Plumber in Hell's Kitchen
Five and six story tenements from the 1880s and 1890s, where the plumbing was retrofitted and then retrofitted again.
The tenement, and what it was built with
Most of the residential stock west of Eighth Avenue in the 40s and 50s is old-law and new-law tenement: narrow lots, five or six stories, walk-up, four apartments to a floor. When they went up, plumbing meant a sink and a shared toilet in the hall. Bathrooms inside apartments came later, and kitchens were rearranged repeatedly after that.
So what you have is a building whose original drainage was designed for a fraction of the fixtures it now carries, extended piecemeal over a century.
What that produces
| Undersized stacks | A waste stack sized for the original fixture count, now serving full bathrooms and kitchens on every floor |
|---|---|
| Bathrooms in odd places | Fitted into a corner of a room, connected by the shortest available route rather than the correct one. Venting is frequently the casualty |
| Tub in the kitchen, still | Some apartments retain the original arrangement, with plumbing to match |
| Galvanized supply | Original or near it. Pressure that has fallen so gradually nobody registered it. See repiping |
| No access at all | Narrow stairs, no elevator, no service entrance. Getting a water heater to the fifth floor is a route problem before it is a plumbing one |
Restaurant Row and the avenues
Ninth Avenue and the 46th Street block carry one of the densest concentrations of restaurants in the city, nearly all of them on the ground floor of a residential tenement. That puts a commercial kitchen waste line into a building drain that was built for households, and it is the single most common cause of recurring trouble in these buildings.
Lines like that want a scheduled cleaning interval rather than emergency clearing. See hydro jetting.
Small buildings, no super
Plenty of buildings here are small enough to have no full-time staff, which means the owner or the tenant is the one locating the shut-off at midnight. If you live in one, finding your apartment's valve and the building main once, in daylight, is the most useful ten minutes you will spend.
Where we cover
West 34th to 59th, Eighth Avenue to the river: Restaurant Row, the Ninth and Tenth Avenue corridors, Clinton, Hudson Yards' eastern edge and the blocks around the Port Authority.
Plumber needed in Hell's Kitchen?
Call and tell us the cross street and which floor you are on.