Heating, cooling and plumbing in Clifton, inside the town line and out.
Wells and septic on five-acre lots, a pump and haul sewer in the old town, county sewer near Union Mill Road. What we find in 20124 and who signs off.
- Prices in writing, first
- Dedicated HVAC and plumbing teams
- Virginia license #2705192276
Get your price in writing
One ZIP code, three ways of building a house.
Clifton mail covers a railroad town from the 1800s, a ring of big lots the county keeps rural to protect the Occoquan Reservoir, and a band of 1980s subdivisions toward Union Mill Road. Which one you’re in decides the water, the drain and the fuel.
Inside the Town of Clifton, a quarter square mile chartered in 1902, most houses are frame buildings from the decades around 1900, many on stone foundations. The Town’s own plan says they draw from private wells, and anything not tied into the county’s old pump and haul lines drains to a septic field. That plan counts more than half the town on electric heat, with many of the rest burning oil or gas from their own tanks.
Out along Clifton, Compton and Yates Ford Roads, Fairfax County plans for one house per five to ten acres and keeps public sewer out of the Occoquan watershed, and the Town’s plan says the county rezoned it in the 1980s with no public water planned either. So it’s a well and a septic system. In the Census tract that takes in the town and this land, about half the owner homes heat with electricity, one in ten with oil and one in ten with propane, against under two in a hundred for each across Fairfax County.
Around Springstone Drive, toward Union Mill Road, the houses are 1980s subdivisions on county sewer, about nine in ten built in that one decade, and about 85 percent of their owners heat with natural gas. Across all of 20124, six in ten homes have nine rooms or more, more than twice the county’s share, so a second system and long duct runs come up often.
Heat pumps, gas and propane, two teams, one call.
A dedicated HVAC team and a dedicated plumbing team, out of our shop in Chantilly.
Heating
The first question is what burns: a heat pump with backup strips, a propane or natural gas furnace, or an oil burner with a tank outside. We work on all of them but the oil burner, and switching off oil is ours to price. Our Clifton furnace repair page prices the common no-heat repairs, and our guide to heating on propane and wells covers what an outage does to each.
Cooling
Where the heat is a heat pump, the outdoor unit works all year, so a July repair is also January’s heat. Capacitors, contactors and condensate drains are priced on our Clifton AC repair page, and duct cleaning and dryer vent cleaning each have a page of their own.
Plumbing
Two questions come first here: well or Fairfax Water, septic or sewer. Nearly eight in ten Clifton homes were built from 1980 to 1999, the polybutylene years, so a plumber should look at the supply pipe by the water heater before pricing a repair.
The same price book on a five-acre lot.
Our prices don’t change with the lot, the fuel or the town line, and you get the number in writing before any work starts.
- AC run capacitor replaced$240 to $370
- Refrigerant topped up$190 to $740
- Condensate drain cleared$175 to $420
- Repair diagnostic visitabout $99
- Drain cleaning, one fixture$200 to $800
- Main sewer line cleaning$850 to $1,650
- Leak detection$200 to $500
- Pressure reducing valve replacement$500 to $1,000
- Water heater, tank, installed$2,757 to $7,494
The figures come from the price book behind our plumbing page and our AC repair page. For a water heater, gas, propane or electric, the water heater estimator prices yours with the permit counted.
Pricing a new heat pump, furnace or air conditioner? The HVAC estimator gives the installed range for your house size before anybody comes out.
The Town signs first, then Fairfax County issues the permit.
Your water
Inside the town and across the big lots it’s usually your own well: the Town’s plan says its houses draw from private wells, and the county Health Department asks well owners to test every year. If your bill comes from Fairfax Water, its 2025 readings ran 3.0 to 10.8 grains per gallon by plant and month.
Reports: Fairfax Water, 3 to 10.8 gpg.
Your permit office
Fairfax County issues and inspects every permit in 20124. Inside the town line the Town comes first: it doesn’t inspect plumbing or wiring, but the county won’t move an application without the Town’s sign-off, and any change to the outside of a house needs the Architectural Review Board’s certificate. A gas, propane or oil furnace or water heater swap takes a permit even like for like.
Permit pages: Fairfax County.
Sewer, septic or pump and haul
On county sewer, around Springstone Drive and Union Mill Road, you own the lateral all the way to the main. On the big lots the county plan keeps public sewer out, so it’s a septic tank the county wants pumped every five years. In the old town, properties on the county’s pump and haul lines empty into a vault at the end of Chapel Street that gets trucked away; everyone else there is on septic.
