Mentor is the biggest city in Lake County, about 47,000 people spread across roughly 20,000 homes, and a plumber here works in a different setting than in Willoughby. We provide plumber service in Mentor, OH from our Willoughby shop, about 5 miles southwest, and we send out a 24/7 emergency line for burst pipes, backed-up drains and dead water heaters.
Most Mentor houses went up in the 1970s and about 85 percent are owner-occupied, so the person who calls us is usually the person who pays for the pipe and keeps it. That shapes how we work. We explain what we found, show you the camera picture when a drain is involved, and give you a clear price before work starts.
Same-day appointments are available when the schedule allows. Call (440) 468-0237 and tell us the street, the symptom and whether water is still running.
- 44060
- 44061
Mentor service at a glance
Emergency dispatch
Emergency dispatch is available around the clock for Mentor, including nights, weekends and holidays. Call (440) 468-0237 and stay on the line for shut-off steps.
Water supplier
Mentor taps run on Aqua Ohio's Mentor system, drawn from Lake Erie. It is not the Lake County Utilities supply that serves Willoughby.
Sewer system
Your house line leads to city sewers, and the flow ends at Lake County's Gary L. Kron Water Reclamation Facility on Lakeshore Blvd.
Permits
The City of Mentor building division handles building inspection at 8500 Civic Center Blvd. We tell you before work starts if your job needs a permit.
Why Mentor's size changes the plumbing picture
With about 20,679 housing units, Mentor has more houses on a single city system than any other Lake County community. The median home was built in 1973, according to Census survey data, so a typical house here is now about fifty years old. At that age the original water heater has been replaced at least once, and the drain lines have carried decades of grease, hair and roots.
In practice that means a camera look is cheaper than guessing. Before we recommend digging or replacing a section, we run a push camera with a locator down the line, find the problem and mark it on the lawn. If you only need a sewer line cleaning, you will not pay for a repair you do not need.
Owners hold about 85 percent of Mentor homes, per the same survey. Owners can approve a repair on the spot, so we lay out repair, partial replacement and full replacement side by side and let you choose.
Water where it should not be?
Call the 24/7 line and we will tell you what to shut off while we head your way.
Spring thaw and storm season
Lake Erie weather keeps the ground wet in Mentor from March into June. Clay-heavy glacial soils drain slowly, so water presses against foundation walls and finds the weak spot in a floor drain, a cracked wall or a failing sump basin. When the sump pump does not start, the basement fills within a storm.
Test your pump before the rain, not during it. Pour a bucket of water into the basin and watch the float lift and the discharge run outside. If it stalls, hums or cycles on and off, call us for sump pump repair, and ask about a battery backup, because power often fails in the same storm.
A sump pump must never discharge into the sanitary sewer. In Willoughby that is written into city code, and Mentor homeowners should confirm local rules with the building division. A pump that dumps into the sewer overloads the line in heavy rain, which is exactly when backups happen.
The July 2013 flood and what it still means
On July 20, 2013, about 6 inches of rain fell on Mentor in a short span. Nearly 600 properties reported damage and about 500 had water in the basement. Eleven days later the city adopted a sewer-backup grant program, and many owners learned how a backup actually happens.
Storm water and sanitary flow share capacity in a heavy storm, and when the main fills, water takes the easiest route back into a house, through the lowest floor drain. The fix is usually a backwater check valve, a floor drain plug, a standpipe or overhead plumbing, the items the city's grant page listed as eligible.
That page was last updated in 2016, so we cannot say whether money is available today. Ask the City of Mentor building division at 440-974-5785 whether funding is open before you pay for any work, and keep every invoice. Work on the line outside your property can need a Lake County Utilities permit, which we can explain when you call.
