Plumber InMonroe

Houses near downtown are 90 to 150 years old

The Monroe Residential Historic District wraps around the business district and holds 376 contributing buildings on about 181 acres. Its National Register nomination describes Italianate houses from the 1870s and 1880s, along with brick bungalows and Colonial Revival houses from the 1920s and 1930s. Benton Heights and Rolling Hills add mid-century houses to the mix.

Homes of those ages were typically built with galvanized steel water lines and cast iron drains. Galvanized pipe rusts from the inside until a fully open tap gives a trickle. Cast iron scales, cracks and finally leaks along the bottom of the pipe, usually in a crawlspace where nobody looks. A sewer camera inspection shows what is left of the drain before you pay for anything.

• Brown or orange water first thing in the morning
• Good pressure at the hose bib, poor pressure indoors
• A sewer smell or damp soil under the house
• Drains that slow down a little more each year

The city maintains the main. You maintain the line to it

The city's Water Resources department is clear about where its job ends. It maintains sewer mains and manholes in streets and utility easements. Property owners are responsible for keeping an open flow path from the building, through the service connection, to the main. The city lists the usual causes of blockages as structural damage to pipes, grease buildup and roots, and notes that heavy rain can cause them too.

So when a line backs up, the first question is where. Alpha Drain clears the stoppage, then runs a camera to find the cause and how far it is from the house. A root intrusion or a broken section may need sewer line repair. A grease or scale problem is usually solved with hydro jetting.

Backflow testing under the city's cross-connection rules

City code requires every new or repaired water service to have a backflow device matched to the hazard on the property, as judged by the Director of Water Resources. Devices on high-hazard connections must be tested at the owner's expense, on the schedule and with the reporting set out in the city's Cross-Connection Control Policy. A device that fails has to be repaired or replaced and tested again. If testing is ignored after notice, the code calls for water service to be discontinued until you comply.

Results go to Water Resources on the city's standard test form. Alpha Drain's certified backflow testing is $199 per assembly. Check with us first that the City of Monroe accepts our test reports. Under our 30-Day Compliance Guarantee, we test your assembly within 30 days. For home sprinkler systems that do not inject chemicals, state law now bars a city water system from requiring a test more than once every three years.

Restaurants and shops along Roosevelt Boulevard

US-74 crosses the city as Roosevelt Boulevard, lined with restaurants, retail centers and service businesses. Food service brings grease. The city's standard grease trap is 1,000 gallons, anything else needs a signed variance agreement, and sewer customers with a grease trap or an oil and grit separator are billed an annual inspection fee.

A trap only catches what reaches it. The lines between the kitchen and the trap still coat over, and that is where backups start. Jetting those lines on a schedule is how you avoid a floor drain coming up during service. Property managers with several units can put drain maintenance, backflow tests and plumbing repair on one call, and same-day service is available when a tenant cannot wait.

Monroe neighborhoods we serve

Downtown Monroe, Monroe Residential Historic District, Benton Heights, Rolling Hills, Fox Hunt Estates, Savannah Way, Hamilton Place, St. Johns Forest, Southwinds, Brekonridge, Camelot, Woodlands Creek, and the streets in between.

Monroe ZIP codes we serve: 28110, 28112.