Plumber in Bushwick, Brooklyn

Full-service plumbing for homes, two-families and multi-family buildings across Brooklyn and Queens. Supply lines, waste lines, valves, fixtures and everything in between.

Bushwick's pre-war walk-up tenements — built mostly between 1880 and 1920 — are among the oldest residential buildings we service in Brooklyn. The 1977 blackout fires burned through a large portion of the housing stock, leaving an uneven mix of original pre-war structures and 1980s rebuilds on the same block. In the surviving tenements, galvanized supply lines, original cast-iron stacks, and in some buildings, pre-1920 lead service lines are still in place. Drain cleaning, pipe replacement, and emergency plumbing in Bushwick means first diagnosing what era the building's plumbing is actually from.

How do I know if my Bushwick tenement building has original cast-iron drain stacks?

Bushwick pre-war walk-up tenements built from the 1880s through 1920s were constructed with cast-iron drain, waste, and vent stacks that served all floors of the building. These original stacks are recognizable by their large diameter, hub-and-spigot joints sealed with lead and oakum, and the characteristic sound of flowing water through cast iron rather than PVC. In Bushwick buildings that were rebuilt after the 1977 blackout fires, the drain stacks may have been replaced with PVC or ABS as part of the reconstruction — so the same block can have original 1900s cast iron in one building and 1980s plastic in the adjacent rebuilt structure. We identify the pipe generation before recommending cleaning or replacement, because the approach to clearing a cast-iron hub-joint stack in a 100-year-old tenement differs significantly from working with rebuilt 1980s PVC. Camera inspection is the definitive way to assess stack condition in these Bushwick buildings.

My Bushwick apartment building has very low hot water pressure — what's the cause?

Low hot water pressure in a Bushwick pre-war walk-up tenement is typically caused by galvanized supply lines that have corroded internally over their 100-plus year service life, restricting flow to a fraction of the original pipe diameter. The hot water distribution in these 1880s-1920s tenement buildings runs from the basement boiler or water heater through galvanized risers to each apartment — and hot water is more aggressive on galvanized pipe than cold, accelerating the internal scale buildup. In a five- or six-story Bushwick tenement, the pressure drop across a fully corroded galvanized riser can render upper-floor apartments nearly unusable for showering. Unlike buildings with isolated supply failures, galvanized deterioration in these tenements is building-wide because all the pipe was installed in the same era. Full riser replacement from basement to roof is the permanent solution — partial replacement restores pressure temporarily but the adjacent original galvanized will fail within a few years.

What permits are needed for plumbing work in a Bushwick multi-family?

Plumbing work in Bushwick multi-family buildings — which include some of the oldest residential tenements in Brooklyn — requires DOB permits for any work beyond minor repairs to existing fixtures. Riser replacement, drain stack work, and service line replacements all require a licensed master plumber to pull permits and file plans with New York City DOB. The pre-war tenement construction common in Bushwick presents specific permitting considerations because the shared stacks and risers serving multiple dwelling units require coordination of tenant access across floors, and the permit must reflect the full scope of work rather than a unit-by-unit approach. In Bushwick buildings where post-fire reconstruction created a patchwork of original and rebuilt pipe systems, the permit application needs to accurately describe existing conditions — something we document before filing to avoid inspection complications.