Expert Plumbing Services in Saint Paul, Minnesota

When temperatures park below zero for days, water sitting in exterior walls, unheated crawl spaces, and garage ceilings starts to freeze and expand. Copper splits along its length, and PEX fittings can crack at the joints. The real damage often shows up during the thaw, when pressurized water finds the split. We thaw lines with controlled heat, repair the break, and then fix the reason it froze — missing insulation, a drafty chase, or a line run through a cold zone — so it doesn't happen again next winter.

Up until the late 1920s, the pipe bringing water from the street main into Saint Paul homes was commonly made of lead. The city's Lead Free SPRWS program is replacing the remaining lines at no cost to property owners, but plenty of homes in the North End, Payne-Phalen, and the West Side are still waiting their turn. We can help you figure out what your service line is made of, coordinate around the city's schedule, and replace the private side with copper when the time is right.

Saint Paul's spring doesn't arrive gently. Snowpack melts fast, the ground is still frozen so water can't soak in, and every bit of it runs toward foundations and sump pits. A pump with a stuck float switch, a worn impeller, or a discharge line that froze shut in March will quit on the one week you need it most. We test pumps under load, clear and protect discharge lines from freezing, and install battery backups so a spring storm outage doesn't turn into a flooded basement.

Saint Paul's tap water runs about 5 grains per gallon of hardness, per Saint Paul Regional Water Services' own mineral reports. That is moderate, not severe, but over years the minerals settle as scale inside tank water heaters, forcing the burner to work harder and the tank to run hotter to make the same hot water. You hear it as rumbling or popping from the tank. Regular flushing clears the sediment, and when the tank is done, we size a replacement for your household and this water.

The boulevard trees that make Mac-Groveland and Como so beautiful are relentless about finding water. Old clay and Orangeburg sewer laterals develop small cracks and offset joints, and roots slip in looking for moisture. First the basement floor drain gurgles, then the lowest toilet starts acting up, then everything backs up at once. We run a camera down the line to see exactly what's in there, cut the roots out mechanically, and when the pipe is too far gone, replace it — often trenchless, without tearing up the whole yard.

Galvanized steel was the standard supply pipe for decades, and thousands of Saint Paul homes still have it in their walls. It rusts from the inside, and the rust builds up until a half-inch pipe is carrying water through a pencil-sized opening. Showers go weak, the washing machine takes forever to fill, and rust-colored water shows up after the line sits overnight. There's no cleaning it out for good — the lasting fix is a repipe in copper or PEX, done in sections so your house isn't torn apart all at once.