Backup protection options for Mentor basements
These are the options the city's own program named, with the tradeoff for each. A plumber confirms which one fits after looking at your drains.
| Option | Best for | Tradeoff |
|---|---|---|
| Backwater check valve | Stopping sewage from flowing back through the main house drain | Needs a section of floor cut open and an access cover, and the valve needs periodic cleaning |
| Floor drain plug | A single low drain that has overflowed before | Blocks that drain from working as a drain when it is plugged |
| Standpipe | Floor drains or laundry drains that sit low | Raises the water level in the pipe, so it only helps up to a point |
| Overhead plumbing | Finished basements with a toilet or bath below the main | Largest job, since fixtures are lifted and pumped up to the main line |
Call for your number once we see the drain layout. Ask the city about funding first.
Summer cloudbursts and the lake
Mentor's northern edge runs along Lake Erie, and summer thunderstorms can drop a lot of water fast. Downspouts that drain beside the foundation, window wells that fill and floor drains that bubble all show up after the same storm.
A gurgling basement drain after rain tells you the line is under pressure downstream. Do not keep running the washer and showers while it gurgles, because each gallon you add can end up on the floor. Call us for drain cleaning if it is a slow clog, or for a camera inspection if it keeps coming back.
About 25 percent of Mentor drains toward the Chagrin watershed to the southwest, and most of the rest drains toward Lake Erie. Where you live inside the city matters, so a neighbor's flooded street across town may not predict your own basement.
Fall shut-offs and the first freeze
Average first fall freeze in the Cleveland area lands around October 28. Mentor sits in the same snow belt, so hose bibs, garage supply lines and unheated crawl spaces are the first places to freeze. Disconnect hoses in early October and shut the interior valve to each outdoor spigot.
This is also the right month to look at the water heater. A tank past its tenth year, with rust at the base or a hot-water supply that runs out fast, is a candidate for planned water heater replacement before cold weather. Replacing it on your schedule beats a Sunday night cold shower and a flooded utility room.
Whether a swap needs a city permit is the building division's call, so we check with them and tell you before the work starts.
Winter, frost and lake-effect snow
Lake County's building design table lists frost depth at about 40 inches, and Cleveland-area normals show roughly 63.8 inches of snow a year. Supply lines that run through exterior walls or over an unheated garage ceiling are the usual freeze points. A pipe freezes on the coldest night after a stretch of wind, not in the first cold snap.
If a faucet drips to a trickle on a cold morning, think frozen supply, not a bad faucet. Open the tap, keep the heat on in the room and call us before you try a torch or heat gun, because a thawed split pipe sprays the moment ice melts. For a split already leaking, see burst pipe repair and shut the main first.
Insulation and a bit of heat in the wall cavity prevent most repeat freezes, and we can check where cold air enters during a visit.
Aqua Ohio water in Mentor homes
Mentor drinking water comes from Aqua Ohio's Mentor system, which draws from Lake Erie. That is a different utility from the Lake County system serving Willoughby, Eastlake, Willowick and Wickliffe, so reports, billing and phone numbers differ. If your water looks cloudy or tastes off, call Aqua Ohio about the main first, then call us about the house.
Aqua Ohio's published report lists no hardness figure, so we do not guess at one. If you are thinking about a softener or filter, test your own tap first, then read water softener and filtration options to see what each one actually does. Spending on equipment without a reading means paying to solve a problem you may not have.
What Mentor homeowners call us about most
These are the common jobs in a city of older single-family houses, listed by what you notice first.
Basement drain gurgling or backing up
Usually a clog in the main house drain, sometimes a collapsed section. We clear it, then camera the line so you know which it was.
Water heater out of hot water
We check the thermostat, element or burner first, then tell you honestly whether the tank is worth repairing.
Wet spot on the lawn or a high meter
A running meter with every tap off points to a leak. We narrow it with a meter test and an acoustic listening device before any digging.
Toilet that runs or rocks
Often a worn flapper or a loose flange. Cheap to fix when caught early, expensive when the subfloor goes soft.
