One Way Rooter & Plumbing started in 1979 and has been taking Norwalk calls ever since. Drain stoppages, sewer line repair, slab leaks and water heaters make up most of what we do in this city, with leak detection and repiping on the older tracts. Our California contractor license is #537893 and the company is bonded and insured. You get a price before the work starts and the estimate costs nothing. Reach us on (562) 947-0110, days or nights.
Norwalk Service Area
- County: Los Angeles County
- ZIP codes: 90650, 90651, 90652
- Working in Norwalk since: 1979
- License: CSLB #537893, bonded and insured
- Office hours: Monday to Friday 7:30am to 5pm, Saturday 8am to 12:30pm, Sunday closed. Emergency line answered 24 hours.
Our routing takes in all of Norwalk, including Norwalk Village, Vista Verde, Carmenita, Corvallis, Sycamore Village, Norwalk Manor, Paddison and the blocks around Holifield Park, along with the corridors on Norwalk Boulevard, Pioneer Boulevard, Rosecrans Avenue, Firestone Boulevard and Alondra Boulevard, and the area around Cerritos College. Cities bordering Norwalk are on the same schedule: Cerritos, Artesia, Bellflower, Downey and La Mirada.
Plumbing Problems in Norwalk Homes
Water at Sixteen to Eighteen Grains Per Gallon
Norwalk water measures roughly sixteen to eighteen grains per gallon, which is hard by any standard. That mineral load leaves the water as scale wherever it is heated or wherever it sits. In a tank heater it builds on the floor and on the element. At the fixtures it closes down aerators, stiffens the cartridge in a shower valve until the handle needs force, and glazes the inside of the supply line so the pressure at the far bathroom drops a little each year. Most of the water heaters we replace in Norwalk went early because of it.
Clay and Sandy Loam Under the Foundation
The ground under Norwalk is clay and sandy loam. Clay swells when it takes on water and shrinks back when it dries, and this region gives it both, several years of drought and then a wet winter. Buried pipe does not move with the soil. A rigid lateral bridges a soft spot and takes the load at its joints, which is where it offsets or cracks. On slab foundations the same movement bears on the supply lines cast into the concrete. That is the mechanism behind a good share of the slab leaks and lateral failures in this city.
Orangeburg and Cast Iron in the Pre-1980s Laterals
Norwalk incorporated in 1957 and filled in with housing through that decade and the next, so the sewer laterals here are mostly original. Some are cast iron, which scales inward and rusts through the invert. Some are vitrified clay, which lets roots in at the joints. And a portion of the pre-1980s stock has Orangeburg, a bituminous fibre pipe that softens and deforms into an oval under load until the line will not carry flow. Orangeburg cannot be repaired in place. Once a camera shows the pipe has gone out of round, the line is replaced.
Galvanized Supply Lines in the Original Tracts
Houses built before copper became standard carry galvanized steel supply. Galvanized rusts on the inside and the rust builds up rather than washing away, so the bore closes gradually. The first sign is usually brown water at a tap that has been sitting, then weak flow at whichever fixture is furthest from the meter, then two fixtures that cannot be used at the same time. Pressure loss across the whole house rather than at one point is the reading that separates a failing supply system from a single restricted valve.
Norwalk Drain Cleaning and Sewer Line Repair
Stopped drains are the everyday work. Kitchen lines packed with grease, shower and tub drains bound up with hair, laundry standpipes that overflow when the washer discharges, floor drains in the garage, toilets that quit after something went down. The first thing we establish is where the stoppage sits, in the fixture arm, in the branch, or out in the main, because that answer changes the machine and the access point.
Cabling opens a channel through a blockage. It does not take off the grease and scale lining the pipe that produced the blockage, which is why the same Norwalk kitchen line comes back around again. Hydro jetting scours the wall and restores the bore. Where a drain keeps stopping regardless of how many times it has been opened, the problem is a defect in the line, and that is the case dealt with under recurring clogged drains.
When more than one fixture backs up together, or the shower drain gurgles as the toilet flushes, the fault is in the lateral and not in the house. We run a video inspection to see it, with footage marked so the dig, if there is one, lands in the right place. Given the mix of clay, cast iron and Orangeburg under this city, the camera is what tells us whether a sewer line repair at one point will hold, or whether the run needs trenchless replacement from the house to the property line. Deformed Orangeburg gets replaced. There is no cleaning that fixes it.
Slab Leak Detection and Repair in Norwalk
Water lines under the slab fail from soil corrosion on the outside of the copper, from abrasion where the pipe rubs against gravel or rebar, and from ground movement through the clay. Slab leak detection comes before anything else, because guessing at the location is what turns a small opening in the concrete into a large one. We listen for the leak acoustically and isolate pressure run by run to narrow it down. Leak detection on gas and irrigation lines works the same way.
