FOUR40 installs sump pumps, battery backups and backwater valves across the GTA with a licensed plumber, permit and inspection — and helps you claim the municipal flood-protection subsidy. Free on-site estimates.
What's included
Escape of water is the leading cause of residential insurance claims in Canada, and a flooded basement is a six-figure event once contents and remediation are counted. It is also one of the few problems a municipality will help pay to prevent.
The backup battery is the cheap part and the reason the rest works.
Do not let anyone cover it before the City inspects — it voids the subsidy.
Up to $6,650 per property in Toronto, at 80% of invoiced cost.
What it costs
We publish real numbers rather than "it depends" — but only once they're ours to publish. Our written ranges are being finalised; call and we'll give you one over the phone in a minute. What moves the number:
Working with us
We measure, check drainage and grade, and talk through what you actually want. Free, and no pressure to sign anything.
Scope, materials, base depth and price in writing. You'll know exactly what's included before a shovel moves.
Ontario One Call locates booked, materials ordered, start date confirmed. A realistic window, not an optimistic one.
Excavation, base, compaction, install. Site cleaned at the end of each day — you still have to live there.
We walk it together before final payment. Anything on your list gets fixed, then we're back if settling shows up.
Questions
They solve two different floods. A sump pump deals with groundwater — water in the soil around your foundation collects in the weeping tile, runs to a pit, and the pump lifts it out to your yard. A backwater valve deals with sewage — when the municipal sewer surcharges in a storm, the valve's flap closes and stops the street's sewage coming back up your basement drains.
Neither one does the other's job. A house with a perfect sump pump can still take sewage back through the floor drain, and a backwater valve does nothing about groundwater seeping in. Which one you need — often both — depends on how your basement actually floods.
Yes, and in Toronto it is substantial. The City's Basement Flooding Protection Subsidy Program covers up to 80% of invoiced cost, to a maximum of $1,600 per backwater valve (up to two), $2,250 for a sump pump plus $300 for a battery backup, and $400 for pipe severance and capping — up to $6,650 per property in total.
The conditions catch people out. Your eavestrough downspouts must be disconnected from the City sewer, the contractor needs a valid Toronto business licence, a building permit is required for a backwater valve, and the valve must not be covered before the inspection. Applications run first-come first-served against annual Council funding, and you have two years from installation to apply. Several other GTA municipalities run their own programs on different terms — we check yours before quoting.
A licensed plumber. Plumbing is a compulsory trade in Ontario and a backwater valve sits on the building drain, which means a permit and an inspection. We handle the concrete cutting, excavation, reinstatement, and the finished floor afterwards; the plumbing connection and certification is done by the licensed trade, named before you sign.
To grade, well away from the foundation — never into the sanitary sewer, which is prohibited in most GTA municipalities and is part of what surcharges the system in the first place. That discharge line also has to be run so it does not freeze solid in January and back the pump up, which is the single most common failure we find on existing installs.
Consider when basements flood: during severe storms, which is also when the power goes out. A sump pump without a backup runs on exactly the electricity the storm just took away. The battery backup is the cheapest part of the system and the reason the rest of it works when it matters.
No, and we will say so rather than sell you a pump. Water coming through a crack in the wall is a foundation problem, not a drainage problem. We repair foundation cracks, and where the honest answer is full exterior waterproofing or underpinning we refer it to a specialist who carries their own warranty for that work.
Service area
Close enough to come back if something needs attention — which matters more than it sounds.
Elsewhere in the GTA? Call and ask — we travel for the right project.
Related
Free estimate
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