RL Plumbing | 11 – DEC – 2025
I’ve been crawling under sinks and into basements across Newton and Wellesley and Brookline for years now. After thousands of service calls you start to see patterns. The same problems show up over and over and most of them are preventable if homeowners know what to watch for.
I’m Romuald Likowski and I run RL Plumbing. This isn’t going to be one of those generic “10 plumbing tips” articles you’ve read a hundred times. I’m going to tell you what I actually see when I show up to homes in your neighborhood.
The Galvanized Pipe Problem Nobody Talks About
Here’s something that frustrates me. I get calls from homeowners in Newton who just bought a beautiful 1940s colonial and their home inspector said the plumbing “looked fine.” Three months later they’ve got brown water and a pinhole leak in the basement.
Galvanized pipes don’t fail all at once. They corrode from the inside where nobody can see. By the time you notice low water pressure or rusty water the damage is already done. I’ve cut open pipes that looked perfect on the outside and the interior was nearly closed off with buildup.
If your home was built before 1960 and still has original supply lines you need to plan for repiping. Not next year. Now. I’ve seen too many families deal with emergency repairs that cost three times what a planned replacement would have.
What Brookline Triple-Deckers Teach You About Drain Problems
Brookline has some of the most interesting plumbing I work on. Those old triple-deckers have drain stacks that have seen 80 years of use and the cast iron is tired.
Last month I got called to a first-floor unit where the toilet was backing up every few days. The homeowner had already paid another plumber twice to snake the line. Temporary fix each time. I ran a camera down there and found the problem immediately. The cast iron had deteriorated so badly that the interior surface was like sandpaper. Everything caught on it. Snaking helped for a week and then it clogged again.
The real fix was replacing a section of the stack. Not cheap but now it’s done right. That’s the thing about plumbing. You can pay for the same repair over and over or you can fix the actual problem once.
Wellesley Basements and the Sump Pump Lottery
Wellesley has a lot of homes with high water tables especially near the wetlands and conservation areas. Sump pumps are doing heavy lifting in a lot of these basements and most homeowners never think about them until they fail.
I tell everyone the same thing. Your sump pump will fail eventually. The question is whether it fails when you’re home and notice it or whether it fails during a spring rain when you’re on vacation. A backup pump or a water alarm costs almost nothing compared to a flooded basement.
I was in a home near Wellesley Square last spring right after a big storm. Beautiful finished basement completely destroyed because the primary pump failed and there was no backup. The homeowner had been meaning to address it for two years. Now instead of a $400 backup pump installation they were looking at $30,000 in water damage.
Water Heaters and the January Surprise
Every January I get the same calls. Water heater stopped working and it’s 15 degrees outside and there’s no hot water. Every single time I ask how old the unit is. Usually 12 or 15 years. Sometimes older.
Tank water heaters have a lifespan. The manufacturers tell you 8 to 12 years for a reason. After that you’re gambling. And in Massachusetts that gamble gets called in January or February when the unit is working hardest.
I replaced a water heater in a Newton home last winter that was 19 years old. The homeowner was proud of how long it lasted. I get that. But when I drained it the sediment that came out was unbelievable. That unit had been running on borrowed time for years and when it finally gave up it took the basement drywall with it.
If your water heater is over 10 years old get it replaced on your schedule not on its schedule.
The Thing About “Handyman Plumbing”
I’m going to say something that might sound self-serving but I don’t care because it’s true. Bad plumbing creates more work for plumbers like me.
I can’t count how many times I’ve opened up a wall or looked under a sink and found work that was done wrong. Improper venting. Connections that aren’t to code. Drain lines with no slope or negative slope. Flexible supply lines used where they shouldn’t be.
A licensed plumber costs more than a handyman or your neighbor who’s “good with tools.” But plumbing isn’t like painting a room. Mistakes hide inside walls and under floors and they cause problems for years before anyone realizes what happened. Water damage from slow leaks destroys homes.
When it comes to anything beyond changing a faucet aerator or replacing a toilet flapper hire someone who does this every day and carries insurance. That’s my honest advice.
When to Call and When to Wait
Not everything is an emergency. A dripping faucet can usually wait until Monday. A running toilet wastes water but it’s not going to flood your house overnight.
But some things need immediate attention. Water you can’t shut off. Sewage backing up into your home. No hot water in winter with an elderly person or infant in the house. Gas smell anywhere near your water heater.
For those situations I answer my phone. Real emergencies shouldn’t wait for business hours.
How I Work
I keep my operation simple. No big dispatch center. No office staff. You call my number and you get me or my voicemail. I show up when I say I’m going to and I don’t leave until the job is done right.
Before I start any work I tell you exactly what it’s going to cost. Not a range. An actual number. If I open up a wall and find something unexpected we talk about it before I proceed. No surprises on the invoice.
I work in Newton and Wellesley and Brookline because I know these towns. I’ve worked on enough homes here to understand what I’m walking into before I arrive. That matters more than people realize.
If you’re dealing with a plumbing issue or just want someone to take a look at an older system before it becomes a problem give me a call at (617) 777-5491 or email me at RomualdLiko@gmail.com.
Service Areas
Plumbing Services in Newton MA