Bathroom Plumbing in Brooklyn, NY

A 1920s bathroom in Bensonhurst or Borough Park is its own ecosystem: cast iron tub heavy enough to bend a hand truck, wall-hung sink, galvanized supply stubs in the wall, and — here's the one that surprises people — a lead bend under the toilet, because pre-war NYC plumbers ran lead pipe from the bowl to the cast iron stack. That lead bend is fine until someone disturbs it, and knowing how to transition off it properly is the difference between a clean toilet reset and a leak into the ceiling below.

Rowhouse bathrooms stack on a shared wet wall, so what happens on the third floor matters on the first. And the borough's newer construction — condo conversions in Williamsburg, new builds in Greenpoint — runs copper and PEX with modern valves, which fail in completely different ways.

We work on all of it, and we don't treat a 100-year-old bathroom like a new one.

Repairs start at the fixture and the shutoff. Half the angle stops in old Brooklyn bathrooms haven't been turned in decades, and they either won't close or won't survive closing — so we check them first and replace them when they're done, because a repair you can't isolate isn't finished. The trucks carry fill valves, flappers, cartridges, wax rings, supply lines, and traps, so most repairs wrap in one visit.

Installs follow a sequence: protect the space, pull the old fixture, correct whatever the removal exposes (corroded flange, rotted subfloor edge, crumbling stub-out), set the new fixture level and sealed, then test under real use — full flush cycles, hot and cold run hard, joints checked dry.

Renovation rough-in is the third tier. When a gut reno moves fixtures, that's new supply, waste, and vent runs built to code, filed with the DOB, pressure-tested before the walls close, and inspected. We coordinate with your GC or run the plumbing scope directly.

Toilets first, because they're the most common call. We rebuild fill and flush valves, reseal and reset rocking bowls, repair broken flanges, and swap old water-guzzlers for modern 1.28-gallon units that actually clear the bowl — early low-flow toilets earned their bad reputation, current ones don't deserve it.

Showers and tubs are valve country. Old two-handle setups have no scald protection, which is why the shower turns lethal when the washing machine fills; current code calls for pressure-balancing anti-scald valves, and that's what goes in when we open the wall. We swap cartridges, replace diverters, and when a tiled-in valve body is done, we replace it cleanly — through an access panel when one exists, through a precise opening when it doesn't.

Tub work runs from a new waste-and-overflow to full removal, and pulling a 300-pound cast iron tub down a brownstone stair is its own trade skill. Old tub drains often hide a drum trap, a pre-war canister that clogs and can't be snaked properly — we replace those with modern P-traps. Vanities and sinks get new supplies, stops, and traps, set so they don't leak the first week or the fifth year. Persistent drain gurgles and smells sometimes trace past the bathroom entirely, into Drain Cleaning territory, and we'll tell you when that's the case.

The fixture grade you choose sets the widest range — a builder-grade faucet and a thermostatic shower system are different purchases, and we'll install either one right.

Access sets the labor. A valve reachable through a panel is a short job. The same valve buried behind original tile means opening the wall carefully and leaving it patch-ready, which takes longer.

Age sets the surprises. Galvanized stub-outs can crumble at the touch of a wrench, and a toilet flange on a lead bend may need rebuilding before anything new sits on it. We warn you about the likely ones up front, and any change gets priced in writing before we proceed. Moving fixtures in a renovation adds DOB filing, which we handle and pass through at cost.

A running toilet wastes water around the clock, and on NYC's metered billing you pay for every phantom gallon — the DEP's continuous-flow alerts catch a lot of these. Usually it's a worn flapper or a fill valve that won't shut off. Cheap fix, real savings.

Low pressure at one fixture is often a clogged aerator or a failing cartridge. Low pressure everywhere in an older house usually means galvanized supply lines rusted nearly shut, and no new faucet fixes a pipe with a pencil-width channel left in it.

Shower valve failures show up as drips that won't quit, handles that spin past their stops, and temperature that lurches when anyone touches water elsewhere in the house.

Drain smells have a shortlist: a dried-out trap in a rarely used bathroom, a gunked-up drum trap, or a venting problem letting sewer gas siphon past the water seal. Each has a different fix, and matching the fix to the cause is the job.

Know where the handyman line sits. Swapping a faucet is one thing; anything touching concealed piping, gas, or a renovation rough-in in NYC belongs with a licensed plumber, and permitted work requires one. Verify the license on the DOB site and ask for insurance certificates.

For renovations, get the plumbing scope itemized — what's roughed in, what's finish work, who files, who's there for inspection. Vague scopes grow expensive.

And be careful with rock-bottom per-fixture prices. They tend to assume perfect existing conditions, and pre-war Brooklyn bathrooms rarely offer those.

Call (929) 605-5967 or send the form. We look at the bathroom, talk through what you want, and hand you a written price — repair, replacement, or full rough-in scope. You approve it. We protect the space with drop cloths, do the work, and test everything the way you'll actually use it: full flushes, long hot runs, joints checked dry under pressure. Then we clean up, walk you through what was done, and leave a bathroom that just works, fifty uses a day, without a thought.