Replacing a lead water main?
Hi all, I just bought a house and it has a lead water main. Got one quote from Empire Sewar and Water of $9500-11,000 depending when they get in there. Does anyone has any recent insight on pricing and perhaps some recommendations on sewar companies to do it?
Additionally, is this something I 100% NEED to replace? Like what if I add a house wide water filter instead?
Thanks for any and all insight!

angela7606
in General Discussion 2 years and 6 months ago
8
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colonialrevival | 2 years and 6 months ago
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Maintenance of service lines is a qualifying expense for the historic homeowner rehab credit — 20%. Just gotta file and get approval first, pretty easy nowadays that its all on Docusign.

Lurker | 2 years and 6 months ago
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yeah you don’t want to mess around with lead, and depending on a filter that may or may not work, or which you may or may not forget to change on time, is barely a band aid. It’s possible if your building is in historic district maybe there’s a way to get tax credit for improvement if it can be attributed in the right way, if you’re lucky.

yudashasom | 2 years and 6 months ago
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Balkan or Harris, don’t waste time with anyone else.

colonialrevival | 2 years and 6 months ago
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Figliolia did great work on my sewer line earlier this year.

Guest User | 2 years and 6 months ago
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try Balkan … they are honest and experts about this stuff…
https://balkanplumbing.com/

RobertGMarvin
in General Discussion 2 years and 6 months ago
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I agree with Neil’s. Nevertheless any lead water main is VERY old and likely to leak soon. I had to replace mine on an emergency basis about 25 years ago and it’s bettto plan on a replacement before that happens. I was lucky—it happened in the summer, when O could hook up a neighbor’s hose to my plumbing, but if it had been winter I’d have been without water until the repair was made.

neilw | 2 years and 6 months ago
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I talked to our plumber about this when we renovated (did all new plumbing in an 1870s building), and he said the lead mains are usually very old and have quite a bit of buildup on them, so its very unlikely any lead is leaching into your water supply (also, water is generally flowing through, so its not in contact with the pipe that much).
I went ahead and ordered a free test from NYC: https://www.nyc.gov/content/leadfree/pages/request-water-test-kit
Mine came back and said we were actually below the generally accepted level for safe water supply. Technically there is no “safe” level for lead, but there is often trace amounts.

lkrshacmzcy | 2 years and 6 months ago
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You should definitely replace the Lead Main; it is ridiculous we still have those.
Get three quotes and compare: some other good recommendations are Harris and TriBorough