Upgrading residential water service in Chicago

[Mark Shelstad]

Greetings- I am looking for advice or a recommendation concerning the very high cost to upgrade water service in Chicago. Inspectors are aggressively insisting on upgraded service in many cases where it is not needed. Quotes are sky high. Any suggestions or contractor recommendations or registered plumbers that can accomplish this at a reasonable cost?

Just as an FYI for those reading: suburban price is $4,500-$5,000 while same job in Chicago I am hearing $15-20 k ! ouch!

[Ann Folan]

 We are a GC here in Chicago and also own a sewer and water company -- so I may be your ideal contributor :). You are correct, the City of Chicago infrastructure is old, with every extensive re-hab and new construction 99.9% of the time they city will require a new water service. New construction will also require a new sewer line, re-habs may be able to get away with a camera in the line for possible re-use. We figure it in to every job we price and more often than not, it is required. I cannot even remember the last time we didn't have to install a new service.  There is no appealing it, there is no getting around it, you will absolutely have to install a new service. New 1" services are rarely installed, you will need at least 1.5" depending on the number of fixtures you have - as mentioned above. 

The high cost has less to do with the paving contractors (although that adds on as well) and much more to do with the cost of the actual permits from the city. The permits alone are thousands of dollars, which adds on to your cost for the new service. We are thousand of dollars in the hole before we even figure out the actual labor or the materials! $15,000 is actually a fairly good price for a new service to the main. As also mentioned above, if the water main is across the street, your costs will be even higher.  Feel free to send over any other questions I will help if I can! Best of luck, plumbing inspectors in Chicago are the toughest by far.