Plumber in Munsey Park, NYEmergency Plumbing, Drains, Gas Lines & Water Heaters

A museum-built village that voted against sewers.

Wikipedia says publisher Frank Munsey left his land to the Metropolitan Museum of Art when he died in 1925, and the museum developed it as a planned commuter community: Colonial-style houses, streets named for American artists, landscaping largely by the Olmsted Brothers and many buildings by architect Frederick Lee Ackerman. The first model home opened in 1928. When the Manhasset Sewer District was created in 1929, residents largely opposed sewers in their neighborhood; they voted 155 to 3 on January 27, 1930 to incorporate, and one of the new village's first acts was to leave the sewer district. It covers 0.5 square miles and has been a Tree City USA since 1983.

The Census Bureau's latest five-year survey counts about 800 homes, with a median year built of 1938. 22% went up in the 1950s, 52% before 1940, and 1% after 1980. 98% are single-family detached houses, and 99% are owner-occupied.

So a typical house here has drain and water lines around 88 years old unless they've been replaced. Slow drains in several fixtures, a gurgling floor drain or rusty water from one tap are signs to have the main line and supply piping checked. With so many pre-1940 homes, some still have galvanized or older supply piping in the walls; we plan repairs around what's actually there.

Gas piping.

The ACS shows 77% of homes heat with utility gas, 6% with electricity and only 10% with fuel oil. New gas ranges, dryers and water heaters need properly sized gas piping, and a leak test after any change; we do the gas line work.

Water heaters in Munsey Park.

The Census Bureau's survey puts the average owner household at 3.36 people, with a median of 8.4 rooms; 100% of homes have three or more bedrooms and 82% have four or more. A tank sized for a smaller household, or one full of sediment, is what runs out first when several people shower back to back. When a heater fails, we size the replacement to the household and the number of bathrooms, not just to the label on the old tank. Most houses here heat with gas, so the water heater is usually gas too, and it needs a sound flue, a working shutoff and a relief valve that discharges where it should; we check all three when we replace one.

Cesspools and septic, mostly.

Wikipedia says Munsey Park is unsewered and the whole village relies on cesspools and septic systems, and Nassau County's health department list shows it as not publicly sewered. We clear the line from the house, but a full or failing cesspool is a job for a cesspool or septic contractor; we don't do cesspool work, and we don't install septic systems.

Little mapped flood risk.

FEMA's current flood map puts none of Munsey Park in the high-risk flood zone.

Water: Manhasset-Lakeville Water District.

EPA's service-area map puts essentially all residents on the Manhasset-Lakeville Water District; your bill is the final word. The main supplier's most recent 90th-percentile lead result was 1.6 ppb, under the 15 ppb action level; lead usually comes from a home's own pipes and fixtures, so results vary house to house. In EPA's UCMR 5 testing, the main supplier's highest single PFOA/PFOS result was 5.3 parts per trillion. EPA's 4 ppt limits apply as a running annual average starting in 2029, so one high sample is not a violation, but it's the kind of number a carbon filter is sized against. For a leak at the curb or in the street, call your water supplier. For anything on your side of the meter, call us.

Permits.

Munsey Park is an incorporated village, so plumbing permits go through the Village of Munsey Park's building department, not the town.