Hamilton · Protective Plumbing Program

Backwater valve installation in Hamilton: what the City’s own figures add up to

Hamilton is the one city on this site that tells you, before you call anyone, what a backwater valve will cost. It publishes the fee each of its five pre-qualified contractors charges for an assessment and a valve, the permit fee, and the price per downspout. It also describes the two valves it will fund, how to tell which one your house needs, and how to keep one working.

This page puts those City figures into whole-job totals, sets out the two valve types and the depth rule between them, the order the City’s programme runs in, the maintenance the City asks for, and the loan for anything the grant does not cover. What happens when the sewer backs up anyway — the City’s claim rule and the Sewer Lateral Management Program — is on sewer backup and basement flooding in Hamilton.

Which valve your house needs

A backwater valve lets wastewater leave the house and stops it coming back. Hamilton’s programme funds two kinds, and what decides between them is how deep your sewer pipe runs.

So the first thing the contractor’s assessment settles is depth. A sewer less than two feet deep takes the standard valve in an access box. A deeper one takes the Adapt-a-Valve, whose long access pipe lets you reach the gate for cleaning; it may sit in the yard or driveway and look like an ordinary clean-out. Because the Adapt-a-Valve needs the City’s approval before it goes in, a quote that recommends one should say so and the work should wait for that approval.

The City’s own caution is worth taking literally. While the flap is closed during a backup, the house cannot drain either — water run in the house during a storm surcharge has nowhere to go until the flap reopens.

What the whole job comes to

The City lists each pre-qualified contractor’s fee for an assessment and a valve, a $291 building permit, and $75 plus HST per downspout disconnection. Added together for a typical job — one valve, the permit and two downspouts — the totals before HST are:

Read against the $2,000 grant, the mainline totals sit close to the ceiling and the dearest one passes it before HST; an Adapt-a-Valve from two of the five firms goes well past it. The City does not say on its programme page whether the permit fee counts towards the grant, so the totals above include it and are not a promise of what comes back. What is certain is the difference the contractor list makes:

Use a firm from the list and the grant can reach $2,000. Use any other contractor, or do it yourself, and the most the City pays towards the valve is $500. On a job that totals $1,733 to $2,003 before HST with a listed firm, that difference is most of the bill. The City adds that there is no contract between it and any of these contractors: the agreement is private, and disputes go to the contractor first. This site does not recommend any of them.

The order the programme runs in

In order: call 905-546-2489 to confirm eligibility; get the assessment form; choose a contractor from the list; have the assessment done and read the recommendations — you are not obliged to go ahead with that firm; the contractor gets the permit; the work is done; a City building inspector inspects it; then you mail the completed package to the programme. The grant is paid to you, and you pay the contractor.

The eligibility conditions are short and absolute: a single-family home with a basement, connected to the City sewer, built before 1 January 2012, taxes up to date, and not in the middle of adding a secondary dwelling unit. A house built in 2012 or later is outside the programme entirely.

Downspouts and sump pumps

The City asks for downspouts to come off the sewer whenever a valve goes in, and describes the job precisely: cut about nine inches above the standpipe, cap the standpipe, and fit an elbow and an extension of at least 48 inches so the water lands on the lawn rather than against the wall or on a neighbour’s property. With a pre-qualified contractor it is reimbursed at $75 a downspout, inside the same $2,000. If you have had a valve grant before and some of the $2,000 is left against the property, the City says the rest can still go towards downspouts.

A sump pump is in the programme only as a new pump and pit installed with a backwater valve, within the same $2,000 total. Replacing a pump you already have is not covered by the grant. Sump pump prices elsewhere in Ontario, and what other cities pay, are on sump pump installation.

When the grant is not enough: the loan

The loan is for eligible protective plumbing costs above the grant, up to $2,000 more: the valve, a new sump pump and pit installed with it, and downspouts. It does not cover repaving a driveway or putting the garden back. It is attached to the property, not to you: it goes on the tax roll and is repaid through property taxes at 4 per cent, and can be paid off early without penalty. Every owner on title signs, and approval depends on funding Council has set aside, in order of application.

On the City’s own figures, the totals that pass $2,000 are the Adapt-a-Valve jobs from two of the five firms and the dearest mainline job; a new sump pump and pit on top of a valve is the other case to price against it.

Keeping the valve working

A valve that is jammed open by debris does nothing in a storm, and the City is specific about what jams them: wipes, feminine products, kitty litter, floss, diapers, hair, paper towel, rags, food scraps, fat, oil and grease, and paint. The City’s check for a mainline valve: open the access box, unscrew the cleanout plug, look with a flashlight, flush any build-up, make sure the gate swings, and close it up. An Adapt-a-Valve is checked by lifting its cassette out on the extension pipe and seating it back in the valve body. If you cannot do it, the City suggests a plumber or drain contractor. Wear gloves and eye protection: it is a sewer.

A valve reduces the chance of a backup; it does not insure against one. Sewer backup damage needs the optional endorsement on your home policy — see the sewer backup endorsement.

Questions people actually ask

Where to read next

• Sewer backup and basement flooding in Hamilton
• Backwater valves across Canada
• Toronto backwater valves
• Sump pump installation
• The sewer backup endorsement