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Water Supply Upgrade in Toronto?

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Member
Feb 23, 2009
284 posts
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Toronto

Water Supply Upgrade in Toronto?

We live in a really old house in Toronto and we are looking to upgrade our water supply to the current standard.

Does anyone have experience with this they can share, approximate cost? the process? etc?

Many thanks,
Detox
82 replies
Jr. Member
Aug 13, 2007
101 posts
9 upvotes
First thing you'll most likely want to do is call to get a water test completed - check for lead levels. This, depending on the level of lead in the water (and who is living in the house) will either speed up or delay your upgrade. This is only if you have a lead water pipe coming into your house. You can easily find this out by inspecting the main in your basment. You will be able to see if it's lead.

When I first called almost four years ago, they told me 16 months! I did the test - the levels were above normal for lead - and I have two small children. 6 weeks after the test results I had the upgrade complete. (I may have also said my wife was pregnant!)

Now we were already digging up our front porch - so my plumber came in and ran a 3/4" copper line from the hook-up into the basement for a reasonable price about (it was around $800 I believe) ... the contractors the city hires will totally want to gouge you - and there was an article a few years back in the Star regarding this. They were asking like $2500! a) they are already there doing the install from the road to the property line. b) they use a 'torpedo' to snake the pipe under. How do you figure $2500?

I believe $1500 would be reasonable, depending on how far back your house is set (cost of copper pipe). Now, if you want to dig out the trench for the pipe and just get your plumber to install the pipe - you will save some money - but you have to dig atleast four feet deep - below the frost line.

Hope this helps!
Detox99 wrote: We live in a really old house in Toronto and we are looking to upgrade our water supply to the current standard.

Does anyone have experience with this they can share, approximate cost? the process? etc?

Many thanks,
Detox
Deal Addict
Nov 9, 2008
1852 posts
879 upvotes
Toronto
When we bought our house last summer, it had a 1/2 service lead pipe from the street. In September, we upgraded to 3/4 service copper pipe.

If you're seriously looking into doing this, I would suggest going with a company that has a contract with the city. The reason for this is they will upgrade the city side (from the street to your property line) AND the private side (from your property line into the house) at the same time.

We used a company called Utility Force (416-256-4151), who works with the City of Toronto. They coordinated with the city, who marked all the gas and water mains, as well as the exact point to "shoot" the new water line from the street. From when we got the quote, it took about a month for everything to get in order and the work to happen, due to processing time with the city.

We paid $1400 all-in and the work was done in a few hours. The only digging that was done on our lawn was a 3x4 section, and Utility Force even replaced it with new sod. The difference in our water pressure and volume is immense. I would definitely recommend doing this, both for personal comfort and for the value of your home.
Sr. Member
Nov 24, 2002
900 posts
73 upvotes
Toronto
Same stuff as you hear here. You need to call and find out if your street has already been upgraded. My street has been upgraded, but most home owners (for some reason) decided to NOT pay the city contractor to do their side (city only pays from main under sidewalk to property line) If you have a big hole in your driveway, why the heck not go the last 8 feet ...

Anyways, I did do mine .. and WOW .. what a difference. Cost 1500$ total, but so worth it! I initially had 1/2" copper in basement, but that was not correct. When the contractor broke the concrete floor next to the water meter, the 1/2" copper connected to 1/2" LEAD just a few feet under the concrete.

I now have 3/4" copper and amazing water pressure. Last summer I was able to take a shower, while watering the grass, running dishwasher, and running washing machine .. AT THE SAME TIME! AWESOME! In my opinion, water should be available on demand similar to electricity. Imagine being told you can either watch TV or run the microwave in your house, but not at the same time .. crazy!
Member
Feb 23, 2009
284 posts
19 upvotes
Toronto
Thank guys very much for the information. My water pressure is lousy and we are planning to renovate the kitchen and the basement next year so I want this done ASAP. If you flush a toilet in our house while someone is taking a shower the shower head literally stops producing water.

We also do not have a water meter yet, which is painful because Toronto has us on flat rate, which is something like $800/yr. For two adults living in the house this is excessive IMO.

I know what you mean about being excited to water the grass and take a shower at the same time. It's such a pain in the arse to always have to play the 'water pressure management game' Thankfully time delayed appliances allow us to run the dishwasher at night now anyway, but I'm sure there will come a time when we might want to take two showers at the same time in the house.

