Plumber in West Shore, Pickering

West Shore sits between Frenchman's Bay and Petticoat Creek, and the lake shapes what goes wrong with the plumbing here.

The exposure is the first thing. Homes closest to the water take wind off the lake through the winter, and anything running through an exterior wall, a crawl space or an unheated garage is at more risk of freezing than the same pipe two kilometres inland. Most burst-pipe calls we get in January are from the streets nearest the shore.

The second thing is the mix. West Shore was not built all at once — there are original sixties and seventies houses sitting beside properties that have been rebuilt or heavily extended, and some that started as seasonal places before being converted for year-round living. That last group is worth knowing about, because services put in for summer use were not always sized or buried for a Canadian winter.

And like everywhere along this stretch of the lakeshore, the water table is high. Basements here take groundwater during heavy rain and spring melt whether or not the house has ever flooded before.