How to Sell Your Condo and Buy a House: DRAINS AND PLUMBING

Probably the last question you’ll ever ask yourself if you own a condo is where does the water from my sink go? Or What condition are my building drains in? 🙂  However, when you are selling your condo and buying a house, there are a few things you need to know about your drains and plumbing system.

This is one of several videos in my series about “How to Sell Your Condo and Buy a House“. Check out my Youtube Channel for the entire series.

The main drain of your house is the pipe that all your toilets, sinks and showers empty into before they go out to the street and into the sewer system.

Drain pipes in many older homes in Toronto were all originally done with clay pipes. There are two main potential problems with having one of these old style drains.

Firstly, because they are made of clay, tree roots can break through them which causes your drain to clog. Secondly, there is no back-flow valve in these old drains meaning if there is a problem on the street side, there is nothing stopping sewage from coming into your basement through your drain.

My expert tip for finding out if your drains are original clay pipe or modern PVC is look at the front of the house for the drain vents. If you see one or better yet, two white PVC pipes with caps like these, your drain may have been replaced (or at least some of it has been replaced). If you see one of these steel vents then the drains are all likely original.

I wanted to show you an example of something that is fairly common in older Toronto homes, and that is partial drain replacement. This house here in the east end has had the original clay pipe drains replaced with white PVC on the exterior portion of the property, however, from the foundation wall inside the basement, the pipe is still the original clay. The home owner probably had an issue with roots on the exterior portion of the drain, so they replaced it, but they didn’t replace the interior portion because that is a much more expensive repair.

If you are thinking about selling your condo and buying a house this year, I’d love to help. For more information contact me.

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