Emergency Plumber in Kendall, FL
Licensed emergency plumbing across Kendall and the surrounding Miami-Dade communities.
Plumbing in Kendall
What is under a Kendall slab depends on which mile of it you are standing on. The oldest built part is the Dadeland end, where the mall opened in 1962 well beyond the edge of the built-up county; the housing around it and along Snapper Creek followed through the 1960s, concrete block on slab with cast iron drain lines cast into the concrete. Push west and the build years move with you — Kendale Lakes east of SW 142nd Avenue went up around 1970 and the section west of it around 1973 and 1974, while The Crossings and Devon-Aire filled in through the 1970s and 1980s.
That spread puts Kendall on both sides of the material change. Anything finished before roughly 1975 has cast iron under the slab, with copper supply and galvanized in the oldest eastern pockets; anything from about 1978 into the mid-1990s falls inside the polybutylene window. And because so much of the area is townhouse, villa and low-rise condominium, one failed supply fitting wets more than one home and one blocked branch backs up more than one unit. The build year of the individual building changes the diagnosis here more than almost anywhere else in the county.
Two more things belong to this ground specifically. Hurricane Andrew crossed on August 24, 1992 and destroyed a swath running from roughly North Kendall Drive southward, so streets that look untouched were rebuilt under the 1994 code with modern plastic. And Kendall is not a city at all — it is unincorporated Miami-Dade, which puts permits, inspections and the water and sewer utility all in county hands.
Neighborhoods we work in
- Dadeland
- Snapper Creek
- Devon-Aire
- Killian
- Kendale Lakes
- The Hammocks
What is specific to Kendall
- Suburban build-out, 1960s to the early 1990s
- Kendall's population roughly doubled between 1970 and 1980 and kept climbing into the 1990s; by the late 1970s it was being described as the fastest-growing community in Dade County. The core is 1960s through 1980s concrete block on slab, with an unusually large share of townhouse, villa and low-rise condominium alongside it. Kendale Lakes was built by Janis Homes around 1970 east of SW 142nd Avenue and by Caravel Homes around 1973 and 1974 to the west, which is why two streets a block apart can be plumbed four years and one material apart.
- Cast iron on one side of 1975, polybutylene on the other
- Those building years straddle the material change exactly. Before roughly 1975 the drain-waste-vent is cast iron cast into the slab, with copper supply and galvanized in the oldest eastern pockets. From about 1978 until polybutylene left the market in the mid-1990s, the supply side sits inside that window instead. On a single Kendall street you can find an untouched early-1970s original next to a house replumbed a full generation later, and nothing about the exterior tells you which is which.
- A water table held down by the C-2
- The Snapper Creek Canal — the C-2 — runs about twelve miles through the area, averages roughly twelve feet deep and is box-cut into rock, so canal stage and local groundwater are directly coupled and the canal is what keeps the water table down through the wet season. The practical effect is that a slab or lateral excavation in Kendall commonly finds water before it finds three feet of depth, and dewatering stops being optional and becomes part of the job.
- Unincorporated: the county is your building department
- Kendall is a census-designated place in unincorporated Miami-Dade, not a municipality, so there is no city hall to call. Permits, inspections and code questions all go through the county's building department, unincorporated folio numbers begin with 30, and water and sewer are the county's. The name is also used far more loosely in conversation than it is on a map, which is why cross streets identify an address here better than a neighborhood name does.
- Hurricane Andrew drew a line through it
- Andrew crossed on August 24, 1992 and destroyed a swath running from roughly North Kendall Drive southward. Rebuilding in that zone happened under the 1994 South Florida Building Code revisions that created the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone, so parts of southern Kendall carry mid-1990s plumbing inside a subdivision platted twenty years earlier. In this part of the county, build year and street appearance disagree constantly, and the build year is the one that decides the diagnosis.
- Sewered in most of it, septic in pockets
- Miami-Dade still has on the order of 120,000 septic systems countywide, and the county's 2018 assessment found that a majority of them stop functioning properly for part of the year as groundwater rises; the Connect 2 Protect program is converting some of them to sewer. Whether a given Kendall address is on sewer or septic is a parcel-level question, and settling it first changes what a backup can even mean.
