Your questions, answered.

Shut off the water at the main valve first — it is usually in the basement, crawlspace or garage on the wall facing the street, and turns clockwise. Then call us at 604-865-7979. Move valuables clear and photograph the damage for your insurer while you wait.

In a house it is usually in the basement, crawlspace or garage, on the wall facing the street, near where the water line enters. In a condo, look under the kitchen sink, behind the toilet or in the laundry closet for your suite valves. Find it before you need it.

Anything actively causing damage or making the home unusable: a burst or leaking pipe, sewage backing up, water coming through a ceiling, no heat in winter, or a gas smell. If you are unsure, call and describe it — we will tell you honestly whether it can wait until morning.

Do not touch any switch. Leave the building. Call FortisBC at 1-800-663-9911 from outside, then call us. Do not try to find the leak yourself.

Tell your building manager or concierge immediately so they can shut off the riser if needed, then call us. We trace the source and document it, which is what your strata and both insurers will need to settle who pays.

If water is near outlets or the panel and you can safely reach the breaker, yes. If you cannot reach it safely, leave the room and tell us when you call.

Yes. Multiple fixtures backing up means a blockage in the main line, and sewage backup is a health hazard rather than an inconvenience. Stop using water in the house and call us.

Turn the shut-off valve behind the toilet clockwise, or lift the tank lid and push the flapper down to stop water entering the bowl. Then call us if it will not clear.

Usually not, unless the tank is leaking, you smell gas, or someone in the home is medically vulnerable. Cold showers are miserable, not dangerous — and morning service is cheaper.

Shut off the cold water valve at the top of the tank, turn off the gas or the breaker, and call us. A tank leaking from the body will not stop on its own and will get worse.

Call us, and in the meantime remove what you can from the floor. If you have a wet-dry vacuum you can slow the accumulation, but do not enter standing water near electrical outlets.

Shut the water off if you have not. Move valuables clear of the water and photograph the damage for your insurer. Put down buckets and towels, and leave any wall or ceiling panel intact so we can see the source undisturbed.

Insurers generally treat sudden accidental damage differently from the gradual failure of a known problem. We document the cause with photographs and a written report, which is what your insurer will ask for. Your broker is the one who can answer for your specific policy.

We cover Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and New Westminster, 24 hours a day.

Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and New Westminster. We kept the area tight deliberately — a company covering the whole Lower Mainland cannot promise a response time and mean it.

Our four trades are Plumbing, Heating, Gas and Renovations.

Where scheduling allows, yes. Ask for them by name and we will send them if they are available.

Yes, wherever the work requires one — hot water tanks, gas work, and most drainage and repiping. The permit cost is in your quote, not added afterward.

It is our name and our phone habit. The domain is callpanther.ca, and the whole idea is that when something goes wrong you remember two words.

Yes — restaurants, offices, strata buildings and multi-unit residential, with work scheduled outside operating hours where that matters.

Yes, licensed plumbers, gas fitters and apprentices. Pay ranges are published on our careers page rather than hidden behind a phone call.

Yes, on our projects page — real jobs with what we found, what we did and what it cost. We add two a month.

Call 604-865-7979 any hour, book online, or email [email protected]. For anything urgent, call — it is faster.

Yes, for anything we can assess on site during a call-out, and for larger planned work like repipes, drainage and heating replacements. We do not charge to tell you what something costs.

We stop, show you what we found, and give you a revised written price. You decide before we continue. We do not carry on and hand you a larger bill at the end.

Yes. Where a permit is required, its cost is in the quote rather than added afterward.

Ask the other quote what is excluded. Permits, disposal, wall repair and after-hours rates are the four things most commonly left out, and they are how a cheaper quote becomes a more expensive job.

Any current offers are published on our promotions page with the conditions stated. We do not run countdown timers or today-only pressure.

We price the job at what it takes to do properly. If a quote is significantly lower, it is usually because something is excluded — we will tell you what to check rather than cut corners to match it.

No separate travel charge within our service area. The call-out fee covers attendance.

It depends where the failure is and what your strata's bylaws say. Broadly, the strata is responsible for common property and the owner for plumbing within the suite — but bylaws vary and can be amended, so the answer for your building is in your building's registered bylaws. We trace and document the source, which is what settles the question.

