Drain cleaning for Winter Hill houses on and off BroadwayWinter Hill

Winter Hill is one of the seven hills Somerville is known for, rising to roughly 120 feet north of Medford Street, with McGrath Highway on its east side and Magoun Square to the west ^[1]. Broadway crosses the top of the hill, and the side streets fall away from it in both directions.

The housing is a mix. Some streets keep larger older homes that owners have restored with care, while others are lined with triple-deckers built for working families in the late 1800s and early 1900s ^[1][4]. A triple-decker puts three full flats on top of one another, each with its own kitchen and bathroom stacked over the one below ^[4].

Below grade, a Winter Hill house usually has a stone or brick foundation and a basement that has been used for coal, then oil, then laundry and storage. The building drain crosses that basement and leaves through the front or side wall. Many of these houses have a floor drain in the basement floor, sometimes original and sometimes added when a boiler or washer went in.

Because the hill slopes, houses on the same street can sit at quite different heights relative to the sewer in the road. A house on the uphill side may have plenty of fall to the street; one on the downhill side may have a basement close to or below the level of the main it drains into. That difference matters a great deal when the street sewer is running full.

Most of Somerville drains into a combined sewer, laid between the late 1800s and the early 1900s, in which household wastewater and street runoff travel in the same pipes ^[2]. Most of the time that flow goes to the regional treatment plant at Deer Island. In a large storm, the pipes can fill and overflow, which is what a combined sewer overflow is ^[2][3].

For a Winter Hill household, the practical effect is simple. When the street sewer is full, water in it has a harder time leaving your building drain, and in the worst cases it can push back into the lowest openings in the house. A basement floor drain that only misbehaves during heavy rain is a strong hint that the problem is at least partly in the public system, not just in your pipe.

That does not mean your own line is blameless. A partly blocked building drain or lateral will back up more easily under that pressure, and roots or grease can turn a minor storm-day gurgle into a flooded floor. The usual approach is to clear and, if needed, inspect your own line first; if it is clean and the backups still track the rain, report it to the city through 311.

Somerville's long-term plan for combined sewer overflows aims to eliminate them in a typical year by 2050. Among the projects it lists are a storage tank in Assembly Square and sewer separation in Ten Hills and Winter Hill ^[2]. Separation means building a second set of pipes so that storm runoff and sewage travel apart, which reduces the load on the sanitary line during storms.

Separation is a public project and its timing is the city's to announce, so check Somerville's sewer overflow pages for current information rather than relying on any date you hear second-hand. What a homeowner can do now is make sure their own house is not adding storm water to the sanitary pipe and that the basement is protected.

Some older houses send roof downspouts or a basement stairwell drain into the building sewer. When separation work happens on a street, property connections may come up in conversation, and it helps to know what your house sends where. A contractor with a camera can often trace where a downspout or areaway drain ends up.

A backwater valve is a check valve fitted to the building drain that lets wastewater leave the house but closes when water tries to flow back in ^[6]. In a basement that sits low relative to a combined street sewer, it can stop the street from emptying into the house. It needs to be the right type, in the right place and maintained, because a valve that sticks or fills with debris can cause its own problems.

Installing one involves cutting into the building drain, so in Massachusetts it is plumbing work for a licensed plumber under a permit from the local inspector ^[5]. A drain contractor clearing your line can tell you whether the layout makes a valve practical and point you toward a plumber for the installation.

Simpler steps help too. Keep the basement floor drain clear and its trap filled with water, avoid running laundry in the middle of a big storm, and move valuables off the basement floor near any drain. The guide to a basement floor drain backing up covers what to do in the moment.

Broadway is Winter Hill's main street, with small businesses, restaurants and apartments along it. The Green Line's Gilman Square station opened in December 2022 at the hill's southern edge, bringing rapid transit within walking distance of much of the neighborhood ^[1].

As with other stops on the extension, improved transit has encouraged renovation. When a triple-decker is updated unit by unit, the new kitchens and baths often connect to an old stack in the walls and an old drain in the basement. If you are renovating, a look at the building drain while things are open is time well spent, and the main sewer line cleaning page explains what a full-line clearing involves.

Several side streets off Broadway are steep and narrow, with cars parked on both sides. Tell the contractor on the call whether there is a driveway, how many steps lead down to the basement and whether the cellar is reached from inside or through an outside bulkhead.

In a triple-decker, the basement is often shared and each unit has its own storage. Clear a path to the cleanout and floor drain and let the other households know when the work is happening. If the trouble only comes with storms, say so, and if you can, take a photo or video of the floor drain while it is backing up; it helps the contractor understand what the line is doing.

Some of Winter Hill's larger older houses have been carefully restored, with period details brought back and kitchens and bathrooms modernized. Restoration usually focuses on what people see. The drain under the cellar floor and the lateral under the front yard are easy to overlook until a backup forces the question.

If you are restoring a house here, include the drain in the plan. A camera inspection before the work starts tells you whether the old iron building drain and the lateral are sound, scaled or broken. Replacing a failing section while the basement is open is much less disruptive than doing it after new floors are laid, and it is the right time to add a cleanout in a reachable spot.

Restored houses also tend to gain fixtures: a second or third bathroom, a larger kitchen, a laundry on the upper floor. All of that adds flow to the same exit pipe. Telling the contractor on the call what has been added helps them judge whether the line is simply clogged or is now carrying more than it comfortably can.