Plumber in Pomona, CA

Plumbing in Pomona homes

Pomona is one of the older cities in the valley. Census figures put the median home here at around 1967, and more houses went up in the 1950s than in any other decade. That age shows up in the plumbing, and it shows up differently depending on when and how the house was built.

Pre-war houses: Lincoln Park, Wilton Heights, Hacienda Park

Pomona's historic districts are full of homes from the 1890s through the 1940s. Most sit on raised foundations, so the pipes run through a crawlspace a plumber can get into. Unless they've been replaced, expect galvanized steel water lines, cast iron drains and a clay sewer line out to the street. Galvanized pipe rusts shut from the inside, and clay sewer joints let in roots from the big trees on these blocks.

1950s and 1960s tract homes

The postwar tracts that make up much of Pomona were mostly built on concrete slabs, with copper water lines and cast iron drains laid in the ground under the floor. After 60 or 70 years, that under-slab copper is where slab leaks come from. The earliest of these houses still have galvanized pipe, too.

Phillips Ranch and the hillside neighborhoods

Phillips Ranch started in 1965 as a master-planned community, and much of it was built through the 1970s and 1980s. These homes are newer, but they're not new. Original water heaters are long gone, original copper is getting old, and pressure regulators installed when the houses were built are reaching the end of their life. On hillside lots, street pressure varies with elevation, so a working regulator matters.

Pomona's hard water

The City of Pomona Water Resources Department blends well water from the Chino, Six Basins and Spadra groundwater basins with water from San Antonio Canyon and State Water Project water bought through Three Valleys Municipal Water District. The result is hard water. Minerals settle in water heaters, crust up faucet aerators and scale the inside of tankless units, which is why flushing and descaling matter more here than in soft-water areas. The city lists hardness figures in its annual water quality report.

Permits

Bigger jobs like water heater replacement, repiping and sewer line replacement go through the City of Pomona Building & Safety Division. Normally the licensed plumber pulls the permit, and a city inspector checks the work before it's closed up.

How it works

1. Call and describe the problem. What you're seeing, where it is, and how long it's been going on.
2. Set a time. A licensed local plumber schedules a visit to look at it in person.
3. Get the price before work starts. Ask for it in writing, and ask what's included.

Check the license before anyone starts work

Plumbing contractors in California are licensed by the Contractors State License Board (CSLB), and the plumbing license is class C-36. Before any plumber works on your home, ask for their license number and look it up at cslb.ca.gov to make sure it's active.

Service area

All of Pomona, plus nearby cities in the 909: Rancho Cucamonga, Diamond Bar, Upland, Ontario, Chino, Claremont, La Verne, San Dimas, Montclair and Walnut. Each linked city has its own page with local plumbing details: the water supplier, the age of the housing, and where permits go. If you're not sure whether your address is covered, call and ask.