Generally the risers, the main stacks, and pipes within walls serving multiple units. Plumbing within your suite — fixtures, branch lines and your own hot water tank — is usually the owner's. Your building's bylaws are the authority.

For a simple repair, often not. For anything touching common property, altering the layout, or requiring a water shut-off, generally yes. We prepare the approval submission as part of the job.

If your suite has isolation valves, yes. Many older buildings do not, in which case the riser has to be shut down and scheduled with the property manager. We check what you have before scheduling.

Kitec is orange and blue pipe with brass fittings, installed roughly 1995 to 2007 and very common in Metro Vancouver condos. The brass fittings corrode from the inside and eventually split, which is why insurers and strata engineers now flag it routinely.

Look at the pipe under a bathroom sink or at your hot water tank. Orange and blue pipe with brass fittings, sometimes branded Kitec, PlumbBetter, IPEX AQUA or WarmRite. Send us a photo and we will identify it free.

Kitec was the subject of a major class action rather than a conventional recall, and the claim period has closed. What matters now is that insurers, strata engineers and depreciation reports treat it as a known risk.

It depends on whether the piping in question is common property or within the suite, and on your bylaws. In practice many buildings run suite-by-suite programs where owners pay for their own, and some run whole-building programs funded by the strata. Your council and your bylaws decide.

Yes, and it is common. The strata approves a specification and owners replace individually over time. A coordinated whole-building program is cheaper per suite and less disruptive overall, but suite-by-suite is often the practical route.

Almost never. It is dusty and disruptive rather than uninhabitable.

In a tall building it is often the booster pump or the pressure zone system rather than anything in your suite. Knowing the difference saves you paying for the wrong repair.

Almost certainly a blockage or venting problem in the shared stack rather than individual suite problems. That is the building's responsibility to address and it needs a coordinated response.

Yes. The complication is logistics rather than plumbing — getting the old tank out through a suite and into a service elevator. We plan the route, protect it, book the elevator and dispose of the old unit.

Usually with strata approval, because the outdoor unit goes on a balcony or exterior wall, which is normally common property. Some buildings prohibit them. We check your bylaws before quoting.

Many Metro Vancouver strata bylaws prohibit them because of the effect on the building's shared drain stack. Check your bylaws before installing one.

Yes, routinely — including invoicing and reporting to the manager rather than to individual owners where that is the arrangement.

Yes, before the first attendance rather than during an emergency. Certificate of insurance, WorkSafeBC clearance, licence numbers and method statements where required.

Yes, including to explain repipe options without a quote attached.

Yes. Generic depreciation report figures often do not reflect a specific building, and a realistic assessment makes capital planning defensible at an AGM.

The plumbing is priced the same. Where a job requires elevator booking, a scheduled shut-off or out-of-hours work, that is reflected in the quote and stated up front.

A Form B is the information certificate a strata issues about a unit. It comes up in transactions and sometimes when documenting or scheduling building work.

Yes. We prepare a written notice with the affected suites, the time window and the expected restoration time, for the manager or concierge to distribute.

Yes — per unit, per building, or consolidated monthly, structured to match how you bill owners.

Yes, and it is a worthwhile upgrade. Adding suite isolation valves means future repairs do not require a building shut-down, which saves the strata money and residents inconvenience every time.

Usually, for common sizes — we stock them. Call and we will tell you honestly whether we can do it today.

Yes, in most Metro Vancouver municipalities. Unpermitted tank swaps are common and they surface at resale or on an insurance claim. We pull the permit and it is in the price.

Usually sediment reducing the tank's usable capacity, a failed lower element in an electric tank, or a broken dip tube. Sometimes the household has simply outgrown the tank.

No — endless, not instant. There is still a delay while water travels the pipe, plus a moment while the unit fires. A recirculation system gives you instant, and it costs extra.

Annually. Scale builds up on the heat exchanger, and most manufacturer warranties require documented annual maintenance.

Efficiency drops, error codes appear, the unit's life shortens, and a warranty claim may be refused for lack of maintenance records.

Sediment on the bottom of the tank with water boiling underneath it. A flush sometimes helps; on an older tank it is a sign the tank is nearing the end.

