New construction
Framing is up and the plumbing is due. New build plumbing from the first pipe in the ground to the finished fixtures, planned around the builder's schedule rather than around ours.
This is plumbing a building that does not exist yet. Work on an existing house that is being reconfigured is remodels, and an unplanned failure in a house already in use is repairs. The three get grouped together and they run on completely different clocks.
What it covers
The whole plumbing scope of a new build, from the drawings to the day the fixtures get used. The drains below the slab and through the house, the water lines to every fixture, gas piping to the appliances, and the finish work at the end when everything visible gets set. Residential and commercial, and the additions, in law suites and accessory dwelling units that are new construction bolted to an old house.
An accessory dwelling unit, an ADU, is its own small version of the whole job: a bathroom, a kitchen and a laundry, often with its own water heater, built above a garage or beside the house. The part people do not expect is the house itself, whose existing plumbing usually has to be upgraded before it can feed the new unit. See the ADU in Wayland.
Where the lot is decides what the plumbing involves, and in MetroWest that is two different jobs. A house in Natick connects to town water and sewer from the street. A house in Sherborn is its own utility: a well, a line from it, a pressure tank that needs a place in the basement, and a main drain whose height is set by where the septic tank sits. On that lot the plumbing and the septic system have to meet at the foundation at a height everyone agrees on, and that is the one number that cannot be fixed later.
It covers working to the general contractor's schedule, because on a build the plumbing can hold up every trade behind it.
What the job involves
- Drawings and layout. Reading the plan against the site: where the fixtures go, where the main drain and the water line come in, and where the drawing and the framing plan disagree. This is the cheapest hour on the whole job.
- Below the slab. Drain lines run and sloped to the sewer or the septic tank, and the water line brought in, all tested before it is buried.
- Drains through the house. Drain lines run through the framing once it is up, to the fixture positions on the plan.
- Water lines. Water run to every fixture, with shutoffs in sensible places. On a well house, the pressure tank placed and piped.
- Gas piping. Run to each appliance position and sized for the whole house, including the appliances the owner says they might add later.
- Tested before it is closed in. Everything tested before insulation and drywall go up. A problem found here is a repair; the same problem found after drywall is demolition.
- Finish. Once the finishes are in, fixtures set, connected and adjusted, and the water heater or boiler started up.
- Final check. Everything run, checked and handed over working.
When you need it
- A new house, an addition, or a garage or barn being brought into use
- A lot on a well and septic, where the plumbing and the septic design have to agree
- A commercial fit out that needs its own plumbing scope
- Plans drawn and ready for a plumber to read before they are final
- A slab scheduled, with the under slab work still to do
- Framing up and the plumbing due on a date
- An accessory dwelling unit or an in law suite being added
- A build where the current plumber has fallen off the schedule
- Fixtures selected and a trim out date coming
Why it matters
On a new build the plumbing decisions that matter most are the ones made before anyone can see any plumbing. A drain laid without enough slope still drains on the day it is tested and causes trouble for years. Venting done to suit the framing rather than the plumbing can show up later as a smell in a finished room.
The cost curve on a build is unusually brutal. Moving a pipe before the walls close is a small job. Moving the same pipe after drywall, tile and cabinetry means removing all three, and the plumbing is the cheapest part of putting it back. On a septic lot there is a version of that with no easy fix: a main drain set at the wrong height for the tank can mean a pump moving the house's waste for as long as it stands.
Then there is sequence. A build runs on trades handing off cleanly, and a plumbing stage that is late does not only delay the plumbing. It delays insulation, drywall and everything queued behind them. Being predictable is genuinely half the job.
How Connerney handles it
- Licensed and insured. Licensed and insured in Massachusetts.
- Plans read before pipe is cut. Problems raised while they are still a conversation rather than a change order, including the drain height on a septic lot.
- Tested before it is closed in. And tested again at the finish.
- Owner run. Bill Connerney owns the business, answers the phone and books the jobs, and our team of experienced plumbers does the work. Rated 5.0 on Google across 20 reviews, and BBB accredited since 2018.
Questions people ask
- The lot is on a well and a septic system. What does that change on the plumbing side?
- Three things the plans have to settle early. The well line comes into the basement and needs a pressure tank, which takes space and a location decided before the slab. The main drain leaves the house at a height that has to match the septic tank, which the septic designer sets from the soil and the grade, so the plumbing and septic sides agree on that number before anything is poured. And every fixture drains to a tank rather than a town sewer, which affects what gets plumbed in, from a disposal to a water softener.
- When should the plumber first see the drawings?
- When they are mostly done and still cheap to change. That is when the fixture positions are set enough to check and loose enough to move. Our team reads them against the framing plan, flags a bathroom or a drain that will not work as drawn, and asks about future appliances, which decide how the gas piping is sized. All of that is a pencil at that stage and a change order at any later one.
- Is a commercial fit out the same job as a house?
- The pipe is the same and everything around it is not. The fixtures are built for heavy use rather than for a family, the drainage often includes floor drains and grease traps a house never has, and a missed date holds up an opening rather than a move in. The plumbing scope on a fit out gets priced and scheduled the same way. The commercial plumbing page is about the building side of that.
Related services
Where we work
Based in Natick, working across MetroWest Massachusetts.
Plus the surrounding MetroWest towns. If you are nearby, call and ask.
Call us, or request service
Tell us what is going on. If no one picks up, leave a message and Bill will call you back as soon as he can. If it is easier to write it down, the form reaches the same place.