Expert Plumbing Services in Ontario, Oregon

The single most common winter emergency here. Supply lines running through unheated garages, crawlspaces, and exterior walls freeze when a cold snap pushes temperatures into the teens, and they split as they thaw. The fix is rarely just one fitting: we thaw safely, replace the damaged section, add insulation or heat tape where it makes sense, and — most important — make sure you know where your main shutoff is before the next freeze. Homes with the water heater in an unheated garage are especially exposed.

Ontario's blended river-and-well water leaves mineral sediment in every tank heater in town. Over a few years it piles up on the bottom, the burner or elements work harder, the tank runs loud, and hot water runs out faster. Annual flushing clears most of it, and checking the anode rod tells us whether the tank has years left or is living on borrowed time. When replacement makes more sense, we size the new unit to the household — not to the biggest box on the shelf.

Silt and loess soils shift, joints open a hair, and tree roots find them. Once a root tip gets into a clay or concrete lateral it grows into a mat that catches everything. The signs are slow drains that keep coming back, gurgling toilets, and backups after heavy use. We run a camera, show you exactly where the intrusion is, and clear it with a cutter or hydro jetting. If the pipe is broken or bellied, we talk spot repair versus replacement with the footage in front of you.

Exterior faucets are freeze victims by design if they were never winterized. A standard hose bibb with a hose left attached traps water right at the wall, where it freezes and splits the pipe inside the house — the leak often doesn't show until spring. Frost-free sillcocks, installed with the right downward pitch so they drain, solve it for good. We replace split bibbs and add interior shutoff valves so you can drain the line each fall in about two minutes.

Houses from the first half of the 1900s often still carry galvanized steel water lines. From the inside they rust shut over decades: pressure drops, water runs rusty after sitting overnight, and pinhole leaks appear one after another. Patching buys time, but the honest fix is a repipe — usually in PEX or copper, routed to avoid the freeze-prone spots the old lines suffered in. We phase repipes so you're never without water overnight.

Soft silt settles unevenly, and a sewer line laid perfectly level in 1975 can develop a low spot — a belly — where solids collect while water flows past. The result is a line that clogs on a schedule no plunger can fix. A camera survey shows the belly's depth and length; shallow ones can sometimes be managed with regular jetting, but a deep belly needs excavation and re-grading. Either way, you'll see the evidence before we quote.

This is irrigation country, and plenty of homes tie lawn sprinklers, drip lines, or stock tanks straight into the house water. Without a backflow preventer, a pressure drop can pull fertilizer, pesticides, or stagnant water back into your drinking water. We install and test the right assembly for the hazard level — and annual testing keeps it legal and working. Spring startup is also when we find the freeze-split vacuum breakers winter left behind.