Louisville Metro
Plumbers across Louisville and the eight metro counties
Jefferson County plus Oldham, Bullitt, Shelby, Spencer, Henry, Trimble and Meade, and 76 ZIP codes. Old city plumbing on one side of the county line, new subdivisions and septic tanks on the other.
Open 24 hours. Tell us the street and what is happening.
- 42 communities
- 8 counties
- Combined-sewer experience
- Same-day and emergency
What is different about plumbing here
Louisville is the one part of Kentucky where the sewer system itself is often the problem. A large part of the older city, Old Louisville, Butchertown, Germantown, Portland, Shelby Park, sits on a combined sewer, one pipe carrying both storm water and waste. In a hard summer downpour the main can surcharge and push back toward the lowest fixture in the house, which is usually a basement floor drain.
The housing stock is the other half of it. Pre-1960 Louisville means galvanized supply that has rusted its bore down to a straw and cast iron waste stacks that have scaled and cracked. Both fail on their own schedule, and both are cheaper to plan for than to react to.
Cross the county line and it changes completely. Oldham County, Crestwood, La Grange, Prospect, Goshen, is largely postwar and modern build. Bullitt, Spencer, Henry and Trimble put you on well water and septic tanks often enough that a pro asks first rather than assuming a city main.
Basement flooding after a storm
If water comes up through a floor drain rather than down from above, that is a sewer question, not a leak. A backwater valve is the usual fix and it is worth asking about before the next storm rather than after.
Water in the basement right now? Say which floor it is coming from and we will tell you what to shut off.
Get Help FastLargest communities
Where most of the calls come from
Jefferson County alone runs to 41 ZIP codes. These are the places we are called to most across the metro.
Louisville
The whole of Jefferson County, from the combined-sewer core out to the Gene Snyder. Old brick, deep basements, alley-side laterals. Five district pages.
Shepherdsville
Bullitt County seat on the Salt River. Flood history, and a mix of city water and private wells outside town.
La Grange
Oldham County seat. Newer stock, mostly city sewer, with septic on the farm roads out toward Ballardsville.
Mount Washington
Fast suburban growth on the Bullitt County side, so slab-on-grade and modern PEX rather than galvanized.
Shelbyville
Shelby County seat, two ZIP codes, with a historic core and farmland immediately outside it.
Prospect
River-terrace ground northeast of the city. Deep basements and a high water table close to the Ohio.
Brandenburg
Meade County on the Ohio, well downstream of the city. Long service runs and rural water district lines.
Crestwood
Oldham County subdivisions along KY 146, largely built since the 1970s.
Every community in the list below is covered on the same number, whether it has its own page yet or not.
Full coverage
Every Louisville Metro community we cover
42 communities in Bullitt, Henry, Jefferson, Meade, Oldham, Shelby, Spencer and Trimble counties.
Every community on this list has its own page now. Coverage and the phone number are identical whichever one you land on.
Ground conditions
What a pro expects to find in the metro
Three things drive most Jefferson County diagnoses, and all three change the moment you cross into the outer counties.
Combined sewer
One pipe for storm and waste
Across much of the pre-war city, storm water and sewage share a single main. Heavy rain raises the level in that main, and your basement floor drain is the lowest opening on the line.
This is why backwater valves and correctly sized sump pumps matter more here than almost anywhere else in Kentucky.
High water table
Ohio River terraces
Close to the river the water table sits high enough that a basement is effectively a boat. Hydrostatic pressure finds cold joints, floor cracks and any pipe penetration through the wall.
Telling groundwater from a plumbing leak is the first job, they need opposite fixes, and digging before you know is expensive.
Old metal pipe
Galvanized and cast iron
Pre-1960 stock still carries galvanized supply lines rusted down to a fraction of their bore, and cast iron stacks that have scaled, cracked or lost their bottom bend.
Low pressure on the top floor and recurring blockages in the same stack are the tells. Repiping a section at a time is normal.
Any hour, anywhere in the metro.
The services called for most in the metro
Combined sewers, wet basements and old metal pipe drive the list here.
Questions
Louisville Metro questions
A good rule of thumb is age: if the neighborhood was built before the Second World War and the street has a single set of inlets, it is likely combined. Louisville MSD holds the definitive maps and will tell you for your address. It matters because it changes the fix, a combined-sewer basement backup is a backwater-valve job, not a drain-cleaning job.
Usually not. If it came up rather than down, and it happened while it was raining hard, the main outside was full and your floor drain was the lowest available opening. Clearing your own line will not stop it happening again. Ask about a backwater valve.
The property owner is generally responsible for the lateral from the house to the connection at the main, which means a collapse under your own front yard is your bill. MSD deals with the main itself. A camera inspection is the cheap way to establish which side of that line the fault is on before anyone digs.
In a pre-1960 house that is close to a textbook galvanized-pipe symptom. Rust builds inward and narrows the bore, and the top floor is the first place it shows because it has the least head behind it. A pro checks static pressure at the hose bib first to rule out a failing regulator, then looks at the pipe itself.
Yes, and the conversation is different. In Oldham and Bullitt a fair number of properties are on private wells and septic systems, so a pressure complaint may be a well pump or a pressure tank rather than anything to do with a city main. Say which you are on when you call, or say you do not know and we will work it out.
Yes, though less aggressively than in the Bluegrass. Louisville Water treats and partially softens what it draws from the Ohio, so scale is a slow problem here rather than an urgent one. Water heaters still benefit from being flushed, and a whole-house softener is a comfort decision rather than a necessity for most metro addresses.
No. Kentucky Plumbing HQ is a referral service: we take the call, work out what the job is, and connect you with an independent local plumbing professional who works in your area. Pricing, the work and the workmanship guarantee are between you and the contractor who attends.
Louisville, La Grange, Shepherdsville or a farm road in Henry County
One number for all 41 metro communities, answered around the clock.