Plumbing in Hartford is a shared stack and a cellar of old pipe. A leak at a third-floor tub finds the second-floor ceiling and the light below that. Galvanized branches run rusty while a newer house up the hill runs clear. Basement drains sit near the only cleanout, and a backup there may be the lateral to the street. Say whether you are looking at supply water, waste, or rain that came through a wall.
Old metal service lines still enter these cellars. Identify them. Do not scrape them. Know the shutoff for your unit and, if you can find it, the building. A valve that has not turned in years may weep, and that is still the right first move when a fitting lets go. Gurgles when the washer runs are often a vent, not a trap you already cleaned. Kitchen disposals on old stacks clog at the same elbow every winter.
Boiler rooms and water heaters share a small floor. A tank that leaks walks across the basement and into a party wall. If the boiler makes the hot water, say so, because a dead coil is not a faucet washer. Pressure that falls only when another floor draws is a riser problem. Hose bibs on the north wall split in a hard freeze and wait until spring to show you. Look at the ceiling stain and ask which pipe is in that bay.
A rubber patch on a roof leader inside a wall gets called a plumbing leak for months. If the stain is worse after rain and quiet in a dry freeze, say that. It changes the trade. Radiator drips are heat piping and still end up on the ceiling below. Name the nearest fixture. Finished basement rooms near the main drain need a straight answer about backup risk before anyone carpets them again.
Name the neighborhood, the floor, and the symptom. Mention who else shares the stack. A clear location protects the apartment under you. Say if water is active right now or only a stain. Call the number on this page.