Licensed & Family-Owned Since 2004

Plumber in Palatine, IL

H2O Plumbing & Sewer Services has been the name Rolling Meadows homeowners and businesses trust for 24/7 plumbing and sewer solutions since 2004.

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Plumbing Services in Palatine

At H2O Plumbing and Sewer Services, we provide high-quality plumbing services in Palatine! Palatine is one of the biggest villages in all of Illinois with over 65,000 people, and with this many people comes the need for high-quality plumbing and sewer services. Whether you need help with drain cleaning, water heater issues, sump pump issues, water pipes, sewer line repair, or anything else plumbing/sewer related, we’re available 24/7 to help. If you’re in Palatine with a home or commercial property, feel free to give us a call at any time! 

A PALATINE HOMEOWNER'S GUIDE

Homes Built Before 1972: Sewer Backups & Overhead Sewer Conversion

Homes Built Before 1972

If you live in Palatine and your home was built before 1972, odds are you either had or have a footing drain that was plumbed straight into the sanitary sewer line. Now, a sanitary sewer line is meant to carry waste from toilets, sinks, and showers, but it was not designed to take in every drop of rain that comes from thousands of homes that were built before 1972. During a heavy storm, sanitary drains in this area regularly fill beyond design capacity, and this is called surcharging. When the sanitary drain surcharges, the pressurized mix needs to escape somewhere. It will then end up escaping at the lowest point of the system, which could very well be your basement floor or the basement floors in the houses all around. The loop is groundwater goes into the sanitary sewer, overloads it, and comes back out in someone’s basement.

Homes built after 1972 have separate sump pumps to keep rainwater away from the drains that overflow during storms. They also have overhead plumbing for the sewage system to solve two problems at once: the footing drains go to a pump instead of a sewer, and the sewer plumbing exits above the basement floor. Homes built before 1972 have neither of these things, and a common cause of flood damage in Palatine is sewer backups, especially in older homes where there is no overhead plumbing.

What Can Actually Be Done About It

The solution to all of this is converting your home to that same overhead setup. A pit gets cut into the basement floor, everything below grade drains into it, and an ejector pump will lift the waste up to a pipe that will run near the ceiling. Nothing in your basement will connect to the village main line anymore, so there will be no path for the sewage to come back into your basement.

The Tradeoffs

We want to be completely transparent about the tradeoffs, and these are all things the village of Palatine has said as well. To start, this is not a cheap job, and it does require opening up part of your basement floor to reroute the plumbing. It also runs on a pump, and pumps do not run during power outages, but this is fixable with a battery backup. If your basement is not finished and you’ve never experienced any issues with water coming back up, this honestly might not be something that you need right now. If your basement is finished and/or there are things that are worth something to you in them, this is definitely something you should consider.

Palatine Will Help Pay For It

The village of Palatine runs a Basement Protection Program that covers half the cost of several fixes including:

• Overhead sewer conversion: 50% up to $6,000
• Disconnecting footing drains on their own: 50% up to $2,500
• Replacing the sewer lateral from your house to the village main is also covered.

If you think an overhead sewer conversion and installing a sump pump is something that can be beneficial to your property in Palatine, feel free to give us a call for a free estimate.

Our Plumbing & Sewer Services

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24/7 Emergency Plumbing in Palatine

We serve the great people of Palatine 24/7! We know how plumbing and sewer issues can come out of nowhere, and that is why we’re available to help whenever you need us. If you’re having trouble with your drains, water heater, sump pump, sewer line, or if there is a heavy storm and you’re experiencing flooding due to plumbing issues, feel free to call us any time for help. We have been around since 2004, and we have more than enough experience to ensure your plumbing and sewer systems are running as they should be. When you give us a call, we’ll do our best to come out as soon as we possibly can to ensure you’re helped as soon as possible. Feel free to give us a call whenever you need us with any plumbing or sewer issues. 

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