Condo and high-rise plumbing
Most plumbers avoid tall buildings. There's a reason: the plumbing is the easy part, and everything around it — strata approval, building shut-offs, elevator bookings, noise bylaws, notices to neighbouring suites, and the question of who actually pays — is where the job is won or lost.
We're based downtown, under the towers we work in. Coal Harbour, Yaletown, the West End, Metrotown, Brentwood, Brighouse. Our service area is the densest concentration of condo towers in Canada, and this is what we built the company around.
The question most people arrive with: whose problem is this?
If water is coming through your ceiling, or into a neighbour's suite from yours, the who-pays question is usually more stressful than the plumbing.
The short version: it depends where the failure is. In broad terms, your strata is responsible for common property — the risers, the main stacks, and generally the pipes within the walls serving multiple units — and you're responsible for the plumbing within your suite, typically from the branch connection inward. Fixtures, in-suite supply lines and your own hot water tank are usually yours.
But every strata's bylaws differ, some have been amended, and the standard bylaws in the Strata Property Act can be varied. The answer for your building is in your building's registered bylaws, not in a general rule.
⚠️ We're plumbers, not lawyers, and nothing here is legal advice about your specific strata.
What we can do is establish the facts. We trace the leak to its actual source, document it with photographs and camera footage where relevant, and give you a written report identifying exactly what failed and where. That report is what your strata, your property manager and both insurers will ask for — and it's what turns an argument into a determination.
Suite-to-suite leaks
The most common call we take in a tower, and the most commonly mishandled.
Water appearing in a ceiling almost never originates directly above the wet patch. It tracks along joists, follows conduit, runs down the outside of a pipe and emerges metres from the failure. Guessing costs money and opens the wrong ceiling.
What we do: start at the visible damage, use moisture meters and thermal imaging to map the extent, work upward through the likely sources — supply line failures, shower pan and membrane failures, grout and sealant failures letting water behind tile, drain connections, dishwasher and washing machine hoses, and in-suite hot water tanks — and confirm the source before anyone cuts anything.
Then document it properly. In a building, that documentation is the deliverable as much as the repair is.
Kitec — the condo problem
If your building was constructed or plumbed between roughly 1995 and 2007, there's a reasonable chance it has Kitec: orange and blue pipe with brass fittings, sometimes branded PlumbBetter, IPEX AQUA or WarmRite.
Kitec fails through dezincification — the brass fittings corrode internally, restricting flow and eventually splitting. It was the subject of a major class action, and it's now routinely flagged by strata engineering reports, depreciation reports and insurers.
For a condo owner this shows up in three ways: an insurance renewal that asks about it, a depreciation report recommending replacement, or a strata deciding to run a repipe program.
We replace it — suite by suite where owners are doing their own, or whole-building where the strata has approved a program. Either way we handle the approval submission, the shut-off scheduling and the notices.
How we actually work in a building
This is the part that separates a plumber who works in towers from one who occasionally visits one.
Building shut-offs. Anything touching the riser needs the building's water shut down, which needs the property manager's agreement, a scheduled window, and notice to affected suites — usually 24–48 hours. We arrange it. We don't turn up and ask the concierge to find the valve.
Elevator booking. Moving a hot water tank, a bathtub or repipe materials means a booked service elevator with pads fitted. Buildings have forms and windows for this. We book it in advance.
Noise bylaws. Most buildings restrict noisy work to weekday daytime hours. We plan around those windows rather than getting stopped halfway through.
Access and protection. Corridor protection, floor coverings, and cleaning as we go. Concierge desks remember which trades leave a mess in the lobby.
Documentation. Written completion reports, photographs, permit records. Property managers need these on file; owners need them at resale.
What's different about the plumbing itself
Access is limited. Pipes run in shafts and shared walls. There's rarely a crawlspace to work from and often only one access panel.
Shut-off isolation varies. Some suites have their own isolation valves; many older buildings don't, meaning a small repair needs a riser shut-down. We check what you have before scheduling.
Everything affects a neighbour. A dropped fitting is somebody's ceiling. Water not fully drained is somebody's floor.
Pressure and stack dynamics. Tall buildings use pressure zones and booster systems. A pressure problem in a high floor suite may be a building system issue rather than anything in your unit — and knowing the difference saves you paying for the wrong repair.
Venting is shared. Gurgling fixtures across several suites often points to a stack venting issue, not an in-suite blockage.
What we do in condos and towers
Emergency response, 24/7 · Suite-to-suite leak investigation and documentation · Kitec and Poly-B repipes, suite or building-wide · In-suite hot water tank replacement, including the logistics of getting an old one out · Bathroom and kitchen renovation plumbing · Fixture replacement and repair · Drain clearing, in-suite and stack · Shut-off valve installation for suites that lack them — a genuinely worthwhile upgrade · Pressure diagnostics · Booster and pump systems, and building domestic hot water Commercial water heaters
In-suite hot water tanks
A common condo job with an uncommon complication: getting a 50-gallon tank out of a hallway closet, into a service elevator, and out of the building — often through a suite with finished floors.
We plan the route, protect it, book the elevator, and dispose of the old unit. It's a straightforward job made complicated by the building, which is precisely the thing we're set up for. Hot water tank replacement
For strata councils and property managers
If you manage a building rather than live in one, we have a page written for you: service level expectations, scheduled access, per-unit invoicing, documented shut-off notices, preventive maintenance and a named after-hours contact.
Where we work
Downtown Vancouver, Coal Harbour, the West End, Yaletown and False Creek, Olympic Village, Brentwood and Metrotown in Burnaby, Brighouse in Richmond, Coquitlam Town Centre, Downtown New Westminster — and every tower in between.
