Proper Plumbing Emergency Plumbers 24/7 GTA647 206 3327

City of St. Catharines: Up To $5,00090% Of Eligible Costs ReimbursedFree On-Site Assessment💳 Financing Available — Cover Your Share Until the Cheque Lands

Flood-Proof Your Basement For As Little As $500

St. Catharines pays 90% of the job, up to $5,000. On a typical $5,000 install — backwater valve, sump system, weeping tile and the plumbing to fit them — that leaves you $500.

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✓ Licensed & insured Ontario plumbers✓ Lifetime workmanship warranty✓ We handle the paperwork with the Coordinator✓ CSA-approved materials only

Book Your Consultation Call

Leave your contact details — we'll call you back, check your home against the FLAP criteria, and walk you through the City's process end to end.

⚡ Apply first, install second — that order is what makes the money claimable.

📞 647 206 3327

Flooding right now? Don't start here. Report it to the City on 905 688 5600 and call your insurance provider straight away. FLAP reimburses work approved in advance — it isn't an emergency route. Sort the flood out first.

Official Government Rebate Program

One program. Ninety per cent.

City of St. Catharines

Flood Alleviation Program (FLAP)

Rebated up to

$5,000

90% of eligible project costs

One program covering the whole job — the backwater valve, the sump system and the weeping tile work that keeps groundwater out of the sanitary sewer. The City pays back nine dollars in ten, up to the cap, so on a typical project your share is the last few hundred dollars.

Costs covered

Normally-open mainline backwater valve
Sump pit and primary sump pump
Backup pump — battery-powered or water-siphon
Weeping tile disconnection and redirection
Related discharge piping
All installation work the approved devices require
Free on-site assessment by the City coordinator

Your home must be a single- or semi-detached residential property inside City limits, built before 2012. Everything runs under a City Plumbing Only permit, which we pull for you, and the cheque is mailed 4–6 weeks after the permit closes.

Official program page — stcatharines.ca

Mainline backwater valve installed in a basement floor

What You'd Actually Pay

Drag the slider to your job size. That's it.

If your job costs$5,000

$1,000$15,000

The City pays you

$4,500

You pay

$500

The City covers 90%. You cover the last 10%.

The City's own examples:

FLAP is a reimbursement: you pay your contractor in full, then the City mails your cheque 4–6 weeks after the permit closes. Ask us about covering that gap on the call. Figures are an estimate — the City confirms your final amount.

What Gets Installed — And Why It Protects Your Home

FLAP funds one connected system, not a shopping list. Each piece covers a different way water gets into a St. Catharines basement.

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Mainline Backwater Valve

90% covered

The anchor of every FLAP application

A normally-open one-way valve fitted on your sanitary lateral, in place of the existing main cleanout. It sits open so the line breathes and rods normally, then snaps shut the moment the City's sewer surcharges — physically blocking sewage from coming back up into your basement.

✓Stops the worst kind of basement flood: sewage backup
✓Normally-open design — the City won't fund normally-closed or exterior valves
✓Every existing exterior building trap has to come out before one goes in

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Sump Pit & Primary Pump

90% covered

Only alongside a backwater valve

A pit cut into your basement floor with a submersible pump inside. It gathers the groundwater your weeping tile collects around the foundation and pushes it out and away from the house, automatically, every time it rains.

✓Gives the weeping tile somewhere to go once it leaves the sanitary sewer
✓Replacing a dead primary pump is eligible if your weeping tile already runs to the pit
✓A standalone sump pump — with no valve — is not funded

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Backup Pump

90% covered

Battery or water-siphon

A second pump that takes over when the power goes out — which, in the storms that cause flooding, is exactly when the primary pump stops. Battery-powered or water-siphon systems both qualify.

✓Storms take out the power and the pump at the same moment
✓Eligible if you have no backup, or the assessor finds the existing one inadequate
✓Hydrostatic sump pump systems are excluded from the program

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Weeping Tile Disconnection

90% covered

Mandatory where one exists

Your foundation drain may still empty into the sanitary lateral — an arrangement that pours groundwater into the sewer during every storm and helps cause the surcharge that floods you. This work cuts that connection and redirects the tile into your new sump pit.

