Plumber in Union, NJ

Union's modern form was set in the building booms after the Second World War, when farmland became neighborhoods at remarkable speed. The houses that resulted — capes, splits, ranches and colonials by the thousand — were plumbed to the standards of their day and have now lived long enough to need those systems renewed in the same order they were installed. Union is a township where plumbing ages in cohorts.

Connecticut Farms, the township's historic heart, carries the older layer: settlement-era streets and early-1900s homes with the deep plumbing history that comes with them. Around it, the post-war neighborhoods contribute the volume, and the university district adds its own rhythm of rentals and multi-family conversions near Kean, where systems work harder and turn over faster.

The Elizabeth River crosses the township's south, and its tributaries drain the low neighborhoods along the way — ground that asks its basements the usual river questions about sumps and storms. Union's plumbers split their year between the two Union stories: cohort maintenance in the post-war streets, and river-country vigilance along the southern edge.