What we are called out for here most
Also available in Kendall: Drain Cleaning, Hydro Jetting, Sewer Line Repair, Trenchless Sewer Repair, Leak Detection, Water Heater Repair, Water Heater Replacement, Garbage Disposal Repair, Faucet Repair, Toilet Repair, Sump Pump Repair and Installation, Sewer Camera Inspection, Well Pump Service, Septic System Services, Gas Line Services, Backflow Prevention.
Kendall questions we get asked
Kendall is not a city. Who issues the plumbing permit?
Miami-Dade County does. There is no Kendall city hall — it is a census-designated place in unincorporated county territory, so permits, inspections and code questions all run through the county's building department, and your folio number will begin with 30. Water and sewer are the county's as well, which at least means one agency rather than the two you would deal with in an incorporated city next door.
Half of Kendale Lakes seems to be one age and half another. Which half am I in?
SW 142nd Avenue is the dividing line. Janis Homes built the section east of it around 1970; Caravel Homes built west of it around 1973 and 1974. Later phases and the neighboring communities carried on into the polybutylene years, so the two halves can differ in supply material as well as in age. The county property appraiser's record for your folio gives the year built in about a minute, and that year is what determines whether the pipe or the fitting is the suspect.
My townhouse backs up but next door is fine. Whose line is it?
Much of Kendall is townhouse, villa and low-rise condominium, where several homes share a branch line or a stack. If only your own fixtures are affected, it is probably your branch. If a ground-floor tub fills when an upstairs unit drains, or the lowest units on the line go first, it is shared and the association is involved. A camera run from the affected fixture is what tells you which, before anyone pays for the wrong pipe.
My house near Dadeland is from the 1960s. Does it have cast iron?
Almost certainly. The Dadeland end is the oldest built part of Kendall — the mall opened in 1962 and the housing around it and along Snapper Creek followed — and anything finished before roughly 1975 was plumbed with cast iron drain lines cast into the slab. Sixty years is past the point where the year built predicts much on its own: on the same street one line will be near-original and the next one gone, and only an inspection separates them.
Am I on sewer or septic in Kendall?
It is address-specific and worth checking rather than assuming. Most of the area is sewered, but Miami-Dade still has on the order of 120,000 septic systems countywide, and the county's 2018 assessment found a majority of them stop working properly for part of the year as groundwater rises. Connect 2 Protect is converting some of them. The county utility's parcel viewer will tell you which you are on before anyone starts diagnosing a backup.
Our street was rebuilt after Hurricane Andrew. Does that change the plumbing?
Yes, and it is easy to miss. Andrew destroyed a swath running from roughly North Kendall Drive southward on August 24, 1992, and the rebuilding was done under the 1994 code. So a subdivision platted in the early 1970s can hold mid-1990s plastic drains and supply — same street names, same lot sizes, and a completely different diagnosis from its neighbors a few blocks north.
Why does every trench here fill with water?
The Snapper Creek Canal, the C-2, is what holds the local water table down through the wet season, and canal stage and groundwater move together. In practice a slab or lateral excavation often finds water before it finds three feet of depth, so dewatering and shoring get planned into the job from the start rather than discovered halfway through it.
Does my association have to approve a repipe in a Kendall villa?
In a villa, townhouse or low-rise condominium — which is a large share of the housing here — usually yes, at least for access and shut-offs. Because units share walls and often share a supply riser, the association typically controls when water can be shut down, which walls may be opened, and what has to be restored afterward. Settling that before the walkthrough is what keeps a two-day job from becoming a two-week one.
How far does your Kendall coverage go?
As far as people actually mean by the name. Kendall on a map is a small census area, but in conversation it runs from Dadeland and Snapper Creek in the east out through Killian and Devon-Aire to Kendale Lakes and The Hammocks. All of that is covered, and giving the dispatcher your cross streets is more useful than the neighborhood name, because several of those communities have near-identical street grids.
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