The typical layout
Detached two-storey houses in Milliken, Steeles, Rouge and Morningside mostly date from the 1980s through the 2000s. Drains are ABS plastic, the stack runs inside an interior wall from the roof vent to the basement, and the supply is copper or, in some builds from the late 1980s and 1990s, polybutylene (poly-B) grey tubing. Plenty carry three bathrooms or more plus a second-floor laundry.
What fails in these houses
- Poly-B fittings cracking, especially at the hot water heater connection
- Second-floor washing machine hoses bursting and soaking the ceiling below
- Toilet wax rings giving out on upstairs toilets, staining the ceiling
- Shower pressure-balance cartridges sticking so the water swings hot or cold
- Sump pumps in newer subdivisions running every few minutes in spring
Our steps on an upstairs leak
- Shut the water at the main and let the lowest basement faucet run until it sputters out.
- Find the stain's centre and open the ceiling below it, not the tiled wall above.
- Identify whether it is supply (constant) or drain (only when used).
- Replace the failed part, run water for ten minutes and check again with the meter.
Poly-B note: Grey flexible pipe stamped PB2110 is polybutylene. Some insurers ask about it. Replacing it with PEX can usually be done through small wall openings.
Laundry pans and shut-offs
On a second-floor laundry we fit braided stainless hoses, a quarter-turn washer box and, where the floor allows, a drain pan under the machine. Those three parts cost little next to a soaked kitchen ceiling.