Plumbing in Charleston is older pipe in Kanawha Valley houses, freeze on the exposed side, and water that shows up from the hill or from the rivers. Galvanized lines and cast-iron drains still serve many of these homes. A house on South Hills may have a long run down to the street. A house on the valley floor may have a basement that takes water when the Kanawha or the Elk is high. Say what is wet.
Find the shutoff. Old valves in these basements stick. Hose bibs and wall lines freeze on a colder night than a visitor expects. Supply water runs with the fixture off. Drain water shows up when you use the fixture. Water pushing in from the hillside is a third thing, and river water in a lower room is a fourth. Do not blend them into one complaint. The repair is not the same.
Water heaters sit low, sometimes in rooms that have flooded before. Say gas or electric, leaked or cold. Several fixtures that gurgle together may mean a lateral strained by a shifting hill rather than a clog in one trap. One slow lavatory is usually a branch. Sump pumps on the valley floor and on the toe of the hill are part of plumbing here. If the pump is the failure, lead with it.
A bath added on a lower level may need a pump because the sewer is uphill, which is a normal Charleston geometry. You do not need every pipe metal. You need the floor and whether you can shut the water off. Wells still show up on some hillside lots. Say city water or a well. A spring in a basement cut into the hill should be named.
Describe what is wet. Plumbing in Charleston is old stacks, hillside runs, and basements that live with the Kanawha Valley. Call the number on this page.