A 1961 retirement-era build
Because the city drew snowbirds looking to retire somewhere warm, it filled up with one-story homes and low-slung condo buildings instead of a broader mix of housing types.
Broward County · dispatched from Boca Raton
Emergency plumbing in Lauderdale Lakes, on Broward County water behind 1960s-era pipe
Call in, and dispatch notes your address, walks you through locating the shut-off without hanging up, and routes a plumber who already knows this water bill goes to the county, not city hall.
Who actually supplies the water in Lauderdale Lakes?
The county handles it, not city hall. Broward County Water and Wastewater Services delivers drinking water here and even staffs a customer service office inside Lauderdale Lakes. That is not universal nearby: Lauderhill, next door, treats and delivers its own water instead of buying from the county.
There is also what is buried beneath the streets. Lauderdale Lakes incorporated in 1961, drawing snowbirds who wanted a warm place to retire, and that wave explains the city’s many one-story homes and low-slung condo buildings, most raised from a handful of repeated blueprints within a tight window of years.
Who lives here now looks nothing like who moved in originally. Over the final decades of the twentieth century the community shifted to become mostly Caribbean and African American, and by 2018 it held the second-largest concentration of Jamaican residents of any place in the country. Residents have turned over entirely; the pipe beneath each slab is still the one laid down in the 1960s.
Two governments, one city
Dense, small, and mostly one decade
Packed into just 3.68 square miles, the city holds an estimated 36,000 residents, with nearly every structure dating back to the 1960s building boom.
The residents changed; the housing didn’t
The community shifted to become mostly Caribbean and African American over the final decades of the twentieth century, and by 2018 it carried the second-largest share of Jamaican residents anywhere in the country, a change in who lives here rather than in what sits under the slab.
One of Broward’s denser cities
With an estimated 36,000 residents packed into 3.68 square miles, service lines run short from house to main, and connections crowd close together underground.
County water, not city water
Broward County Water and Wastewater Services delivers directly to the city and keeps a customer service office on-site, rather than routing that role through a municipal utility.
Every neighbor does it differently
Lauderhill treats its own water, Oakland Park buys in from Fort Lauderdale, and Tamarac runs its own plant too, so four adjoining cities end up with four completely separate arrangements.
What six decades produce
Three calls, one dense 1960s build
What a compact retirement-era city produces six decades on.
A drain that clogs on a schedule
Homes from the original wave sit on cast iron drain pipe, and rust eats at it from the inside until the bore turns rough and begins snagging what should just flow through. A snake clears it for a while, but the underlying pipe keeps causing the problem.
Ask for a camera before a third clearing.
Cast iron replacementIn a condo, a shared stack rather than your line
In the low-rise condominium sections, several units backing up at the same time usually points to the shared stack, which belongs to the association rather than any single owner. Sorting that out first keeps the right party paying for the right pipe.
Stop running water and notify the building.
Sewer camera inspectionA boundary question with a county answer
Here, the main beneath the street belongs to Broward County rather than city hall. Sorting out which side of the property line a fault falls on, before you dial anyone, keeps you from reaching an office that has nothing to do with that pipe.
Get the boundary confirmed first.
Sewer line repairOne city, several parts
A small, dense city, section by section
Barely four square miles across, so what shifts from block to block is mostly the kind of building sitting on top of the pipe.
The 1960s retirement streets
One-story houses raised for snowbirds after the 1961 incorporation, all cast iron era construction, laid out on a handful of repeated floor plans, so the pipe underneath repeats from house to house as well.
The low-rise condominium sections
Here a backup more often traces back to a stack shared by several units than to any one owner’s line, so figuring out who is on the hook, the resident or the association, comes before any wall gets opened.
The Lauderhill and Oakland Park edges
Right where Lauderdale Lakes borders cities running entirely different setups: one treats its own supply, another buys it in from Fort Lauderdale, and this city draws from the county instead.
Who owns what
Permits, water and sewer in Lauderdale Lakes
The city issues the permit; the county owns the pipe.
- Water
- Broward County Water and Wastewater ServicesThe county handles it, not the city. Broward keeps a dedicated customer service office right inside Lauderdale Lakes.
- Sewer
- Broward County Water and Wastewater ServicesThe same county utility handles both water and sewer.
- Permits
- City of Lauderdale Lakes building departmentThe permit stays municipal even though the main in the street doesn’t belong to the city.
- Next door
- Four cities, four arrangementsLauderhill treats its own supply, Oakland Park buys in from Fort Lauderdale, Tamarac runs a plant of its own, and Lauderdale Lakes draws from the county instead.
Reviews
What customers say about us on Google
Quoted straight from the company’s Google Business Profile, with each reviewer’s public name.
5.041 Google reviews
41of the 41 reviews captured from the profile are five stars, and none is below five.
Read straight from the Google Business Profile on August 26, 2026. Counted, not estimated.
Open the Google profileWhen we attempted to turn off the toilet supply valve, it began leaking. Even as he was checking the toilet connection, the plumber was replacing the valve. Never gets wet, and it works like a charm with the new shutdown.
There was a backup in the bathroom downstairs right before weekend guests came. The professional got there earlier than planned and got rid of the blockage without making a mess. …
We had hammering noises in the pipes every time someone used hot water. The plumber secured loose sections and installed proper supports to stop the vibration. House is finally quiet again.
Questions
Lauderdale Lakes, water and all
Do I call the city or the county about my water?
The county. Broward County Water and Wastewater Services is the supplier for this city, and a walk-in county customer service desk sits inside Lauderdale Lakes itself. City hall’s role stops at building permits, which surprises people, since the cities next door tend to split those duties the opposite way.
My neighbor had the exact same drain problem. Is that relevant?
Usually, yes. Most of the city went up in a compressed span of years off a small set of repeated blueprints, so pipe routing, fixture placement and the connecting laterals often match from one house to the next. Trouble at your neighbor’s place two doors down is a fair hint at what your own floor is hiding.
I’m in a condo. Who fixes a backup?
It depends whether the fault sits on your line or the building’s. When several units back up at once, the shared stack is almost always to blame, and that falls under the association’s responsibility; confirming that before anything gets opened keeps you from paying for someone else’s pipe.
What age is the pipe running through a typical home around here?
For the original housing stock, it dates to the 1960s: cast iron drain lines rated for forty to fifty years of service. Florida conditions often cut that down to twenty-five or thirty years instead, so most of what’s out there has outlived both estimates.
Around Lauderdale Lakes
The cities that border Lauderdale Lakes
Four neighbors, four separate water utilities.
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