Plumbing & heating in Cranston

Cranston is really two places sharing a name, and the plumbing follows the split exactly. East of Route 10, around Edgewood and Pawtuxet Village, the housing is old, close together and generally on its third or fourth generation of pipework — much the same story as Providence next door, because it is much the same housing.

West of Reservoir Avenue the city was built later and more loosely: capes, ranches and split-levels on their own lots, then the subdivisions out towards Western Cranston. The work there is less archaeology and more replacement done properly — a heater sized to the house rather than to whatever came out of it, venting that matches current practice, and shut-offs that have never once been turned.

Knowing which half of the city a call is in before we set off changes what goes in the van, which is a small thing that saves a second trip.