Signs Worth Calling About
- The meter dial turning with the house shut down
- A bill that keeps rising while nothing in the household has changed
- Warm flooring in a spot with no heating below it
- The sound of water moving inside a wall or under the floor at night
- Mildew at the base of a wall, or carpet that will not dry out
What we recommend afterwards depends on the pipe. Isolated damage in good copper is repaired at the point of failure. Where a run has failed more than once, or where the supply is galvanized and closing up anyway, rerouting overhead or a copper repipe ends the cycle instead of extending it.
Norwalk Water Heater Repair and Replacement
Hard water shortens the working life of every tank in this city, so we see both ends of the job. Water heater repair begins with a diagnosis, since the same complaint of no hot water comes from a failed thermostat, a burnt-out element scaled over with mineral, a cracked dip tube putting cold in at the top of the tank, a gas control valve that will not open, or simply a pilot that has gone out. Sediment sitting on the bottom of a gas tank insulates the water from the flame and makes the heater rumble as it fires.
Parts we replace most often are elements, thermostats, dip tubes, burner assemblies and relief valves, and we flush the tank while we are there. Thermostats go back to 120 degrees, which is hot enough for the house and slow enough to limit scaling.
Reasons to Replace Rather Than Repair
- Corrosion showing at the cold water inlet or the relief valve seat
- A tank that has already had one repair and is over ten years old
- Seepage coming from the shell of the tank, which cannot be sealed
- A tank that empties before the household is finished with it
Expect six to eight years from a gas unit here and eight to ten from an electric one, less if the tank has never been flushed. The build date is encoded in the serial number on the data plate, so the age is not a guess. Where the household has outgrown the tank we fit a larger one or move it to a tankless system.
Other Plumbing Work in Norwalk
- Copper repiping for houses on failing galvanized supply
- Garbage disposals, repaired or swapped out
- Toilet repair and replacement
- Sump pump service and installation
- Commercial plumbing for storefronts, offices and apartment buildings
- Plumbing inspections for buyers, sellers and landlords
- Ongoing plumbing maintenance
- Routine drain cleaning
- Emergency plumbing, 24 hours
Norwalk Plumbing FAQ
How quickly can you reach Norwalk?
Call during office hours to schedule an appointment. Overnight, the emergency line puts you through to a plumber who works out with you whether it needs a truck now or in the morning.
What are your hours?
Weekdays we are open 7:30am to 5pm. Saturday runs 8am to 12:30pm, and Sunday the office is closed. An emergency call placed at any hour, Sundays and holidays included, reaches a plumber.
Do you work weekends in Norwalk?
Yes. Saturday until 12:30pm is normal booked work. Sunday is emergency dispatch through the 24-hour line.
Are estimates free?
There is no charge for an estimate. You get the price in advance and decide from there. Where the diagnosis itself takes equipment, such as running a camera down the lateral, we tell you that cost before we start.
Are you licensed and insured?
We hold CSLB license #537893, and the company is bonded and insured. The state publishes license records, so the number can be verified before you let anyone in the door.
Do you serve all of Norwalk?
Every part of 90650 and the Norwalk PO box ZIPs. That means Norwalk Village, Vista Verde, Carmenita, Corvallis, Sycamore Village, Norwalk Manor and Paddison, the neighborhoods near Cerritos College, and the commercial frontage on Rosecrans Avenue, Firestone Boulevard and Norwalk Boulevard. Immediately outside the city we also cover Downey and La Mirada.
What can I do about the hard water?
Flushing the water heater once a year removes the sediment before it insulates the burner or coats the element, and cleaning aerators and shower heads keeps the flow up at the fixtures. A softener treats the cause instead of the symptoms, and it also stops the scale forming inside the supply piping. We install them and we will tell you honestly whether your usage justifies one.
My drains are slow and the tub gurgles when the toilet flushes. What is that?
Air being pushed back through the trap because the main line is partly blocked below the point where those two fixtures join. It is not a fixture problem and clearing the tub will not change it. That symptom is the reason to camera the lateral, and on a Norwalk house built in the fifties or sixties it often turns up roots at a clay joint or a section of Orangeburg that has flattened.
Call a Norwalk Plumber
Dial (562) 947-0110 for a plumber in Norwalk, or write to us through the contact page and we will call you back. Sewage coming up in the shower, a line that has burst, or no water on a Sunday morning is what the 24-hour emergency line is for, on the same number.
