Drains, sewers and backups
Backwater valve installation
Mainline backwater valves cut into the basement floor to stop city sewer surges reaching your drains, installed to code with an accessible cover.
- Phone answered every hour, holidays included
- Fault found and explained before anything is cut
- Concrete cut and drain exposed
- Flow-tested in front of you when finished
Call now(365) 517-7215. A plumber picks up, day or night.
- Open 24/7. Phone answered every hour, holidays too.
- Licensed & insured. Trade licence details given on request.
- Shown before cut. You see the fault and the plan first.
- Gas by gas techs. Licensed gas technicians on gas heaters.
A backwater valve is a flap inside the main sewer that lets water out of the house but closes if water tries to come back in. In neighbourhoods where the city sewer surcharges during intense storms, few upgrades do more to keep a basement dry.
Where it goes
- It sits in the building drain under the basement slab, after the last fixture connection and before the pipe exits the foundation.
- Fitting one involves saw-cutting the concrete, digging down to the drain, cutting out a section and fitting the valve level with the flow.
Clues it is this job
- Water has come up in this basement in past storms
- An older or combined sewer runs under your street
- Water rising from the floor drain in heavy rain
- Finishing a basement soon
Living with a valve
- During a surge, with the flap shut, water from the house cannot leave either.
- We explain how to avoid running washers and showers during a storm, and how to check and clean the valve once or twice a year through its access lid.
Permits and subsidies
- Toronto treats this as permit work with a city inspection.
- A municipal subsidy has been offered toward backwater valves under its basement flooding protection program; check the current terms and required paperwork before starting.
A valve with no access lid cannot be cleaned. Always ask where the cover will be.
How the job runs, step by step
- 1Drain located and floor marked
- 2Concrete cut and drain exposed
- 3Valve fitted level and secured
- 4Inspection, then floor restored