Spartanburg is the county seat and the hub of everywhere we work, and its houses span more than a century. Hampton Heights grew up between about 1890 and 1930, and Converse Heights from the early 1900s into the 1950s, so plenty of in-town homes have Queen Anne, bungalow and foursquare bones with plumbing that has been redone two or three times. The newer neighborhoods at the edge of the city have different problems entirely.
Water comes from Spartanburg Water, drawn from Lake Bowen, Lake Blalock and Municipal Reservoir #1, and it is generally soft. Sewer inside the city is the Spartanburg Sanitary Sewer District, which runs under the same Spartanburg Water umbrella. Natural gas is Piedmont Natural Gas.
One detail trips people up: a Spartanburg mailing address does not mean you are inside city limits. Inside the city, plumbing and gas permits come from the City of Spartanburg Building Inspections office on South Church Street. Outside it, they come from Spartanburg County Building Codes. We check which one applies before we file.
Gas Guys is based here and the phone is answered 24 hours a day. A gas smell, a burst supply line or a backed-up main at night gets a person on the line, not a voicemail.
Spartanburg at a glance
- Natural gas
- Piedmont Natural Gas. Piedmont Natural Gas serves the city and much of the county around it; homes past the end of a main run on propane from a tank in the yard.
- Water
- Spartanburg Water
- Sewer
- Spartanburg Sanitary Sewer District (Spartanburg Water)
- Permits
- City of Spartanburg Building Inspections; Spartanburg County Building Codes outside city limits
- Housing
- Early 1900s homes in Hampton Heights and Converse Heights, mid-century neighborhoods, and newer infill and subdivisions.
Plumbing and gas in Spartanburg: what to know
Galvanized supply lines in older houses
Houses built before about 1960 were often plumbed in galvanized steel. It rusts from the inside, so the symptom is low pressure at one fixture, then several, and brown water after the lines have sat overnight. In a house that has been updated piecemeal, the leftover galvanized is usually hiding in a wall or under the floor, and a partial repipe that leaves it feeding new copper or PEX just moves the problem.
Old sewer laterals on tree-lined streets
The pipe from the house to the public sewer tap belongs to the homeowner, not the sewer district. In older neighborhoods it may be cast iron or clay, and roots from big street trees work into the joints. Repeat clogs at the lowest drain in the house, or gurgling when the washer empties, point to the lateral. A camera inspection shows whether it needs cleaning, a spot repair or replacement.
Old gas piping, new appliances
A 1920s house may have had gas added decades after it was built, usually black iron through the crawlspace, sized for a furnace and a water heater. Add a tankless water heater, a gas range or gas logs and that line can come up short, and the symptom is weak flames when everything runs at once. We size from the meter out before anyone buys the appliance.
City permit or county permit
Inside city limits the City of Spartanburg issues plumbing and gas permits and enforces current editions of the plumbing and fuel gas codes. Outside the city, Spartanburg County Building Codes does. A permitted, inspected gas line or water heater is also what a buyer's home inspector looks for when the house sells.