Usually internal corrosion in the tank, which means the tank is near the end of its life. Occasionally it is the supply piping, particularly in older homes with galvanized steel.

A small vessel that absorbs pressure as water heats. It is required where the supply has a backflow preventer or pressure-reducing valve, which is most newer installations. If you need one and do not have one, we will tell you.

Gas heats and recovers faster and keeps working in a power cut but needs venting. Electric is cheaper to install and common in condos. Usually you replace like with like, because switching means new venting or new electrical.

An electric tank that moves heat from the surrounding air into the water rather than generating it, using roughly a third of the energy of a standard electric tank. It needs space, airflow and a reasonable ambient temperature.

Roughly the volume of a fridge. Fine in a basement or utility room, noticeable next to a bedroom.

On an electric tank, usually a tripped breaker, a failed element, or the high-limit reset switch on the tank itself. On gas, usually the pilot, thermocouple or gas valve.

Most often an ignition failure or a dirty flame sensor. Sometimes it is simply the fan setting left on 'on' instead of 'auto', which blows unheated air between cycles.

Three things, and they fix a surprising number of calls. The thermostat, including its batteries. The breaker, and the switch on or near the furnace that looks like a light switch. And the filter — a clogged one can trip the safety limit.

Briefly, on the first run of the season — that is dust burning off. A persistent burning, electrical or acrid smell is not. Turn the furnace off and call us.

Leave the building and call 911 from outside. Do not investigate. The furnace must not be run again until it has been inspected.

Whatever a heat loss calculation says — not what was there before. An oversized furnace short-cycles, which means uneven temperatures, more wear and worse efficiency. If someone quotes a size over the phone without asking about your insulation, they are guessing.

Annually, before heating season. Most manufacturer warranties require documented annual maintenance, and the combustion check is a carbon monoxide safety measure.

Yes. Our mild, wet winters are close to ideal for them, and modern cold-climate units operate efficiently well below anything Vancouver typically sees.

A heat pump paired with a gas furnace. The heat pump handles mild weather, which in Vancouver is most of the year, and the system switches automatically to the furnace when it gets cold enough that gas is the better option.

In most Vancouver homes, yes across a full year, because the heat pump handles the mild majority of the season more cheaply. The exact figure depends on your electricity and gas rates.

The outdoor temperature at which a dual-fuel system hands over from the heat pump to the gas furnace. Setting it to the economic balance point for your actual rates, rather than a generic default, is what makes the system worth having.

Yes. That is a large part of why they now make sense in Vancouver.

Panther is not registered with the Home Performance Contractor Network as of October 4, 2026. We do not offer access to rebates that require an HPCN-registered contractor.

Air at the top, which bleeding fixes, or sludge at the bottom, which needs a power flush.

There is a leak somewhere in the system, or the expansion vessel has lost its charge. Repeatedly topping it up treats the symptom rather than the cause.

On most domestic combi boilers, not comfortably — hot water is heated on demand at a fixed flow rate. If simultaneous showers matter, a combi is the wrong choice.

A drain that blocks repeatedly almost always has a structural cause — root intrusion at a joint, a bellied section holding water, a collapse, or a poorly graded run. A camera inspection answers it in ten minutes.

No. Caustic cleaners damage older pipe, particularly cast iron and ABS, and they rarely clear a real blockage — they sit on top of it. If you have used one, tell us, because it changes how we open the line.

Cabling punches a hole through a blockage. Hydro jetting scours the pipe wall clean with high-pressure water and removes the material. That is why a grease-blocked kitchen line cabled in January blocks again by April.

Not sound pipes. Badly deteriorated cast iron, cracked clay or a line already collapsing can be damaged, which is why we camera-inspect first when pipe condition is uncertain.

Root intrusion, cracks, bellies holding standing water, offset joints, collapse, pipe material and rough age, and grease or scale buildup. You get the recorded footage and a written report.

Yes. Our camera carries a sonde that the equipment tracks from above ground, so we can mark the position and depth on your lawn or driveway before anyone digs.

A blockage in the main line rather than an individual fixture. Stop using water in the house and call us; if sewage is involved it is a health issue rather than an inconvenience.

