Plumbing Inspection in Greenbelt, MD

What happens when you call

We connect you with an independent local plumber who covers Greenbelt. Tell them the section of town, roughly when the home was built, whether it's a detached house, townhouse or co-op unit, and what you want out of the visit: a pre-purchase review, a check before a remodel, or answers about a specific symptom. The plumber then walks the supply lines, drains, fixtures, water heater, shutoffs and gas piping, and can add a camera run of the sewer line.

Cost factors

• Size of the home and how many baths and fixtures it has
• Shared walls or shared lines in townhouse and co-op buildings
• A sewer camera run and any locating of defects
• Access to piping behind finished walls or in tight crawlspaces

Local conditions in Greenbelt

Greenbelt was the first and largest of the three New Deal Greenbelt Towns, incorporated in 1937, and its historic core in Old Greenbelt is a National Historic Landmark District. Greenbelt East, Greenbelt West, Springhill Lake and Lakeside came later. With a median build year around 1976, plumbing in town runs from original 1930s systems to 1970s piping, often with later updates mixed in.

WSSC Water supplies water and sewer and disinfects with chlorine rather than chloramine. Its tap water analysis puts hardness from the Potomac plant at an average of about 140 mg/L and from the Patuxent plant at about 64 mg/L, and which plant serves a given address varies. That's enough difference that scale in the water heater and on aerators can be noticeable in some homes and barely present in others. WSSC's What's Your Pipe Type? program inventories service line materials and helps customers replace lead lines on either side.

Greenbelt's gas utility is Washington Gas, which has done main replacement work in Lakeside. If you smell gas, leave the home, then call 911 and 844-WASHGAS (844-927-4427), option 1.

Before the plumber arrives

• Clear a path to the water heater, main shutoff and any cleanout
• Note fixtures that drip, run slow or have low pressure
• Find any paperwork on past repairs or a replaced water heater
• For repairs later: WSSC Water issues the plumbing permit, and if a project needs a county building permit, the City of Greenbelt requires its own permit as well (301-345-5417)