Repiping and drain cleaning in Macalester-Groveland, Saint Paul, MN 55105

Go to the basement and find the pipe coming off the water meter. Galvanized steel is a dull gray, has threaded fittings every few feet, and a magnet sticks to it. Copper is reddish and soldered; PEX is colored plastic. In many houses between Snelling and Cretin you'll find a mix, because someone replaced the worst sections years ago and left the rest.

That patchwork matters. Where copper meets old steel, the joint corrodes faster. Hidden runs inside walls often stay galvanized even after the basement was redone. If pressure is weak upstairs but fine at the laundry tub, the narrowing is probably in those vertical runs. We map what you have before suggesting anything, so you only pay to replace what is actually failing.

Plaster walls and built-in woodwork are a big part of why people buy here. We plan routes through closets, basement ceilings and existing chases so we open as little as possible. PEX helps because it bends around framing and needs fewer fittings. On most houses we keep water running each evening, so you aren't hauling buckets from a neighbor's tap.

Repiping takes a city permit and an inspection, which we arrange. When the new lines are in, we flush them, check pressure at every fixture and replace the old main shutoff if it is stiff or seeping. You'll notice the difference the first time two showers run at once without anyone yelling down the stairs.

With Macalester and St. Thomas close by, plenty of duplexes here house students or young renters. Those kitchens and bathrooms see heavy use, and old cast iron branch lines build up scale inside until they slow to a crawl. Hair, grease and wipes do the rest. Landlords often call us after the third clog of the semester.

We clear the line to its full width rather than just poking a hole, and we can run a camera to check the stack for cracks. If a branch is too scaled or rotted, we replace that section with PVC while we're there. Owner-occupied or rental, the fix is the same: get it flowing and tell you plainly what shape the pipe is in.