Van Franey Plumbing provides a full range of plumbing services to Fort Myers, North Fort Myers and Fort Myers Beach. We take pride in our work and strive to take such good care of your property that you will never know we’ve been there!
Don’t let a clogged toilet or a leaking water heater ruin your day. Van Franey’s dependable plumbers are here to tackle any job and provide first rate service, done right.
What is different about plumbing in Fort Myers
Fort Myers is the oldest city in the area, and its plumbing shows it. Along McGregor Boulevard, in the Edison Park and Dean Park streets, and through Whiskey Creek, Briarcliff and the older parts of Iona, a large share of the homes were built between the 1950s and the 1970s. Those houses sit on a concrete slab with cast iron drain lines buried under it and copper supply lines running through the slab or the walls. Fifty years of Florida groundwater and hot, humid air is about what both materials are good for. Cast iron rusts from the inside and its bottom channels out; copper pits until pinholes open up. Homes from the 1980s and 90s in San Carlos Park, Gateway and the newer Iona subdivisions carry a different set of problems: early CPVC that has gone brittle in the attic, polybutylene supply lines in some, and original water heaters and valves at the end of their life.
Almost everything here is slab construction, so a leak under the floor does not show up in a basement. It shows up as a warm spot on the tile, a water bill that doubled, or the sound of water running when everything is off. Finding it without tearing up the floor takes listening equipment and pressure testing, which is why leak diagnostics is a specialty rather than a guess.
Fort Myers water
A Fort Myers address can be served by the City of Fort Myers utility or by Lee County Utilities, and in recent reports the two do not treat their water the same way. Both draw from aquifer wells and both meet drinking water standards, but depending on the plant, the water at your tap may be reverse osmosis treated and fairly soft, or lime softened and moderately hard. Both report a disinfectant that you can taste and smell. Homes on the river side of McGregor, in Buckingham, and out toward Alva may be on a private well instead. Which water you have decides whether a whole-house carbon filter is enough or whether scale protection belongs ahead of the water heater. If you do not know which utility serves you, your bill says, and we can test hardness and chlorine at the tap during any visit.
Neighborhoods we serve
Our shop is on Topaz Court in Fort Myers, so most of the city is a short drive. We work the McGregor corridor from downtown to the bridge, Iona and the streets along the Caloosahatchee and the bay, Whiskey Creek, Briarcliff, Island Park and the communities off Summerlin and Gladiolus, San Carlos Park, the Daniels Parkway and Gateway area, Buckingham, and out to Alva and the river communities east of I-75. Not sure whether your address is inside our service area? Call and we will tell you.
Seasonal homes and condos
A lot of Fort Myers is empty from May to October. A supply line that lets go in a closed-up house in July can run for weeks before a neighbor or a property manager notices, and the older copper and polybutylene systems in the city are the ones most likely to do it. Before you leave, know where the main shutoff is and use it, turn the water heater to vacation mode or off, and leave a key with someone local. When you come back, walk the house, run every fixture, and check the base of the water heater before you unpack. For riverfront condo buildings and the communities along the bay, we work with associations and their managers on backflow testing, riser leaks, and unit work inside the association rules.
Plumbing services in Fort Myers
The calls we get most from Fort Myers are drains that back up in older homes with cast iron under the slab, slab leaks in 1960s and 70s copper, water heaters that have reached ten or twelve years in a hot garage, toilets that run or rock, and repipes when a house has had its second or third pinhole leak. The full list of what we do:
Our plumbing services include:
- Sewer & Drain Cleaning
- Backflow Prevention Devices
- Leak Diagnostics
- Toilet Repairs & Replacement
- Whole House Water RePipes
- High Velocity Water Jetter
- Video Camera Diagnostics
- Water & Well Pumps
- Faucets, Sinks, Disposals
- Water Heater Installation
What to expect on the visit
A licensed Van Franey plumber arrives in a marked truck with the parts for the common jobs on board. We look at the problem, explain what we found and what the options are, and do the work once you say yes. For an older Fort Myers home with a drain problem, that often means a camera run through the line so you can see the condition of the cast iron for yourself before deciding between cleaning, jetting, or replacement. Work that needs a permit in the City of Fort Myers or Lee County, such as a water heater replacement or a repipe, is pulled and inspected by us. We wear shoe covers, protect the floors, and clean up before we leave.
When to call
Call right away for water you cannot stop, sewage backing up into a tub or shower, no water at all, a water heater leaking from the tank, or the smell of gas near a gas heater. Shut off the main first if you can reach it. Call during the day, without the urgency, for a slow drain, a running toilet, a dripping faucet, low pressure at one fixture, or a water bill that jumped with no explanation. A plumber answers 24/7.
Call Van Franey Plumbing 24/7 service at (239) 851-0207 for emergencies or scheduled plumbing problems in Fort Myers
Learn more before you call
- Buying an older home with cast iron drain lines? Get the sewer line scoped first
- What is in Fort Myers tap water?
- Signs of a slab leak in a Florida home, and what happens next
- Just moved to Southwest Florida? Eight plumbing things that are different here
Common questions from Fort Myers homeowners
My house was built in the 1960s. Do I need to replace the cast iron drains?
Not automatically. A camera inspection shows the actual condition of the pipe. Cast iron that is scaled but intact can be cleaned and left alone; a line with the bottom rusted through or roots coming in is a candidate for lining or replacement, section by section or all at once.
How do I know if I have a slab leak?
A warm patch on the floor, a water bill that jumped, the water meter turning with every fixture off, or the sound of running water in a quiet house. We pressure test the supply lines and use listening equipment to locate the leak before anything is opened.
Do you serve North Fort Myers and Fort Myers Beach from this page?
Yes. Van Franey Plumbing covers Fort Myers, North Fort Myers and Fort Myers Beach from our shop on Topaz Court, along with the rest of Lee County.
Which utility serves my Fort Myers home?
Inside the city limits it is usually the City of Fort Myers; most of unincorporated Fort Myers is Lee County Utilities; some river and eastern properties are on private wells. Your water bill says which. The answer matters for filtration and scale, not safety.