Most of the plumbing questions we hear from Seattle homeowners start the same way: “Is this the galvanized pipe thing?” “Do I really need the whole sewer line replaced?” “Why can nobody give me a straight range?” These guides are our answers, written the way we would explain them at your kitchen table. They cover the old-house problems that repeat across Queen Anne, Magnolia, Fremont, Ballard and Wallingford, what each one actually means inside the wall or under the yard, and how to tell a permanent fix from a patch.
- Who they are forOwners of Seattle homes built before the 1960s, and anyone comparing plumbing quotes
- What they coverRepiping, side sewers, water heaters, heavy-rain drainage, and what a first visit looks like
- Seattle specificsSide sewer ownership and permits, combined-sewer neighborhoods, the City Light heat pump water heater rebate
- What they are notA sales pitch. Several of them explain when the expensive fix is not the right one
Repiping an old Seattle house
Galvanized steel supply lines were standard in Seattle homes for the first half of the last century, and they fail slowly from the inside. These three guides take you from “what is that brown water” to a quote you can compare with confidence.
Signs your old house needs repiping
Read this if you have rusty morning water, a shower that fades when someone flushes, or a plumber who said “replace everything” without saying why.
How to tell if you have galvanized pipes
Read this if you want a ten-minute basement check with a magnet and a flashlight before you call anyone.
What drives the cost of a whole-house repipe
Read this if you are holding two repipe quotes that are far apart and want to understand which line items make the difference.
How to read the numbers in these guides
Where a guide mentions cost, it uses market ranges only: what Seattle-area homeowners commonly report paying, so you have a sense of scale before anyone comes out. Those are not Nic’s Plumbing prices. The real number for your house is the Good / Better / Best digital quote we write after looking, which you approve before any work begins. Two quotes for the same house should not be thousands apart without a reason you can see, and the guides show you where to look for that reason.
When you are ready to talk about your own house, the service page for old-home repiping explains our targeted, partial and whole-house options.
Side sewers and sewer line decisions
In Seattle the pipe from your house to the city main is yours, including the part under the sidewalk and street, and the rules around fixing it are specific to this city. These guides cover ownership, permits and the trenchless-or-dig decision in plain language.
Seattle side sewers explained
Read this if you have never heard the phrase “side sewer card,” or you are about to buy or sell an older Seattle house.
Trenchless vs. dig-and-replace
Read this if a camera inspection turned up cracks, roots or an offset joint and you are deciding between a liner, pipe bursting or an open trench.
Both guides pair with our sewer line repair page and the deeper dive on sewer camera inspections, where we mark the footage so you can see the problem yourself.
Water heaters
A water heater rarely gives much notice. This guide helps you judge how much life yours has left, what the warning signs look like, and whether a repair, a like-for-like replacement, or an efficiency upgrade makes sense for your house.
Water heater lifespan and efficiency upgrades
Read this if your tank is past its first decade, the hot water has started to run rusty, or you are weighing tankless and heat pump options.
For the comparisons themselves, see tankless vs. tank and heat pump water heaters, including the Seattle City Light rebate that applies to them.
Heavy-rain drainage and basement water
Every fall the first big atmospheric river finds the weak spot in an old basement. Ballard, Fremont, Wallingford and north Queen Anne sit on combined sewers, where storm runoff and sewage share a pipe, which changes both the risk and the fix. These two guides cover the why and the what-to-do.
Why Seattle basements flood in heavy rain
Read this if water showed up in the basement during a storm and you need to know whether it is groundwater, a plumbing failure or a sewer backup before you spend a dollar.
Seattle rainy-season plumbing checklist
Read this in September. A short list of gutter, downspout, floor drain and sump checks that prevent most of the calls we get in November.
The fixes themselves, from downspout rerouting to a sump and backwater valve, are on our storm drainage page.
Working with us
Plenty of homeowners tell us the hardest part is not the pipe, it is letting a contractor into a house they love. This guide walks through a first visit minute by minute so there are no surprises on either side.
What to expect on a first visit
Read this if you want to know exactly what happens between the tracking link and the before-and-after photos, and what we will never pressure you to do.
The short version lives on our process page, and the quote itself is explained on how the free Good / Better / Best quote works.
Read enough? Let us look at the actual house.
Tell us what you are seeing and we will come out, trace the real cause, and send three priced options to approve before any work starts.
Have a question these guides do not answer yet? Send it to us. The questions homeowners ask are where the next guide comes from.