Drainage and plumbing, West End
Drainage and Plumbing in the West End
The West End is the one neighbourhood on our map where the City says the street sewers are already fully split. Zero kilometres of combined pipe, 56 kilometres of sanitary and 73 kilometres of storm. Vancouver’s whole separation programme started right here in the early 1970s.
Which means a backup in a West End building is usually a private side problem, not a street one. We camera the line before anybody quotes a number.
The West End has no combined sewer left, and that changes the job
Vancouver’s sewer separation policy began in the early 1970s, and Council started it in the West End and Downtown to cut combined sewer overflows. The West End Community Plan records the result in one sentence. One hundred per cent of the sewer mains are separated in the West End, and the system was separated in the 1970s and early 1980s.
The plan also prints the pipe table. 129 kilometres of sewer main across two drainage districts, Downtown South and Downtown North. Combined pipe, zero kilometres. Sanitary, 56. Storm, 73. More than half the buried length under your feet here carries rain and nothing else.
Here is the part that lands on owners. The City says that as it replaces combined systems with separated ones, properties will also need separated systems, and that the sewers serving private property are typically separated as properties redevelop or carry out major renovations. So the street side of the West End finished this work decades ago. The private side gets done building by building, at renovation time, and a documented history of blockages on a connection is itself one of the triggers.
The other half of a separated system is worth knowing about. Rainwater gets collected through catch basins, foundation drains and roof leaders and goes into the storm sewer, which releases to the local receiving water. Downstream of a West End catch basin is the bay, not a treatment plant. The City runs an adopt a catch basin programme and asks people to clear theirs of debris and litter before a rainfall for exactly that reason.
One tower wave, and it is all coming due together
City building rules capped masonry at six storeys and wood frame at three until 1956. The cap came off in 1957 and the West End changed shape fast. Between 1962 and 1975 more than 220 mid and high rises went up here, and Council down-zoned the residential areas in 1969 and again in 1973 to slow it down.
That wave is still standing and still occupied. 81 per cent of West End households rent, the neighbourhood holds around a third of all the purpose built rental housing in Vancouver, and 90 per cent of that rental stock was built before 1975. Do the arithmetic on the 1962 to 1975 window and those buildings are into their sixth decade.
What we will not do is tell you what is inside your walls from a desk. Nothing published about the West End states what the drain stacks or supply lines in any given building are made of, and we are not going to guess in print about a building we have not been in. What we do instead is put a camera down the stack from the roof cleanout and show you on the monitor. Then we price the work.
Underneath the towers there is still an older layer. 121 West End sites sit on the Vancouver Heritage Register and 124 character houses remain. The oldest standing house on the Mole Hill block, at 1160 Comox, went up in 1888. 1150 Haro dates to 1892, Roedde House to 1893, 1351 Barclay to 1904, The Manhattan at 784 Thurlow to 1908 and The Beaconsfield at 884 Bute to 1909. The most telling one for our trade is 1323 Barclay, built in 1930 and later renovated with the porches removed and the exterior stuccoed over, which the City notes was a common West End conversion into boarding houses. Wrapping a house changes where its water goes.
24/7 emergency dispatch
Drain backing up in the West End?
Ryan picks up. Live dispatch, and you get a real arrival window on the call. We camera the line before anybody quotes a number, and everything gets photographed for the file.
West End drainage and plumbing FAQ
No, and it is the only neighbourhood on our list where that is flatly true. The West End Community Plan states that one hundred per cent of the sewer mains are separated in the West End and that the system was separated in the 1970s and early 1980s. The pipe table reads zero kilometres combined, 56 kilometres sanitary, 73 kilometres storm.
Because separation is a street side fact, not a building side one. The City is explicit that as combined systems get replaced, properties will also need separated systems, and that private connections are typically separated when a property redevelops or does a major renovation. If your building has not been through that, your side of the line can still be the problem. We scope it and show you.
The six storey cap came off in 1957, and between 1962 and 1975 more than 220 mid and high rises went up. The residential areas were down-zoned in 1969 and 1973. 90 per cent of the West End’s rental stock was built before 1975, so that 1962 to 1975 wave is now into its sixth decade.
We will not tell you that from a desk. Nothing published about the West End states what the stacks or supply lines are in any particular building, and guessing in print about a building we have not been inside is how people end up paying for the wrong repair. We put a camera down from the roof cleanout, you watch the monitor, then we price it.
Into the storm sewer and out to the receiving water. In a separated system the City collects rain through catch basins, foundation drains and roof leaders and sends it to storm, which releases to the local waterbody rather than to a treatment plant. That is also why the City runs an adopt a catch basin programme and asks people to clear theirs of debris and litter before a rainfall.
Yes. There are 121 West End sites on the Vancouver Heritage Register and 124 character houses left, including 1160 Comox from 1888, 1150 Haro from 1892, Roedde House from 1893 and 1351 Barclay from 1904. Old wood houses on 33 foot lots with a rear lane are a perimeter drainage conversation more than a stack one.
Usually, and more easily than in most of the city. Every laneway in the West End is 10 metres wide, which is 33 feet, against a typical six metres elsewhere in Vancouver. The City calls that unique to this neighbourhood. It is one of the reasons a lot of West End work gets done off the lane rather than off the street.
Metro Vancouver’s Food Sector Grease Interceptor Bylaw 365 covers any operation that discharges fats, oils and grease into the sewer. Pump the interceptor every 90 days or when the fats, oils, grease and solids reach 25 per cent of the total liquid depth, whichever comes first, and keep two years of cleanout records available for inspection. We do the pump out and we leave you the paperwork.
The City writes its own West End tree policy around it. The plan says species that do not negatively impact surface and underground infrastructure should be selected, and that ageing street trees will have to be replaced across the neighbourhood over time. We will not name a species, because no source we read names one, but a camera will show you whether roots are in your line.
All of Vancouver, plus Burnaby, New Westminster and the North Shore. Coal Harbour, Downtown, Yaletown, Gastown, Kitsilano and Fairview are the closest to this one and we are in them constantly.
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Water where it should not be?
Ryan picks up. Live dispatch, and you get a real arrival window on the call.