So step one: Call the city for water upgrade.

Thanks.

Detox
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Oct 19, 2003
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The cost really depends largely on how far back the house is set from the curb... in my case, it was already done (thankfully!) because for a house in the city the house is set really far back from the street. You pay for everything between the curb stop and your house and the city pays for the rest.

One thing I'm not sure about is whether the sewer hookup was upgraded at the same time or not.. given the age of the home and the fact trenches would have already needed digging I am going to hope the answer is yes that I don't have a big crappy clay drain. Only reason I bring that up is it is probably something you want to think about while your front yard is being dug up anyway.
Member
Feb 23, 2009
284 posts
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Toronto
I called the City and booked my flow and pressure test, apparently a lead test is not required due to the age of the house (1920s) my guess is that they already know the lead pipes exist and the test will be high for lead.

I was told the cost would be approximately $2500 to upgrade the line. The City person I was talking to on the phone didn't seem clear whether this was the total cost to get the line all the way into the house, or if this was just the city part or what.

How do you find out what contractors work with the City of Toronto on this? Was the $1500 price the total cost to have an upgraded water line from the street all the way into the home?

Many thanks,
Detox
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Oct 19, 2003
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Detox99 wrote: I called the City and booked my flow and pressure test, apparently a lead test is not required due to the age of the house (1920s) my guess is that they already know the lead pipes exist and the test will be high for lead.

I was told the cost would be approximately $2500 to upgrade the line. The City person I was talking to on the phone didn't seem clear whether this was the total cost to get the line all the way into the house, or if this was just the city part or what.

How do you find out what contractors work with the City of Toronto on this? Was the $1500 price the total cost to have an upgraded water line from the street all the way into the home?

Many thanks,
Detox

You don't pay for the work on the city side of the property so that cost is probably what they estimate would be the cost through their contractors for your end. It probably doesn't cover getting your lawn back into shape after the digging though.
Member
Feb 23, 2009
284 posts
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Toronto
BinaryJay wrote: You don't pay for the work on the city side of the property so that cost is probably what they estimate would be the cost through their contractors for your end. It probably doesn't cover getting your lawn back into shape after the digging though.
Well that's the ugly part, I have interlocking front pad parking, and would have to remove some of the stones which I'm sure will be a mess.............., but the water upgrade really needs to be done.
Member
Feb 23, 2009
284 posts
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Toronto
City of Toronto Water came by today to inspect the line at the house and install a water meter (none there before) and do a flow test.

No meter was installed, they looked at the current setup and knew it wouldn't pass the flow test and didn't want to risk opening the line to install a water meter, and agreed a water upgrade would be required. So now on to the next part. What does the next phase (water upgrade look like).

Is it something like this: ?

1. Call City of Toronto, request upgrade
2. Call plumbing companies to get a quote?

During the actually new line install, does the City of Toronto do this, or will a contractor either home owner or City's choice do the entire thing. I plan to have the line upgraded all the way into the house.

Many thanks,
Detox
Sr. Member
Nov 24, 2002
900 posts
73 upvotes
Toronto
So I got a silly question for you.. because you don't have a water meter, how exactly are you charged for water?

I can understand why they don't want to touch the street side of the water line (I'm 99% sure it's 1/2" solid lead! That's right.. all the water you're drinking in your house is coming in through a solid lead pipe!) Lead is not a fun thing to work with, and I don't blame them for not wanting to touch it. But what happens on the inside of your house? Is the rest of your house copper? Where does it switch over? underground or visibly inside your house?

To get maximum pressure in your house, most setups I've seen are as follows:

3/4" copper from street --> water meter --> 3/4" copper --> hot water tank --> 1/2" copper cold to rest of house + 1/2" copper hot to rest of house.

The advantage of this setup is that you shouldn't experience a pressure drop in cold water when hot water is also turned on (equal pressure across the 2).
Deal Addict
Nov 9, 2008
1852 posts
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Toronto
Detox99 wrote: City of Toronto Water came by today to inspect the line at the house and install a water meter (none there before) and do a flow test.

No meter was installed, they looked at the current setup and knew it wouldn't pass the flow test and didn't want to risk opening the line to install a water meter, and agreed a water upgrade would be required. So now on to the next part. What does the next phase (water upgrade look like).

Is it something like this: ?

