Hot water tank replacement inRichmond

Why the location matters here

Crawlspace installs. Richmond crawlspaces are frequently damp and occasionally have standing water through the wet months. A tank sitting in that environment corrodes externally as well as internally, fittings seize, and the drain pan — if there is one — often isn't doing what it was installed to do.

Getting the old tank out of a crawlspace is also genuinely harder than out of a basement, and it's the part that makes some Richmond quotes higher than others.

Garage installs. The common case, and the straightforward one. The thing to check is whether the tank is raised — in a garage, ignition sources on a gas appliance generally need to be elevated, and older installations sometimes aren't.

Utility room installs. Usually the easiest, and the most likely to be a like-for-like swap.

What we look at while we're there

Because a tank replacement puts us in the part of a Richmond home where the water table shows itself, we check three things at the same time and tell you what we find:

The sump pump, if there is one. In much of Richmond it's the only thing keeping groundwater out, and the most common failure is a power cut during the storm that needed it.

The perimeter drainage, or at least the evidence of it working. Damp on the crawlspace floor, efflorescence, or a musty smell tells us something.

The supply piping. Richmond has the heaviest concentration of grey Poly-B we encounter, and the pipe at the hot water tank is the easiest place in any house to identify it. If yours is grey plastic and the house is from ⁨1978–1997⁩, we'll tell you.

None of that is an upsell. It's three things we can see for free while we're already under there, and you should know about all three.

Sizing and the Poly-B connection

A note that's specific to Richmond's housing stock: much of the city's detached and townhouse construction dates from the same late-70s to mid-90s window, which means a lot of homes are on their second or third tank and their original supply piping.

If the piping is due and the tank is due at the same time, doing both together costs meaningfully less than doing them separately — the water is already off and the access is already open.

About the permit

Required in Richmond, included in our quote. The inspection covers venting, seismic strapping, the T&P discharge and the expansion tank.

The owner must get a plumbing permit before doing any plumbing and a gas permit before doing any gas work. Clearing stoppages and repairing leaks are permit-exempt only when the repair does not involve replacing or rearranging valves, pipes, fixtures or hot water tanks. City of Richmond: Building Regulation Bylaw No. 7230

New and replacement gas appliances such as hot water tanks and furnaces must be inspected by the City once installed. City of Richmond: Building Regulation Bylaw No. 7230