Plumber in Brentwood and Willingdon Heights
We reach Brentwood in 90 minutes from downtown Vancouver.
Brentwood is the newest tower district in Burnaby and it's still being built. Willingdon Heights, immediately south, is largely 1950s and 60s detached housing that has been there the whole time.
You can stand on one street and see both. They have nothing in common plumbing-wise.
The new towers
Brentwood's residential high-rise is overwhelmingly post-2015, which means modern PEX supply, no Kitec, no Poly-B, no galvanized. The legacy material problems that define most of our work simply aren't here.
What is here:
Warranty-period defects. In a building still inside its warranty, the important work is often establishing what happened and documenting it — because that determines whether the developer, the warranty provider or the owner carries the cost. A written report with photographs is worth more than a fast repair.
Suite-to-suite leaks, same tracing discipline as any tower. The source is rarely directly above the wet patch.
In-suite mechanical. Newer Brentwood buildings often use heat pumps, fan coils or mini-splits rather than anything resembling a furnace, and servicing those is a different discipline.
Strata approvals for anything touching common property, in buildings where the strata is often newly formed and still establishing its processes.
⚠️ Construction access. Parts of Brentwood remain active construction sites, which affects parking, loading and access on some blocks. We'll flag it when booking rather than discovering it on the day.
Willingdon Heights and the 1950s stock
A few blocks south, the picture reverses entirely.
Galvanized supply piping in anything not repiped — pressure declining over decades, discoloured morning water.
Clay sewer laterals under established street trees. Root intrusion is routine in this stock.
The shared chimney problem. This is the specific Burnaby post-war issue: many houses had a furnace and a water heater venting into one masonry chimney. When the furnace was upgraded to a high-efficiency unit venting through a sidewall, the water heater was left venting alone into a flue sized for two appliances. That affects draft, and draft on a gas appliance is a carbon monoxide question. We check it whenever we're working on gas or replacing a tank in a house of that age.
Perimeter drainage at end of life. 1950s clay tile or unwrapped pipe, silted up.