City profiles · British Columbia

Poly B in Prince George: how many homes are affected?

Prince George’s housing stock, read against the years Poly B was installed in Canada.

The 30-second answer

Roughly 30% of Prince George’s 31,790 occupied homes, on the order of 9,537 dwellings, were built in periods overlapping the 1978 to 1998 Poly B installation window. Not every home from those years got Poly B, and plenty have been repiped since, but this is the pool where it lives. The most common construction period in Prince George is 1961 to 1980.

When Prince George was built

1960 or before3,340
1961 to 198016,270
1981 to 19903,505
1991 to 20004,390
2001 to 2005885
2006 to 20101,120
2011 to 2015845
2016 to 20211,435

Occupied private dwellings by period of construction, 2021 Census. Red bars overlap the Poly B era; the 1961 to 1980 bucket only partially overlaps and is weighted accordingly in the percentage above.

The city average hides the street-level story

A city-wide percentage flattens what actually matters: which side of town your house is on. Cities grow in rings and phases, so Prince George contains whole subdivisions built squarely inside the Poly B window alongside districts that predate it entirely. The address checker reads the census build-era data for the immediate area around any Prince George address, which is the sharper question to ask.

How to check a Prince George home

If your home was built or replumbed between 1978 and 1998, look where pipe is visible: unfinished basement ceilings, under sinks, at the hot water tank, and at the main shut-off. Poly B is usually grey, flexible, and stamped PB2110. The identification guide walks through it with photos, and the service line page covers the buried pipe from the street, which can be polybutylene too.

If you find it

Why it fails explains the chemistry, the insurer tracker shows what coverage looks like right now, and the cost guide has honest replacement ranges. Buying or selling in Prince George? The disclosure chapter covers the rules.

Sources for this profile

  1. Statistics Canada, 2021 Census of Population, period of construction of occupied private dwellings, census subdivision level
  2. Statistics Canada, 2021 Census population and dwelling counts

This profile describes Prince George’s housing stock as a whole, never a specific address. Confirmation is always a look at the pipe.

Poly B Canada seal, published by Poly B Plumbing Guys

Published by Poly B Plumbing Guys

This library is maintained by the team that replaces Poly B every day across Alberta and BC. Red Seal certified plumbers, full remove-replace-restore service including drywall and paint, a 25-year warranty, and the completion certificate insurers ask for.

Get your pipes checked →