Established 1958 · Third generation · Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Every drain and toilet you use adds to what is already backing up through the floor drain. Shut the water off, keep everyone off the stairs, and dial us. A truck rolls from our Lincoln Avenue shop with a cable machine, a camera and a wet-vac on board — no overtime rate at 2 a.m., no overtime rate on Sunday.
Wisconsin Master Plumber MP #227418 · Bonded & insured, $2M general liability · DNS & Accela permits pulled by us · Flat price quoted before a wrench moves
Before you call — sort it yourself
If a toilet gurgles when the washer drains and the floor drain burps back, that is the lateral talking — not the toilet. Stop using water and get the camera down there before it becomes a cleanup.
The service ledger
Cable machine first, camera second. If the line is greased or rooted through the joints, the jetter reel comes off the truck. We show you the monitor before we quote the repair — you watch the root ball, not a description of it.
Tank, tankless or heat-pump hybrid. New flex connectors, a proper T&P discharge to within six inches of the floor, and an expansion tank where the PRV makes the system closed. Old unit leaves in our truck, not your alley.
Gray galvanized nipples choke down to a pencil of flow by year sixty. We repipe in PEX or Type L copper, wall by wall, and we patch back what we open. Most Milwaukee duplexes run four to six days with water on every night.
Lavs, water closets, pressure-balancing and thermostatic tub valves, disposals, frost-proof sillcocks. New angle stops every time — we will not hang a $400 faucet on a 1962 valve that already weeps.
When MMSD's Deep Tunnel sits near capacity and the city asks the county to hold off on laundry, your pit is the last line. Cast-iron primary, sealed check valve, battery backup that runs eight hours on its own.
Spot repair, trenchless lining or full dig. Clay and cast iron are no longer permitted for new laterals here — everything we set goes in as Schedule 40 PVC, permitted through DNS, backfilled and raked so the lawn comes back.
Ranges are estimates from jobs we ran in Milwaukee County over the last twelve months. Your written flat price comes after the diagnostic, before any work starts.
From the trucks
Why houses here fail the way they do
Most of the city's housing stock went up before 1960 — cream brick, Cape Cods, Polish flats, duplexes with a stairway full of laundry. Interior copper in those homes generally holds up. The failure point moved outside years ago, to the clay tile lateral, where boulevard tree roots find every joint and open it a little wider each spring.
Then there is the ground. Dense clay soil swells when it's wet and pulls back when it freezes, and a run of nights below 20°F works laterals and water services like a hinge. That's why our January calls are frozen kitchen walls on north elevations, and our April calls are backups after two inches of rain.
Two more local facts worth knowing. Milwaukee Water Works reads about 8 grains per gallon out of Lake Michigan and says a softener is not required for household use — so we will not sell you one to fix a problem you don't have. And a single downspout still tied into the sanitary sewer sends storm water straight into the same pipe your basement drains to. We check for that on every backup call, free.
The letter from the city
Milwaukee Water Works passed 10,000 lead service lines replaced in May 2025, with roughly 65,000 to go by 2037 and about 3,500 targeted in 2025 alone. The city works its own list and picks up the utility side; the portion from the curb stop into your basement is where a licensed plumber comes in — and where the permit gets pulled.
Bring us the letter. We'll pull the meter-side stub, tell you in plain language whether you're looking at a city-scheduled replacement or a private-side job, and give you a written number the same visit. We've done 140 private-side service replacements since 2021, including South Milwaukee's tract work.
Read me my letter: (414) 555-0119
Est. 1958
One truck, a cable machine borrowed on Saturdays, and a route of South Side flats that still call us by the same phone exchange.
Second generation, second license. The shop adds sewer work and the first camera reel arrives in 1989.
Repiping becomes half the calendar as the pre-war supply lines finally close down to a trickle across Sherman Park.
Third generation. Flat-rate pricing replaces the clipboard hourly, and the no-overtime-rate policy goes into writing.
Two dedicated crews for lining, pipe bursting and private-side service replacement as the city's program ramps up.
Every one of them a badged employee — we have never subcontracted a residential call in sixty-seven years.
Written by neighbors
“Floor drain backed up at 11 on a Saturday night with my mother-in-law staying over. Cable truck was in the alley in 40 minutes and the bill was the same number he said on the phone. Not a dollar of weekend markup.”
Renata K. · Bay View
“They put a camera down before quoting anything and showed me on the screen that my lateral was fine — the clog was my own kitchen line. Any other shop would have sold me a dig.”
Dev P. · Riverwest
“Repiped our 1926 duplex in five days. Water on every night, drop cloths down every morning, and they patched the plaster better than the plaster guy did.”
The Hoffmans · Washington Heights
4.8 average across 612 Google reviews · 87 on Facebook · A+ with the BBB since 2009
How the money works
Waived entirely if you have us do the repair. You hear the number before we drive over.
Signed on the tablet before a tool comes out of the bag. It does not move because the job took longer.
Midnight, Sunday, Christmas Eve — same rate card as Tuesday at ten in the morning.
DNS or the suburban inspector, filed under our master license. Never yours, never "we'll skip it."
Parts carry the manufacturer's term. Our labor carries ours, and the same plumber comes back.
Annual water heater flush and anode check, one drain and camera inspection, 15% off every repair, front-of-line dispatch on storm days, and the diagnostic fee waived for good. 340 households on it right now.
The counter is open
office@kowalskiplumbing.example
Tell us what's going on and we'll get right back to you.
Prefer to talk? Call (414) 555-0119