Mentor Avenue and commercial plumbing
Mentor Avenue, which is US 20, is the city's main commercial corridor, and shops, restaurants and offices along it need plumbing that keeps working during business hours. Grease traps, floor drains, mop sinks and restroom fixtures fail on a different schedule than home plumbing. A clogged line at a restaurant on a Friday evening costs real sales.
We handle commercial calls through our commercial plumbing service, including after-hours dispatch. If you manage a building, tell us the type of business, how many restrooms and whether you rent or own, since that decides who authorizes the work. Ask your landlord who owns the line before you pay for a repair.
Before we arrive at a Mentor house
These steps limit damage while the truck is on the way.
Find your main shut-off
Look where the water line enters the house, usually in the basement near the meter. Turn the handle until it stops, then open a low faucet to drain the lines.
Stay out of a flooded basement
If water touches outlets, the furnace or the panel, do not wade in. Leave the electric alone and tell us what is wet when you call.
Stop using water upstairs
During a backup, flushing and laundry push more flow toward the drain that is already full. Wait until the line is cleared.
Photograph and write it down
Take pictures of the water line, damaged items and any floor drains. Your insurer and the city, if funding is open, will want the dates and invoices.
Mentor plumbing questions
Yes. We serve ZIP 44060, the main Mentor street-address ZIP, covering homes along Mentor Avenue and the neighborhoods north and south of it. ZIP 44061 is the Mentor PO box ZIP, so it has no street addresses, but we serve any house tied to it. Our primary Mentor ZIP is 44060, and the best way to confirm coverage is to call (440) 468-0237 with your street.
Yes. Our 24/7 emergency line takes calls from Mentor at night, on weekends and on holidays. Call (440) 468-0237, tell us what is happening and whether water is still running, and we will walk you through shutting it off while we dispatch. We offer same-day appointments when available for non-emergency work, with a clear price before work starts.
We cannot confirm it. The City of Mentor adopted a sewer-backup grant program after the July 20, 2013 flood, and the city's page lists backwater valves, floor drain plugs, standpipes and overhead plumbing as eligible. That page was last updated in 2016, so call the building division at 440-974-5785 and ask whether funding is open before you pay for any work.
Start with Aqua Ohio if the water is cloudy, discolored or tastes strange at several taps, since the cause may be in the main. Call us if the problem is at one fixture, only hot water, or rust from an old tank or old pipes inside the house. We can look at your water heater and the pipes after Aqua Ohio rules out the main.
Many jobs, such as a water heater swap or a new fixture, can need one. Mentor's building division at 8500 Civic Center Blvd handles building inspection, and the city has advertised for an in-house plumbing inspector. We tell you before work starts whether your job needs a permit and who pulls it, and you can call the division at 440-974-5785 to confirm.
Not usually. A drain that overflows only in heavy rain points to the sewer filling up downstream, so snaking the line does not fix it. A camera look rules out a root or break on your side, and a backwater check valve or standpipe is often the answer. Mentor's 2013 flood showed how common this is, so ask us for a sewer camera inspection.
Mentor-on-the-Lake is a separate city
Mentor-on-the-Lake sits along the lakefront next to Mentor, but it is its own city, with its own government and its own permit rules. Plumbing permits there come through the Lake County Building Department, not the City of Mentor. If your address says Mentor but you live on the lakeshore, check which city you are in before you call anyone for a permit. We can tell you which office applies when you call.
Nearby towns we also serve
Eastlake sits just west of Mentor, and our Eastlake plumbing page explains that city's flood-prone low areas. South of Mentor, Willoughby Hills has Chagrin River flooding that works differently from Mentor's storm-sewer backups.
We also take calls from Painesville, Kirtland and Mentor-on-the-Lake. Whatever your town, call (440) 468-0237 and say what you see.
Still have a question?
Call the 24/7 line and a person answers.
- Mentor-on-the-Lake
- Painesville
- Kirtland