Plumbers in Orlando, FL

A city built in a hurry

Orlando’s population and housing stock took off after 1971, and most of the city’s homes date from the decades that followed. Subdivisions in MetroWest, Hunter’s Creek, Southchase, Conway, Pine Hills and Waterford Lakes went up quickly through the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, and their plumbing reflects the materials of the moment: copper supply lines in some, gray polybutylene in many, PVC drains, slab foundations and water heaters in garages. Polybutylene is the problem child. It fails at the fittings without warning, insurers ask about it, and repiping those homes in PEX is one of the most common larger jobs our Orlando plumbers do.

Newer areas like Baldwin Park, Lake Nona and Laureate Park were built with PEX and modern fixtures and have few age-related problems. What they see is the residue of fast construction and the lightning that Central Florida throws at everything electronic.

The older core

College Park, Colonialtown, Lake Eola Heights, Thornton Park, Delaney Park and Audubon Park predate the boom, with homes from the 1920s through the 1950s built on cast iron drains and, in the oldest, clay laterals to the street. Florida’s humidity and groundwater corrode the cast iron from the inside, and the oaks planted when the neighborhoods were new have grown into the clay joints. Repeated backups and slow drains throughout the house are the signs, and a camera inspection is what shows whether lining or replacement makes sense.

Water, lakes and limestone

Orlando’s water comes from the Floridan Aquifer and is moderately hard, softer than Tampa or Miami but still enough to sediment a water heater over a few years. Flushing every year or two handles it for most homes.

The lakes that give Orlando its character are mostly old sinkholes, and the limestone beneath the city is still dissolving. The water table sits close to the surface around the lakes, which keeps buried pipe wet, saturates septic drainfields after summer rain, and turned low basins like Orlo Vista into lakes themselves during Hurricane Ian in 2022. Large parts of Orange County remain on septic, and the county is converting neighborhoods to sewer one program at a time. For a home with a struggling drainfield, connecting is usually the better long-term answer, and our plumbers can price the on-property work.

Lightning and permits

Central Florida is the lightning capital of the country, and every summer surges destroy tankless controllers, pumps and softener valves across the city. Surge protection at the panel and at the equipment is the fix. Whatever the work, water heater replacement, repipes and sewer connections in Orlando and unincorporated Orange County require a permit pulled by a Florida-licensed contractor, and every plumber we dispatch here handles that as part of the job.