Air cannot move properly through the system, which is often an early sign of a main-line restriction. Worth checking before it backs up.

The pipe running around your foundation footings underground, collecting groundwater and carrying it away before it can push against your basement walls. Older tradespeople call it weeping tile.

Water or damp patches in the basement after heavy rain, white chalky deposits on basement walls, a persistent musty smell, pooling water against the foundation, or a sump pump running far more than it used to. Many failures show no symptoms until they are complete.

A camera inspection decides. If the pipe is structurally sound and the problem is silt or light roots, flushing restores it for a fraction of the cost. We will not quote a replacement without showing you why.

In most Metro Vancouver municipalities the homeowner owns and maintains the lateral from the house to the property line, and in some cases to the main. The city owns the main. It varies, so we confirm your municipality's position before quoting.

Perimeter drains carry groundwater from around your foundation. The sewer lateral carries waste from inside the house to the city main. Different pipes, different problems, different repairs.

Root intrusion is the most common cause — mature street trees, older clay pipe with mortared joints, and a reliable water source inside the pipe. Age, ground settlement and crushing account for most of the rest.

Replacing or relining a sewer lateral along its existing path using small access pits instead of a trench, which saves the driveway, patio and mature planting. It does not work on a fully collapsed line or one with severe bellies.

No. Home inspections are visual and exclude the sewer lateral. It is a separate service and a separate cost.

If a flooded basement would be expensive, or you are in a high-water-table area like Richmond or Queensborough, we would say yes. The most common failure is a power cut during exactly the storm that needs the pump.

Grey plastic water pipe installed in BC homes roughly between 1978 and 1997. Chlorine in municipal water makes it progressively brittle, and it fails at the fittings, usually without warning.

Look at the pipe where it comes out of your hot water tank or under a bathroom sink. Grey plastic, roughly garden-hose flexibility, often with grey or copper crimp rings, sometimes stamped PB2110. Send us a photo and we will identify it free.

No, and it is not illegal to have. It is a discontinued material that insurers and inspectors treat as a known risk.

Many BC insurers now restrict coverage, increase premiums, or decline to write new policies on homes with it, though practices vary and change. Your own broker is the only reliable answer for your policy.

Often, but it is your insurer's decision. Ask your broker with our written completion report and permit record in hand — that documentation is what they will want.

Sometimes, and we will do the repair if that is genuinely the right call. But Poly-B and Kitec fail as materials rather than in one location, so a repair leaves you the same pipe everywhere else and the same insurance position.

Almost never. It is dusty and disruptive rather than uninhabitable, and water is restored each evening in most cases.

No. Different polymer, different failure mechanism, and decades of field data. The comparison comes up often and it is not a fair one.

Yes, in most Metro Vancouver municipalities. We pull it and it is in the quote.

Four things: is the permit included, is drywall repair included, is disposal included, and is it PEX or copper. Those four omissions are how a cheap quote becomes an expensive job.

Sometimes — a bathroom at a time, or floor by floor. It costs more overall but spreads the expense.

Galvanized steel supply pipe, common in pre-1960 homes, rusts closed from the inside over decades. Symptoms are water pressure that has been declining for years and discoloured water first thing in the morning.

Four common causes: a failed pressure reducing valve, corroded galvanized piping, a failing water service line, or a hidden leak. The regulator is the cheapest to fix and the most commonly missed.

The most reliable early sign is a water bill rising with no change in usage. Also: a damp or discoloured patch, a musty smell in one room, the water meter moving with everything off, or a warm spot on the floor.

We start non-invasively — acoustic detection, thermal imaging and pressure testing. Only once we know where it is do we open anything, and then it is one precise access point rather than a wall.

Yes, with photographs and findings. It is what insurers ask for and we produce it as standard.

Freezing in an unheated crawlspace, garage or exterior wall during a cold snap; age and material failure in Poly-B, Kitec, old copper or galvanized; or excessive pressure from a failed regulator.

Never with an open flame — blowtorches on frozen pipes cause house fires. Open the tap the pipe feeds, warm the area gently with a space heater or hair dryer, and be ready to shut the water off in case the pipe has already split.

