Plumber in the Northside and Stockyards, Fort Worth, TX

How old Northside housing really is

The Northside grew up with the stockyards. Stockyard officials incorporated North Fort Worth in 1902, the year two national meatpackers agreed to build plants beside the yards, and Fort Worth annexed the town in 1909. Rosen Heights grew up in the same years. The big packing plants closed in 1962 and 1971.

In ZIP 76164, home to the 1930s North Side High School building on McKinley Avenue, nearly half of the homes went up before 1940 and the median year built is 1942. ZIP 76106, which takes in Diamond Hill, is younger (median 1973), with a big 1950s layer and many houses built since 2000.

What breaks in houses this age

• Old supply pipe. Galvanized steel narrows with rust until the shower barely runs. If Fort Worth Water wrote that your service line is galvanized and needs replacing, the meter-to-house stretch is yours. See repiping and new water lines.
• Clay and cast-iron sewers. Roots and settling crack the joints. If drains keep backing up, a camera tells us whether cleaning will last or the pipe needs sewer line repair.
• Raised floors. Many older houses sit on pier-and-beam foundations, where pipes are easy to reach but open to cold air; see frozen pipes.
• Aging gas piping. Threaded steel lines and old connectors can seep. If Atmos Energy tags your meter, the piping must be repaired and pass a test before gas returns. See our red tag guide.

Restaurants, bars and shops in the Stockyards

The Fort Worth Stockyards Historic District joined the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. Today steakhouses, barbecue spots, saloons and western-wear stores fill the blocks around Exchange Avenue and North Main Street.

• Gas for cooking lines: piping for ranges, fryers, smokers and water heaters. See restaurant gas line installation.
• Grease: the city requires a complete grease trap pump-out at least every 90 days by a city-permitted hauler. We don't pump; we install and repair traps and interceptors and jet the lines feeding them. See grease trap service.
• Hot water: repair and replacement of commercial water heaters that feed dish machines and hand sinks.

Fort Worth adopted the Stockyards form-based code district in May 2017. Its almost 300 acres take in the historic yards, the Marine Creek area, the old meatpacking plant sites and parts of the North Side and Diamond Hill-Jarvis neighborhoods. Each zone has design standards, so check with the city before a job changes a building's exterior. More on commercial plumbing.

The June 2026 Northside boil notice

On Monday, June 15, 2026, Fort Worth issued a state-required boil water notice after a 24-inch transmission main ruptured and pressure in the Northside 2 pressure plane fell below regulatory minimums. It covered a Northside zone west of Angle Avenue and a zone of Fort Worth homes along the shore of Lake Worth, south of I-820.

If your home was in the zone and you never flushed it afterward, run each cold tap for a few minutes, change the refrigerator filter and any under-sink cartridge, and drain a few gallons from the bottom of the water heater to clear sediment. A tank that rumbles or leaks may need water heater repair.

When it can't wait

A burst line, sewage coming up a floor drain, a gas smell or water you can't shut off: call (817) 755-5621 at any hour and we send our on-call plumber right away. If you smell gas, get out without touching switches, call 911 or Atmos Energy from outside, then call us. For water, close the main water shut-off if you can. Anything less urgent gets booked at a time that suits you. See emergency plumbing and burst pipe steps.

Northside and Stockyards questions

Call your Northside plumber

Call (817) 755-5621. First-time customers save $50. Seniors, military members and first responders save 10%. A repair comes with a $0 dispatch fee, and a new water heater with $150 off. Terms: coupons. See also our Fort Worth page and service areas.