Plumbers in Atlanta, GA

Before you pick up the phone

When water is spreading across a floor or ceiling, shut off the main valve first; the rest can wait a few minutes. If you smell gas, skip the plumbing questions entirely: get everyone out of the house, then call 911 and Atlanta Gas Light at 877.427.4321 once you're somewhere safe. With the house secure, have your address or ZIP code handy, along with a short description of the symptom, such as a gurgling floor drain, a wet spot in the yard or a water heater pilot that won't stay lit. Ask the plumber how pricing works and whether nights or weekends change it. Schedules shift constantly, so nobody can promise an exact arrival time.

Where Atlanta's water comes from

Inside the city, the Department of Watershed Management (DWM) runs drinking water, wastewater and stormwater. Water is drawn from the Chattahoochee River and treated at three plants: Hemphill, Chattahoochee and the Atlanta-Fulton County plant. A main break or sewer overflow in the street is DWM's to fix, and those emergencies are reported to ATL 311 at 404-546-0311.

The dividing line on a water leak is the meter. DWM is responsible for the pipe from the main to the meter, and the homeowner owns everything from the meter to the house. A soggy patch of lawn between the meter box and your foundation is therefore a plumber's job. DWM points customers to a Georgia EPD dashboard to look up the status of their own service line. Since no hardness figure appears in the City's water reports, test your tap water before buying a softener, and read DWM's current water quality report for treatment details.

Old neighborhoods, newer towers

Atlanta has 243 recognized neighborhoods, and their plumbing varies as much as their architecture. The median home was built in 1989, but roughly four in ten predate 1980. Early-1900s bungalow areas like Virginia-Highland and West End are where galvanized supply pipe, cast iron drains and clay sewer laterals tend to surface, while high-rise Downtown, Midtown and Buckhead units lean toward water heater, fixture and stack issues.

For new or replacement plumbing in a one- or two-family home, the Office of Buildings issues an online technical permit with no plan review. Homes with lawn irrigation, and all commercial accounts, may need a backflow prevention assembly near the meter, with test results filed by a registered tester through DWM's compliance program.

Plumbing across the metro

Outside city limits the utility map changes. Many suburbs buy water from a county system, such as DeKalb, Gwinnett, Cobb, Fulton or Clayton, and a few cities operate their own. Atlanta Gas Light owns most of the region's gas pipes, though places like Austell, Buford and Lawrenceville run municipal gas systems. Each city and town listed below has its own page with local water, sewer and permit notes.