Water Treatment in Kingston, NY

Kingston's water arrives soft, which surprises people who moved here from a well. The problems in city water are usually what the water picks up on the way through the building, and what the treatment is actually meant to solve.

Soft water does not mean clean pipes

Catskill surface water is low in the minerals that make water hard, so a softener is often the wrong purchase in the city. What comes out of the tap can still carry rust, sediment and the taste of ageing plumbing. The right starting point is a water test, not a product. Test first, then treat what the test actually shows.

Whole-house filtration versus a filter on the tap

A point-of-use filter handles drinking water at the kitchen sink. It does nothing for the water going into the water heater, the washing machine or the shower. If the complaint is staining, sediment or taste throughout the house, the answer is a whole-house filter sized to the flow of the building, changed on a schedule, not a cartridge screwed onto one faucet and forgotten.

What is different about homes in Kingston

• Much of Kingston's housing stock dates to the late 19th and early 20th centuries, especially in Midtown and along the Rondout.
• The Stockade is the site of the original 1658 Dutch settlement and holds some of the state's oldest continuously occupied homes.
• City water comes from a protected Catskill watershed, so the supply is soft surface water — but aging interior plumbing still causes trouble.
• Uptown, Midtown, and the Rondout sit at different elevations, so water pressure and drainage behave differently block to block.
• Frost depth in the mid-Hudson Valley runs roughly 42 to 48 inches — deep enough to reach buried water and sewer lines.
• Many older homes still heat with cast-iron radiators and older boilers rather than modern forced-air systems.

Areas we cover: Uptown / Stockade Midtown Rondout Ponckhockie Wilbur East Kingston Eddyville Sawkill Town of Kingston Kingston Waterfront