1. Call City of Toronto, request upgrade
2. Call plumbing companies to get a quote?

During the actually new line install, does the City of Toronto do this, or will a contractor either home owner or City's choice do the entire thing. I plan to have the line upgraded all the way into the house.

Many thanks,
Detox
If you get a contractor/plumber to do it, they will only upgrade the private side (usually from the sidewalk into your house). If you go through just the city, they will do just the city side (from the street to the edge of your property).

The nice part about going through one of the city approved contractors is that they will upgrade the private side AND the city side at the same time. This saves you time, money, and the headache of dealing with the City of Toronto. As per my previous post, we used a company called Utility Force Inc, and they handled pretty well everything. We paid $1600, which included the private and city side upgrade, shooting the new 3/4 line into the basement, installing a water meter, and hooking up to the existing plumbing. There was only a small patch of our lawn at the curb that had to be dug up, in order to shoot the pipe underground into the house. They replaced the patch with new sod afterwards as well.

Call them and ask them to give you a quote, and tell them what you've had done. They'll explain the process and I'm sure their quote will be lower than your $2500 one from the city. That seems pretty high.

Here's their number: Utility Force Inc (416-256-4151)
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Oct 6, 2010
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^ really? Wow...
The entire upgrade cost I believe was quoted $5000 but since there is a 2 year plan by the city to replace the
water on my street, I'm not going to pay to have it done so, it would only save me about $2500. This is quoted from the City coming to my house and doing this check and options in August of 2011. If it truely is this cheap, I might give them a call.
Newbie
Sep 11, 2012
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Toronto
The city (Toronto) is currently upgrading the water service on our street. The work on the main is being done by Fer-Pal but running new service from the main to the property line of each individual house is done by Utility Force. They have quoted us $2200 to continue the line (3/4" copper) into our house and hook it up, a distance of about 15'.
Deal Expert
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photart wrote: The city (Toronto) is currently upgrading the water service on our street. The work on the main is being done by Fer-Pal but running new service from the main to the property line of each individual house is done by Utility Force. They have quoted us $2200 to continue the line (3/4" copper) into our house and hook it up, a distance of about 15'.
Seems like a small cost to pay to have that modernized and then you can forget about it for a very long time, if it hadn't already been done on my house when I bought it it would have been one of the first things I'd have done.
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It was the first thing we did when we moved in to our 99 year old house, get rid of the rusted supply line (not lead). Don't know how the old owners settled for how it used to be. You would take a shower, someone ran warm water downstairs in the kitchen sink, and you wouldn't get scalded or chilled, water would actually turn to a little drip in the shower.

Was not a great experience getting quotes.. Vipe wanted $4000, Utility force $2600 (We got the utility force quote then checked the City website and noticed that Vipe now owned the contract).. The third company said "How much do you think it should cost?"

Interesting that our area had a pretty high concentration of frozen supply line issues this winter.
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/03 ... -york.html
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frogger wrote: It was the first thing we did when we moved in to our 99 year old house, get rid of the rusted supply line (not lead). Don't know how the old owners settled for how it used to be. You would take a shower, someone ran warm water downstairs in the kitchen sink, and you wouldn't get scalded or chilled, water would actually turn to a little drip in the shower.

Was not a great experience getting quotes.. Vipe wanted $4000, Utility force $2600 (We got the utility force quote then checked the City website and noticed that Vipe now owned the contract).. The third company said "How much do you think it should cost?"

Interesting that our area had a pretty high concentration of frozen supply line issues this winter.
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/03 ... -york.html
Did you end up getting Utility Froce to do the work or Vipe? I waited as the city told me 2 years, and they would be working in my area. lol. Waited three years too long.
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koffey wrote: Did you end up getting Utility Froce to do the work or Vipe? I waited as the city told me 2 years, and they would be working in my area. lol. Waited three years too long.
Neither, we actually ended up using Anta Plumbing. I don't think our street had lead supply lines as we tested and the results were really low.
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BinaryJay wrote: Seems like a small cost to pay to have that modernized and then you can forget about it for a very long time, if it hadn't already been done on my house when I bought it it would have been one of the first things I'd have done.
Yup. I don't understand how people can tolerate those 1/2" supply lines, unless they're in a super tiny house, with optimal pressures on that 1/2" line.

We have 1" and it's totally awesome. It was there before we moved in. I'm told the previous owner was allowed that to supply the in-ground sprinkler system.

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