Plumbing in Boston often means a shared stack and a basement full of old pipe serving more than one kitchen. A leak on the third floor finds the ceiling of the second and the light fixture of the first. Galvanized branches reduce to a trickle while the building next door runs fine. Flat-roof drains and internal leaders clog with seeds and then overflow at the top-floor wall. Say whether the water is supply, waste, or rain from the roof.
Basement apartments sit near the main cleanout. A backup that starts there may be the building drain or the lateral to the street, not the trap under your sink. Old metal service lines still enter cellars in older blocks, and they should be identified, not scraped. Know the main shutoff for your unit and for the building.
Renovated kitchens with disposals on stacks that were sized for a simpler life will clog at the same fitting every winter. Vent pipes that terminate badly will gurgle a toilet when the washer runs. Hose bibs on South Boston and East Boston porches freeze and split. A rubber roof drain that was screwed on during a patch may be the source of the stain everyone called a pipe leak. Look up before you open the wall. The ceiling tells you the direction.
Hot water tanks squeezed into closets or behind boiler rooms leak onto brick and into party walls. Relief lines that were cut short drip into a pan that was never piped to a drain. If the boiler makes the hot water, a failed coil is a heat call and a plumbing call at once. Say which you think it is, and describe the equipment in the room. Pressure that drops only when another floor draws water is a riser issue, not a city main issue.
Name the neighborhood, the floor, and the symptom: no water, rusty water, a clog, a leak, or a backup. Mention the stain below you and whether a roof drain is in the same wall. Say if a basement unit is involved. A clear location saves the people under you from another night of drip. Call the number on this page.