitchen sink draining slower every month until one night it stops. In a New York City building that small sign is rarely just yours. The pipe behind your wall feeds the apartment above, the drain shares a stack with six other kitchens, and when it fails it fails on somebody else's schedule.

NYC Plumber Co is a licensed plumbing company at 1 Liberty St in the Financial District. Our plumbers work in prewar walk-ups on the Upper West Side, glass towers in Midtown, cast-iron lofts in Tribeca, two-family houses in Queens and most things in between. We know what a 1920s galvanized riser looks like from the inside, why the steam pipes bang at 6 AM, and which buildings still run off a roof tank.

We handle drain cleaning, water heater repair, water heater installation, boiler repair, gas line repair, sewer line repair, leak detection, pipe repair, toilet repair, faucet and fixture installation and commercial plumbing. Emergencies go through our emergency plumbing line, staffed around the clock.

Every job starts with a look at the actual problem and a written price. Call (929) 717-4784 or send the form above and a plumber calls you back to talk it through. If it sounds like something that cannot wait, say so, and we move it up.

Some plumbing problems can wait until Monday. These cannot.

Gas comes first. If you smell gas, get out of the apartment, leave the light switches alone, and call 911 or your gas utility from outside - Con Edison in Manhattan, the Bronx and part of Queens, National Grid in Brooklyn and the rest of Queens. Once the utility shuts the service, it stays off until a licensed master plumber repairs the line, holds a pressure test and the Department of Buildings signs off. That is the part NYC Plumber Co does. Our gas line repair plumbers find the leak, replace the bad section or fitting, run the test and file the paperwork so the utility can turn you back on. Most buildings other than one- and two-family homes also need a Local Law 152 gas piping inspection every four years, and we do those too.

Sewer backups are second. In this city the property owner is responsible for the sewer connection from the building all the way to the city main under the street. When tree roots crack a clay lateral in Brooklyn, or a section sags under a driveway in the Bronx, sewage comes back up through the lowest drain in the building - a basement floor drain, a ground-floor tub, sometimes a toilet. Our sewer line repair crew runs a camera to find the break, then lays out the options: spot repair, lining where it fits, or a full replacement with the DEP permit pulled and the sidewalk put back.

Then heat. A steam boiler that trips its low-water cutoff in January in a 20-unit building on the Upper East Side is a building-wide emergency, and the super has 40 phone calls before breakfast. Boiler repair is most of what we do from November through March. Pressuretrols, low-water cutoff probes, gas valves, circulator pumps, leaking sections, one-pipe steam mains that were never pitched right and bang every morning. Some of it is a 45-minute fix. Some of it is a replacement conversation we would rather have with you in October.

Burst pipes round it out. Copper in an exterior wall on a windy night, a galvanized elbow that finally rusted through, a toilet supply line that let go while everyone was at work. Water goes down. Our emergency plumbing team shuts it off fast, then figures out the pipe repair that keeps it from happening again.

Worth a call today: a gas smell however faint, gurgling from a floor drain when the washer runs, radiators cold on one side of the building, water pressure that dropped overnight, or a bulge in the ceiling. Any of those, call (929) 717-4784.

Everyone asks. Here is what actually moves the number.

The job. A running toilet, a new shower cartridge or a kitchen sink snaking sits at the low end. A water heater installation with new venting, a gas line for a range, or a sewer lateral replacement under a Queens sidewalk sits at the other end, mostly because of materials, permits and the number of hours a crew spends in a hole.

The building. Manhattan buildings add cost in ways that have nothing to do with pipes. Certificates of insurance for the management company, an alteration agreement with the co-op board, a freight elevator reservation, work hours limited to 9 to 4 on weekdays, a doorman who will not let the van stop on the block. A plumber in Chelsea working in a full-service building spends more of the day on logistics than the same plumber in a two-family house in the Bronx. We price it in and we tell you.

Access. Pipes behind tile, risers inside a chase, a boiler room down a ladder. When a wall has to come open to reach a leak, leak detection with acoustic and thermal tools first usually means one small hole instead of three.

Permits. DOB plumbing permits and LAAs, DEP sewer connection permits, witnessed gas pressure tests. Filing fees and inspection scheduling are part of the price on jobs that need them. Unpermitted work surfaces later, usually when a buyer's attorney pulls the DOB records.