No, it is naturally soft — it comes from mountain reservoirs with very low mineral content. A water softener is almost never the right product here, whatever anyone is selling.

Chlorine is used to disinfect the municipal supply and the residual is what you taste. Carbon filtration removes it, either under the sink or whole-home.

Do not touch any switch or anything that could spark. Leave the building. Call FortisBC at 1-800-663-9911 from outside, then call us.

Yes. Any gas work in BC requires a licensed gas fitter, and doing it otherwise affects your insurance and your safety.

Yes for most gas work, including new lines and appliance connections. We pull it and it is in the quote.

Yes. An outdoor gas line means no more propane tanks, and the cost depends mainly on the distance from your existing supply.

Yes, by a licensed gas fitter. If there is no gas line at that location we will price running one.

Annually, before the heating season. It covers the burner, venting, glass seal and combustion safety.

Every home with gas appliances should have a working one. If it sounds, leave the building and call 911 from outside rather than investigating.

No. Gas work requires a licensed gas fitter in BC, and unpermitted gas work is a safety and insurance problem.

Appliance operation and combustion, venting integrity, gas pressure, leak testing on connections, and the condition of shut-offs and regulators.

Meter relocation involves FortisBC as well as us. We handle the plumbing and gas fitting side and coordinate the utility work.

At current rates gas is generally cheaper per unit of heat than standard electric resistance heating, but a heat pump changes that comparison considerably. We will run the numbers for your actual usage.

Yes, including cooking equipment connections for restaurants and commercial heating appliances.

Sometimes. It depends on drain fall and floor construction — on a concrete slab or in a condo it is often the constraint that decides your layout. Ask before planning around it.

Usually in a house with accessible space below for the drain and venting. On a slab or in a condo it may not be feasible, so establish it before finalising the layout.

Generally yes where fixtures are moved or lines altered. Like-for-like replacement in the same position often does not. Unpermitted renovation work surfaces at resale.

Yes. We warrant our installation; the fixture's own warranty stays with the manufacturer. Worth knowing that the difference between a cheap tap and a good one is mostly the cartridge, which is the part that fails.

Before the rough-in, not after. Wall-mounted taps, wall-hung toilets and freestanding tub fillers all need specific rough-in work, and choosing late is the most common sequencing mistake in bathroom renovations.

If your home has Poly-B, Kitec or galvanized pipe, yes — doing it while the walls are open costs a fraction of doing it later.

Sometimes, working from below through a crawlspace or unfinished basement ceiling, for hydronic systems. Adding it on top raises the floor height, which affects doors and transitions.

Engineered wood, usually with temperature limits. Solid hardwood is risky because of movement and needs the right product and careful control.

The plumbing. We work alongside general contractors, tilers and electricians regularly and can point you to people we have seen do good work.

You have a non-pressure-balancing valve. Upgrading to a pressure-balancing or thermostatic valve fixes it, though it means opening the wall.

Usually one of four: a failed shower pan or membrane, grout and sealant failure letting water behind tile, a leaking valve body inside the wall, or the drain connection. They have very different costs, so we locate it before opening anything.

Only if the wall can take a carrier frame, which usually means opening it up. Straightforward during a renovation, a real job otherwise.

Whenever a fixture is off anyway, yes. Old valves seize, and you find out at the moment you urgently need to close one.

Grease passes into the drain line and hardens, causing kitchen line blockages at the worst possible time. Municipalities can also issue penalties for grease discharge, and health inspections check maintenance records.

Yes, as standard after every service.

Annually in most Metro Vancouver municipalities, by a certified tester, with results filed with the city.

In many municipalities yes, including residential systems. We can confirm the requirement for your address.

Municipalities may issue notices or penalties, and in some cases it affects business licensing. It is also a genuine public health requirement.

Yes, and for most restaurant and retail work that is the sensible option — overnight, early morning or on closing days, planned in advance.

Yes, with scheduled service, priority emergency response, documented records and annual condition reporting so major replacements enter your budget rather than your emergency fund.

Yes, to the municipality's requirement based on fixture count and flow. Get us in at drawing stage — position and drainage are very expensive to change once the slab is poured.

Yes, common for management portfolios, with consolidated invoicing.

Yes, before the first attendance rather than during an emergency.