At Lords of Plumbing
Lords of Plumbing covers Hollywood and the surrounding area — the flats south of Franklin, Hollywood Hills, Thai Town, and the commercial corridors along Hollywood and Sunset. Residential, apartment, and commercial work. Licensed and insured, CSLB #914119, with a firm price before work starts.
Pre-war apartment stock. Hollywood has one of the densest concentrations of 1920s and 1930s courtyard buildings and small apartment houses in Los Angeles. Most of it is still on original cast iron drain stacks and galvanized steel supply, and most of it is now a hundred years old.
That matters practically. In a shared stack, a blockage low in the line backs up into the ground-floor unit first, even when the cause is two floors above. Diagnosing that from inside one apartment wastes time and often gets the wrong unit torn up. We scope the stack.
Galvanized supply. It corrodes inward until pressure noticeably drops, and rusty water first thing in the morning is the other tell. In multi-unit buildings the complaints usually start on the top floor, where pressure is lowest to begin with.
Sewer laterals. Older clay laterals under mature street trees crack and separate, and roots find the joints. If a line has backed up more than once, clearing it again buys weeks — a camera tells you whether it is roots, a cracked section, or a belly holding standing water.
Hillside properties. Above Franklin, access drives cost more than pipe length does. Narrow streets, stepped lots, and long runs down to the main limit what equipment can reach the work, which is where trenchless lining earns its keep.
Restaurants and bars. The Hollywood and Sunset corridors run heavy grease loads on drain infrastructure frequently older than the current tenant. Cabling punches a hole through grease and leaves the walls coated; jetting scours the pipe back to full bore. We schedule around service where we can.
Water heaters. Repair and replacement, tank and tankless, residential and building-scale.
We diagnose before we quote. Particularly in multi-unit buildings, where the symptom and the cause are often in different apartments.
Upfront pricing. A firm number before we start, not an hourly meter.
Licensed and insured. CSLB #914119 — which matters on rental property, where work done badly becomes the owner’s liability.
Permits. Hollywood is part of the City of Los Angeles, so permitting and inspection go through LA Building and Safety. We pull what a job requires and schedule the inspections.
Used to old buildings. Century-old cast iron, galvanized risers, and clay laterals are routine for us rather than a surprise that changes the price halfway through.
Contact Us
Contact Info
Address:
5301 Beethoven St, Ste 133, Los Angeles, CA 90066
Plumbing problems shouldn’t disrupt your comfort. For dependable and effective plumbing services, get in touch with your go-to Santa Monica plumbers, Lords of Plumbing. Our staff is available to help with routine maintenance, urgent repairs, or upgrades like tank-less water heaters. We also provide piping, re-piping, fixture plumbing, and much more.
Whether you’re looking for a quick faucet fix or a complete plumbing upgrade, we are here to help. Trust our licensed Santa Monica plumbers to ensure your complete peace of mind. Call us now or check our latest deals for big savings!
Hollywood Plumbing FAQ
Do you pull permits for plumbing work in Hollywood?
Yes. Hollywood is part of the City of Los Angeles, so permits and inspections go through LA Department of Building and Safety. Water heater replacement, repipes, gas line work, and sewer replacement all require one. On pre-1930 apartment buildings, permitted work is also what protects you when the building's records get pulled during a sale or refinance. We file, meet the inspector, and give you the finaled permit.
Are you licensed and insured to work on apartment buildings in Hollywood?
Yes. California C-36 plumbing contractor, CSLB #914119, in business since 1999, carrying general liability and workers' compensation. Building owners and management companies can request a certificate of insurance naming the property before we start. LADBS inspectors check the license number on permitted work. You can verify the classification and status yourself on the CSLB website.
A unit in my Hollywood building is flooding from the ceiling. What do I do?
Find the shutoff for the unit above, and if there is none, close the building main. Kill power to the affected area at the breaker before anyone stands in water. Do not open the ceiling yet, because the water often travels along a joist from a different unit. Call (310) 845-6027. We scope to find the actual source before anything gets cut open.
Why does the ground-floor apartment in my Hollywood building always flood first?
Hollywood has one of the densest concentrations of 1920s and 1930s courtyard buildings in Los Angeles, and most still run on the original shared cast iron drain stacks. Everything from the upper floors passes the lowest fixtures on the way out, so a blockage anywhere in the stack backs up at the ground-floor unit first. The unit that floods is rarely the source.
Can you find a stack problem in my Hollywood building without demolishing units?
That is the point of scoping it. We camera the stack from a cleanout or roof vent to locate the restriction or break by floor and distance, so demolition is limited to one wall section instead of opening several units. Century-old cast iron scales down internally and eventually splits at the hub. Knowing where the failure is turns a building-wide job into a targeted one.
My top-floor Hollywood apartment barely has water pressure. Why?
Pressure loss from galvanized supply shows up on the upper floors first, because those fixtures are furthest from the meter and highest against gravity. Galvanized corrodes inward and the interior diameter closes over decades, and most of the pre-war buildings south of Franklin were plumbed that way. We measure pressure at several points to separate a building-wide supply problem from a single restricted fixture line.
Do you clean grease lines for restaurants and bars on Hollywood Blvd and Sunset?
Yes. The commercial corridors along Hollywood and Sunset put heavy grease loads through drain lines, many of them original to the building. We jet rather than cable, because a cable bores a hole through the grease and leaves the coating behind, so the line closes again quickly. We service interceptor lines and floor drains and schedule around service hours.
Can you get equipment to a stepped lot in the Hollywood Hills?
Usually, with planning. Narrow streets, stepped lots, and long stair runs mean the truck often parks well below the work, so we carry equipment in and rely on trenchless lining where a trench would require removing stairs or retaining walls. Lining needs one access point at the house and one near the main. We look at access on the first visit and say plainly what is workable.
Are the street trees in Thai Town wrecking sewer laterals in Hollywood?
Mature street trees through Thai Town and the flats south of Franklin do reach the joints in the old clay laterals those blocks were built with. Clay is brittle, joints separate as ground shifts, and roots enter the gap. If the same line clogs every few months after cabling, the opening is still there. A camera scope confirms it before anyone digs.
How much does it cost to repipe a Hollywood apartment building?
We price it after a walk-through, never over the phone. What drives it is unit count, floors, whether the risers are accessible in chases or buried in plaster, how much can be done from hallways versus inside occupied units, phasing so tenants keep water, and the LADBS permit. We give one firm number after seeing the building, and that number holds.
Should a drain in my Hollywood building be jetted or cabled?
It depends on what is in the line. Cabling is right for a solid obstruction or roots you need cut out. Jetting is right for grease, sludge, and scale, because water at pressure scours the pipe wall back to full diameter instead of boring a channel. Old cast iron that is thin from corrosion can be a poor jetting candidate, which is why we camera first.
Can you replace a water heater in a Hollywood building with no room for a bigger tank?
Often. Older courtyard buildings have closets sized for a tank that is no longer made in that footprint, and current code adds seismic strapping, an expansion tank, and drain pan requirements that eat space. Options are a smaller high-recovery tank, relocating the unit, or tankless where the gas line and a vent path allow. We measure the closet and check the gas line before quoting.
What parts of Hollywood do you cover and when are you open?
The flats south of Franklin, the Hollywood Hills, Thai Town, and the commercial corridors along Hollywood and Sunset, plus East Hollywood and the blocks toward Silver Lake. We dispatch from 5301 Beethoven St, Ste 133 in Los Angeles. Hours are Monday through Saturday 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM and Sunday 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM. Call (310) 845-6027.