Age of the system. Galvanized steel from the 1920s does not take a new fitting well. A five-foot repair sometimes turns into a longer pipe repair because the pipe next to it crumbles the moment a wrench goes on. Cast iron stacks with hairline cracks, lead bends under toilets, brass that has gone soft. Our plumbers tell you before they start cutting, and what the number looks like if it grows.

Timing. After-hours emergency plumbing costs more than a scheduled weekday visit. A no-heat call on a holiday weekend, more again.

You get a written price before the work begins, every time. For a rough number, call (929) 717-4784, describe the problem and the building, and we can usually give you a range on the phone.

Most of what we do is not an emergency. It is the Tuesday afternoon work that keeps a building running.

Drain cleaning is the most common call in the city. Kitchen lines in prewar buildings are two-inch galvanized or cast iron with 80 years of grease on the walls. A cable clears the clog. Hydro jetting clears the pipe. For buildings with a recurring stack clog we run a camera first, because snaking the same line every six weeks is a bad plan when the real problem is a broken section under the basement slab.

Water heater repair and replacement is the second. Standard tank heaters in NYC apartments last 8 to 12 years, less with galvanized connections that corrode at the nipples. If yours is making a rumbling sound, that is sediment cooking on the bottom of the tank. Flushing helps early. Past a certain point the tank is done and a water heater installation is the honest answer. We size the new unit to the household, set the venting correctly and file the LAA when the job requires one. Tankless works when the gas supply and the venting path cooperate. In a lot of Manhattan apartments they do not, and we will tell you up front.

Boiler repair covers steam and hot water systems, gas and oil. Annual service before the season, low-water cutoff testing, skimming a steam boiler that is surging, replacing air vents on radiators so the top floor actually gets heat. Full boiler replacements sized from the connected radiation, not from the number on the old nameplate.

Gas line repair and installation: new lines for stoves, dryers and rooftop grills, gas cock replacements, leak repairs, pressure tests and Local Law 152 inspections.

Leak detection and pipe repair: finding the leak inside a wall from the water stain on a ceiling two floors down, then fixing it through the smallest opening we can manage. Copper, PEX, cast iron, galvanized transitions with the right dielectric fittings so it does not corrode again in three years.

Toilet repair and faucet and fixture installation fill out the week. Running toilets waste a surprising amount of water in a building that pays a metered DEP bill. Shower valves that only give you scalding or freezing. Vanities and sinks during renovations, dishwasher and disposal hookups, bidet seats, the whole list.

Commercial plumbing rounds it out. Restaurants in Greenwich Village and the Financial District with grease trap and floor drain problems, office buildings with backflow preventers due for annual testing, property managers who want one number for a portfolio of walk-ups in Queens.

A few things New Yorkers learn the hard way.

Ask for the master plumber license number. In NYC, gas work and any plumbing that needs a permit must be done under a licensed master plumber. Anyone else touching gas in this city is doing illegal work. Our license and insurance certificates are available on request and get sent to your management company before we show up.

Ask who is filing the permit. If a plumber says a water heater swap or a gas line does not need any paperwork in New York City, they are either wrong or planning to skip it. The open permit or missing sign-off becomes your problem when the co-op board or a buyer asks about it.

Ask about the building rules before the appointment. Co-ops and condos in Manhattan usually want a certificate of insurance naming the building, an alteration agreement for anything beyond a straight repair, and a work window. We deal with this every week in the Upper East Side and Midtown buildings we service and can send the paperwork the same day.

Ask about shutoffs. In a lot of older buildings your apartment has no dedicated shutoff, and the riser valve is in the basement or inside the apartment below. That means coordinating with the super and posting a shutoff notice in the lobby a day ahead. We have seen what happens when a plumber skips it.

Ask what happens if the pipe does not cooperate. Old brass, thin-wall copper, galvanized that shears. A good plumber tells you the repair might grow and what the number looks like if it does, before the wall is open.

Ask about after-hours pricing before the emergency. It is easier to hear the number on a calm afternoon.

NYC Plumber Co answers all of this on the first call. If you are comparing plumbers in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx or anywhere in Manhattan, call (929) 717-4784 and put us on the list.