In Brooklyn, as everywhere in the city, the water service from the main in the street to the meter in your building is yours to maintain. When it leaks, we find the leak first, then repair the section or relay the whole line in copper.
Older Brooklyn row houses and brownstones often still have their original water service, and in a building from before 1961 that can be lead. The meter is usually in the cellar, just inside the front wall, and the line runs from the curb valve under the sidewalk to reach it.
Newer buildings have copper, which lasts, but a bad joint, settling soil or a hard winter can still open a leak. Either way the job starts at the curb.
The water service from the city main to your meter belongs to the property owner, including the tap on the main and the curb valve under the sidewalk. When DEP finds a leak on it, the owner gets a 3-Day or 10-Day Notice, and the clock starts on the date printed on the paper. See DEP notices and compliance.
More on NYC water main repair and NYC water line replacement.
New York City stopped allowing lead service lines in 1961, so a building older than that may still have one. If yours does, we replace it in full, in copper, from the city main to the meter, with a new no-lead brass curb valve. Replacing half a lead line leaves the other half in the ground.
The digging is the quick part. The permits set the calendar.
Our customers took these photos on recent water main jobs in New York City and posted them with their Google reviews.
“Lady Liberty was hired to excavate street and sidewalk as needed to relay a 1” domestic water service from the existing tap on the city main to inside the building.”
Chris W., Google review
“The Lady Liberty crew came on time with lots of excavation equipment, explained their work plan to me and cautiously worked throughout the day to complete the installation of the new water pipe into my house. Hard working crew, left the street and sidewalk repaired and clean as was before.”
Nick K., Google review
Our yard is at 140 50th St in Sunset Park, so south Brooklyn is close: Sunset Park, Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Fort Hamilton, Bensonhurst, Borough Park, Greenwood Heights, Windsor Terrace and Kensington.
We work across Brooklyn: Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bushwick, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights, Prospect Heights, Clinton Hill, Fort Greene, Downtown Brooklyn, DUMBO, Brooklyn Heights, Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Red Hook, Park Slope, Gowanus, Sunset Park, Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bensonhurst, Borough Park, Flatbush, East Flatbush, Flatlands, Canarsie, Brownsville, East New York, Cypress Hills, Ocean Hill, Kensington, Midwood, Gravesend, Sheepshead Bay, Manhattan Beach, Brighton Beach, Coney Island, Marine Park, Mill Basin, Bergen Beach, Georgetown.
We also work in Queens, Staten Island, the Bronx and Manhattan.
The owner, from the tap on the city main, through the curb valve under the sidewalk, to the meter in the building. DEP maintains the main in the street.
If DEP has sent a 3-Day or 10-Day Notice, it has found a leak on the owner's side. Without a notice, a wet patch at the curb that does not dry, low pressure and a jump in the bill all point to the service line. We locate the leak before anything is dug.
Yes. We find the leak the notice is about, file the permits and make the repair. See NYC DEP notices and compliance for how the notices work.
Sometimes. The city treats recently resurfaced streets as protected: opening one needs DOT approval, comes with stricter restoration rules, and some work has to wait. We check a street's status before we quote, so you know before anything is scheduled.
Yes. We replace it in copper from the city main to the meter, including the curb valve. Replacing part of a lead line leaves the rest in the ground, so we quote the full run.
At 140 50th St in Sunset Park. We work across all of Brooklyn, and south Brooklyn is closest.
Water main trouble in Brooklyn? Call (718) 965-3500. A person answers, 24/7/365.
Sewer trouble instead? See sewer repair in Brooklyn.
A broken water main or sewer backup in Brooklyn escalates fast — water surfacing in the roadway, a burst service line under the sidewalk, or wastewater rising into a basement. A person answers the phone after hours and overnight, and a licensed crew is dispatched across Brooklyn for emergency water main break and sewer repair, 24/7.
