Gilbert, AZ Plumbers for Boom-Era Houses

Why so many Gilbert houses need the same repairs

Gilbert had about 29,000 people in the 1990 census, 110,000 in 2000 and 208,000 by 2010. Whole subdivisions went up inside a few years of each other, plumbed the same way, and they’re now reaching the same birthday. Mesa Rooter Works takes plumbing calls across Gilbert and Higley, and a licensed, insured plumber who works this part of the East Valley sees that pattern from one house to the next.

A house finished in 1998 has water lines past 25 years old and has probably had two or three water heaters. Three kinds of call follow from that.

• A second slab leak. The first one got patched. The rest of that line is the same age.
• A tank that rumbles every morning. Scale has built up for years, and a house on its second tank may be close to its third.
• A softener that quit regenerating. Many went in around the time the house was bought, and worn resin or a tired control valve shows up as white crust coming back.

Spotting a post-tension slab before anyone cuts

Plenty of slabs from these years are post-tensioned, with steel cables stretched through the concrete. Look for a notice stamped or stuck near the garage, and for round capped pockets along the edge of the foundation where the cables end.

It matters because a tensioned cable shouldn’t be cut. On these slabs a leak is usually handled by rerouting the line through the attic instead of opening the floor. Say on the call whether you’ve seen a notice, and the visit gets planned that way from the start.

Getting ahead of the next failure

A street where everything is the same age gives you a warning most homeowners don’t get. If the house next door just had its hot line fail under the slab, yours is worth a look. On the visit the plumber can check the copper you can see at the tank and under the sinks for pits and green crust, and read the meter with everything shut off.

The same goes for the tank. On hard water, replacing one before it lets go keeps the water off the garage floor and off the drywall behind it, and the water heater page covers how to tell a tank that can still be flushed from one that’s done.

Newer Gilbert: different pipe, different trouble

Agritopia began building in 2003 on old farmland, and houses from that decade on are more likely to have plastic supply lines from the first day. Pinhole leaks in copper aren’t the worry there. Fittings, shutoffs and original water heaters are where the calls come from, along with a softener that was never set to the water at the tap.

A softener gets programmed from a hardness reading taken at your own faucet.

Gilbert and Higley ZIP codes

Bordering towns have their own pages: plumbing in Mesa and plumbing in Chandler. Don’t see your ZIP? Call anyway and we’ll check your address.