✓Any weeping tile tied to the sanitary lateral must be disconnected to qualify
✓Takes pressure off the sewer for your street, not just your house
✓Discharge piping to carry the water clear of the foundation is covered too

Backwater Valve

Open under normal conditions so the line drains and rods as usual. The moment sewer pressure reverses during a storm, the flap swings shut and blocks sewage from entering the house.

Sump Pump

Sits in a pit beneath the basement floor and takes the groundwater your weeping tile collects once it stops draining into the sanitary sewer, pumping it clear of the foundation.

Why the City Is Handing This Money Out

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The Storms Keep Getting Bigger

FLAP exists because St. Catharines is adapting to a changing climate. Rain events that used to be rare now arrive regularly, and the sanitary system was not built for them.

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Weeping Tile Is Overloading the Sewer

Older homes still drain their foundation tile into the sanitary lateral. Every one of those connections pushes groundwater into a sewer already at capacity — which is what surcharges it and floods basements.

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A Flood Costs Far More Than Your Share

Remediating a flooded basement — mould, flooring, drywall, electrical — runs many times what your 10% share of this work would be. And sewer backup is excluded from most standard policies.

🛡️

Backed For Life

Every installation we carry out carries a lifetime workmanship warranty — our labour, connections, seals and slab work, for as long as you own the home. Equipment carries its manufacturer's warranty on top.

Book a Consultation Call →

How It Works

The City runs an eleven-step process. Here is what it feels like from your side of it.

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Step 1

Apply & Get Assessed

You submit the online intake form. A City Program Coordinator calls to book a free on-site assessment, then gives you a recommended outline of eligible work.

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Step 2

Quote & Permit

You get a quote from a contractor using a licensed plumber. The Coordinator reviews it to confirm the FLAP work is clearly identified, then opens the Plumbing Only permit the job must run under.

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Step 3

Work Gets Done

The install happens: valve, sump system, weeping tile and discharge piping, all under the open permit.

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Step 4

Inspection & Cheque

A City Plumbing Inspector signs off and closes the permit. You hand the final invoice to the Coordinator, and the reimbursement cheque is mailed to you in about four to six weeks.

You hire and pay the contractor — the City does not do that part, and it does not endorse anyone. What the Coordinator does is assess the property, confirm the scope is eligible, open the permit and release the money at the end. Read the City's own program page ↗

Do You Qualify?

Four questions. Ten seconds. No email required.

1.Is your home detached or semi-detached?

2.Was it built before 2012?

3.Is it inside St. Catharines city limits?

4.Has any of this work been done already?

The conditions that catch people out

Nobody knows these about their own house. We check them for you.

!Any weeping tile tied into the sanitary lateral must be disconnected and redirected to a sump pit — not optional
!No existing weeping tile connection to the sanitary sewer means a brand-new sump system is not reimbursable
!Pump replacements — primary or backup — only qualify alongside a backwater valve. Standalone pumps are never funded
!A primary pump replacement needs the old pump to be non-functional and the weeping tile already run to the pit
!Existing exterior building traps have to be removed before a backwater valve goes in

Not sure where your home lands?

We'll go through the criteria with you on the phone before anyone books anything.

Book a Consultation Call →

Home Financing Available

The Cheque Comes After the Work

FLAP is a reimbursement program: you pay your contractor in full, the permit closes, and the City mails your cheque four to six weeks later. We work with home improvement lenders so you can bridge that gap and clear the balance the moment it lands.

✅

Get Approved

Quick pre-approval from a home improvement lender — no home equity required

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Work Gets Done

Permit open, installation complete, City inspection passed

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Cheque Arrives

Mailed to your home address, typically four to six weeks after the permit closes

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Clear the Balance

Use the reimbursement to pay off the loan — you are left with your 10% share