Sources: Fairfax County Code 65-6-5 and the county plan for the Clifton sector and the Town of Clifton’s plan.
What our customers say.
Moises and his team were excellent. They were professional and courteous, the heat pump system is running well, and the house is clean. We’d like to work with them any time.
Eddie came out to clean a condensate line and inspect the units. He was knowledgeable and explained everything clearly for me. Pointed out some things to consider and didn’t try to over sell anything.
SwiftPro delivered and installed a 75 gallon AO Smith water heater. Zabi was very professional in his communication, plumbing, testing, and cleanup. Good crew to move new heater to basement utility room and take out the old heater.
5.0 stars across 884 Google reviews. Read them on our reviews page.
Voted a Nextdoor Neighborhood Faves winner two years running: 2026 in 30 Northern Virginia neighborhoods, 2025 in Emerald Chase (Herndon) and Hunters Run (Chantilly).
Listed in both the HVAC and Plumbing categories of Northern Virginia Magazine’s Best Home Experts directory, which is exactly how we’re built: a dedicated HVAC team and a dedicated plumbing team.
All of 20124, town, acreage and subdivision.
Inside the town: Main Street, Chapel Road, Water Street and Clifton Heights Lane. Outside it: the acreage on Clifton, Compton and Yates Ford Roads, and the subdivisions around Springstone Drive and Union Mill Road. Next door:
Clifton questions.
Is Clifton on public water and sewer?
Only in parts. The 1980s subdivisions around Springstone Drive drain to county sewer. The big lots along Clifton, Compton and Yates Ford Roads were rezoned in the 1980s with no public water or sewer planned, so they run on wells and septic. Inside the Town of Clifton, houses draw from private wells, and the ones not on the county’s pump and haul lines use septic.
Who issues building permits inside the Town of Clifton?
Fairfax County issues and inspects them, but the Town signs off first. The Town doesn’t inspect inside work like plumbing or electrical, yet the county won’t take the application until the Town’s approval is attached, and any change to the outside of a house in the historic district needs a certificate of appropriateness from the Architectural Review Board.
My Clifton house heats with oil. What should I keep an eye on?
The tank, especially on a well: Fairfax County’s Health Department names leaking fuel oil tanks among the ways well water gets contaminated. Oil heats about one owner home in ten in the Census tract around the town, against fewer than two in a hundred countywide. When the burner reaches the end, the usual next quote is a heat pump or a propane furnace, and the HVAC estimator gives that number first.
Does SwiftPro work on houses with a well?
Yes, on everything inside the house: the water heater, the pipes and fixtures, and the drains out to the septic tank. The well itself, its pump and casing, is a job for a licensed well contractor. Fairfax County’s Health Department asks well owners to test the water every year and to check that any softener, neutralizer or UV light is still working.
Which power company serves Clifton?
NOVEC, at nearly every Clifton address we checked on Fairfax County’s service area map, the town included; the one Dominion address in our check was Centreville High School on Union Mill Road. A repair is the same job either way, but the utility sets your electric rate and any rebate on a new heat pump.
Town, acreage or subdivision, call us.
Tell us your road and whether you’re on a well and septic. We’ll say what’s typical for houses like yours, what it usually costs, and when we can be there.
SwiftPro Heating, Cooling & Plumbing is a licensed, BBB Accredited (A rating), independently owned heating, cooling and plumbing company serving Northern Virginia, including Clifton, Centreville, Fairfax Station and Fairfax. SwiftPro holds Virginia contractor license #2705192276, is a Trane Comfort Specialist, Rheem Pro Partner and Mitsubishi Diamond Contractor, holds 5.0 stars across 884 Google reviews, was voted a Nextdoor Neighborhood Faves winner two years running, for 2026 in 30 Northern Virginia neighborhoods and for 2025 in Emerald Chase (Herndon) and Hunters Run (Chantilly), and is listed in both the HVAC and Plumbing categories of Northern Virginia Magazine’s Best Home Experts directory. SwiftPro maintains a dedicated HVAC team and a dedicated plumbing team. More at goswiftpro.com.
In Clifton, SwiftPro repairs and replaces furnaces, heat pumps, air conditioners and ductless mini-splits, cleans air ducts and dryer vents, and handles plumbing from drains and leaks to water heaters, inside the town line and across 20124.
SwiftPro Heating, Cooling & Plumbing, 4230 Lafayette Center Dr, Suite N, Chantilly, VA 20151, (703) 997-9757. Every town we serve is on the town-by-town guide.