Does your old Toronto house have a lead water pipe? 13,664 still do
The City has replaced most of its lead water services, but roughly 13,664 public-side lines are left — and the private side is on you. Here's how to check an address, and why September is the month to start.
Toronto has about 437,000 residential water service connections. Back in 2007 the City figured roughly 65,000 of them had a City-owned lead pipe. By the end of 2025 that estimate was down to about 13,664.
That's real progress. It's also still 13,664 houses — and the number only counts the City's half of the pipe.
The pipe has two owners
The water service runs from the watermain under the street to your tap, and it changes hands at the property line:
- Street to property line — the City owns it and pays to replace it.
- Property line into the house — you own it, and you pay.
The City has been steadily retiring its side through watermain work and road reconstruction, but a partial replacement leaves lead in the ground on the private side. Toronto Public Health's position is that both halves should come out at the same time wherever possible.
Who's likely to have one
Lead water service pipes show up in homes built before the mid-1950s. Lead also turns up in solder used before 1990 and in leaded-brass faucets and valves, which is a separate problem from the service line and won't be fixed by replacing it.
Three ways to check an address:
- Look at the pipe. Where it enters the basement near the water meter: if it's dull grey, scratches easily with a key, and doesn't ring hollow when you tap it, suspect lead.
- Call 311 and ask staff to check City records for the address. Budget up to 30 business days — start this before you're in a bidding war, not after.
- Get a licensed plumber to confirm it. They'll want to see the pipe at the meter.
Free lead testing is available to anyone in a pre-mid-1950s home. It tells you what's coming out of the tap today — useful, but not the same as knowing what the pipe is made of.
What the record can tell you
A water service replacement is plumbing work, and plumbing work is usually permitted work. Pull the permit history for the address and look for a plumbing or water service permit — our guide to reading a Toronto building permit explains the status fields. No permit isn't proof of lead, but on a 1920s semi with no plumbing work on file, the odds go up. The neighbourhood profile is a useful sanity check too: much of the old City of Toronto is pre-1960 stock, while most of Scarborough and North York went up well after the lead era.
Why September
The Priority Lead Water Service Replacement Program works one way: you commit to replacing your side, and the City replaces its side on a priority basis. Applications take about two weeks to process, and once approved the City aims to finish its portion within 12 weeks. Accepted applicants get a free faucet filter in the mail while they wait.
Start from late August and you land inside the fall window, which matters: sod and seeding are only laid during growing season, April to June and September to October. Apply in November and your front lawn is a mud patch until spring. (Permanent concrete and asphalt restoration is a longer wait either way — 18 to 24 months.)
Few people use this route. The Priority program accounted for just 206 replacements in 2025, down from 667 in 2020. Most lead removal now happens incidentally, when the City is digging up your street anyway.
Before you buy
- Ask the seller whether the water service is lead, and whether either side was replaced.
- Run the property snapshot for permits and enforcement history in one view.
- Price the private-side replacement into your offer on any pre-1955 house.
- If you're renting, ask the landlord — and ask for the free test kit.
None of this is an emergency. Toronto has added phosphate to the drinking water since December 2014 to coat the inside of pipes, and it worked: in 2008, 52% of tested homes exceeded 10 parts per billion of lead; in 2025, none of the 29 homes and businesses tested exceeded 10 ppb. But corrosion control is a treatment, not a cure, and Health Canada's recommended limit dropped to 5 ppb in 2019. Taking the pipe out is the permanent version.
Monitor the address if you want new permits and orders to land in your inbox.
Service connection counts, replacement figures and test results are from the City of Toronto's 2025 Annual Report on the Lead in Drinking Water Mitigation Strategy and the Priority Lead Water Service Replacement Program page. This is general information, not health or legal advice.