A plumber in Arlington.
Plumbers for Arlington’s 1920s houses, garden apartments and condo towers: leaks, drains, sewer lines and water heaters, priced before the work.
Drain cleaning for one fixture is $200 to $800 and toilet repair is $250 to $900, from our published price list.
- Prices in writing, first
- Camera before any dig
- Dedicated plumbing team
Get your plumbing job priced
In Arlington, the County checks its sewer main before you pay anyone.
By the Census, Arlington’s owner-occupied homes are the oldest of any county or city in Northern Virginia, the median one built in 1960, and the historic districts in Lyon Park, Cherrydale, Penrose and Maywood date from the 1880s into the 1950s. Expect galvanized steel somewhere in the supply of a house that age and cast iron under the basement slab, with newer copper or PEX wherever somebody has already opened a wall.
When a drain backs up here, the first call is the County’s, not ours. Arlington checks its own main and clears it at no charge if the blockage is there, so you only pay a plumber once you know the problem is on your side, somewhere in the lateral between the house and the street. That’s when a camera down the line earns its keep.
Heavy rain is the other Arlington backup, for the old-drain reason the County gives below, and Arlington’s rain comes hard. The Weather Service logged Columbia Pike at South Greenbrier Street closed by high water in September 2021, August 2023 and June 2025, and a July 2023 storm needed rescue boats at South Joyce Street and Army Navy Drive. If a floor drain bubbled or the basement got wet in one of those, call us once the rain stops: the floor drains, the lateral, the sump pump and the water heater all get a look, and any repair is priced before it starts.
We do more work through landlords and property managers in Arlington than in almost any other town, so condo buildings, tenant scheduling and access rules are routine for us there. One Arlington wrinkle for owners: a tenant who applies for a plumbing permit needs a letter from the owner, not the management company, and an owner can hold a residential permit on just one address every two years.
Arlington houses, by the numbers
From the Census Bureau’s 2020 to 2024 survey. Median year built and heat count owner-occupied homes only.
Arlington
- Median home built1960 Census
- Built before 1980about 5 in 10 Census
- Built since 2000about 3 in 10 Census
- Most homes arecondo and apartment buildings, about 6 in 10 Census
- Heated withgas, about 6 in 10 Census
- Rentedabout 6 in 10 Census
- Houses from before 1960 were plumbed in galvanized steel, which narrows with rust from the inside until the pressure goes.
- Houses built before 1980 mostly drain through cast iron, which rusts through along the bottom of the pipe.
What a plumber costs in Arlington.
The same list as our plumbing page, every line a range because the house decides where it lands. You get the number before the work starts.
- Drain cleaning, one fixture$200 to $800
- Main sewer line cleaning$550 to $1,650
- Sewer camera inspection, added to a visit$89
- Leak detection$200 to $500
- Toilet repair$250 to $900
- Pressure reducing valve replacement$500 to $1,000
- Water heater replacement$2,757 to $10,486
A sewer camera inspection is $89 added to a visit we’re already making. It’s the cheapest way to know what a drain is doing before anybody talks about digging.
With Comfort+ membership, any service is 15% off, and a water heater flush with a sewer camera inspection and a plumbing safety inspection comes every year.
What a plumbing problem in Arlington usually looks like.
The basement drain bubbles in a downpour
If a floor drain gurgles or overflows in heavy rain and behaves the rest of the year, rainwater is getting into the sewer, maybe from a foundation drain tied in before the 1960s. A camera down the lateral is how you find where.
Pressure that drops a little every year
Galvanized steel supply pipe rusts from the inside, so the pressure falls slowly until a shower upstairs is a trickle. The fix is new pipe, not a new faucet.
A sewer smell you can’t place
Old cast iron drain pipe rusts through along the bottom where the water sits. A smell with no source, or a basement floor drain that backs up, is the usual sign, and the camera tells you for sure.
Water where it shouldn’t be
A damp patch on a ceiling, a warm spot on the floor, a meter that keeps ticking with every tap off. A slow leak inside a wall does most of its damage before it ever shows itself.
After a storm in Arlington, check the basement drains.
Heavy rain finds the weak spots in a house’s plumbing. Four checks you can make yourself, then call us and we’ll look at the rest.
Water coming up a floor drain?
Clear water with no smell is usually groundwater. Gray water, or a sewer smell, means the main line is backing up: stop running water in the house and call us.
Drains slow or gurgling since the rain?
A main line with a cracked joint or roots in it can take in groundwater during a storm and slow down. A sewer camera inspection, $89 added to a visit, shows where.
Is the sump pump running?
If the house has one, watch it once: it should start as the pit fills, empty it and shut off. Our sump pump replacement page has the rest of the checks.
Did water reach the water heater?
If floodwater got to a gas water heater’s burner or controls, leave it off. Don’t relight it until a plumber has checked it.
Call us after a storm and we’ll check it all: the floor drains, the main line, the sump pump and the water heater. Any repair gets its price in writing before the work starts.
Who owns what under the street in Arlington.
Arlington County
The sanitary lateral, from the house to the County’s sewer main, is the property owner’s to build and maintain. Before calling a plumber about a backup, Arlington asks you to call its sewer line, 703-228-6555: crews check the main and clear a blockage there at no charge, and if the main is flowing, the problem is in your line. Source.
For homes in flood-prone areas that have had sewage back up, the County suggests a backflow preventer valve on the private lateral, put in by a licensed plumber, and warns that a valve left without maintenance can fail and cause a backup itself. Source.
Arlington’s storm and sanitary sewers are separate pipes, but until the 1960s foundation and area drains were allowed to connect to the sanitary side. In a heavy rain, that water can overload the sewer and push it back into homes. Source.
How to pick the best plumber in Arlington.
Questions worth asking anybody who comes out, us included.
If the lateral runs under the street, can they get the permit to dig?
Digging in Arlington’s right-of-way takes a County excavation permit, and the County issues it only to a Virginia Class A, B or C contractor with an Arlington business license. Ask before anyone quotes you a dig.
Is the plumber licensed in Virginia?
Anyone can check on the state’s license lookup in about a minute. It’s the one question that takes the guesswork out of the rest.
Will they put a camera in before they talk about digging?
A sewer camera inspection is cheap next to any dig, and it shows whether the problem is a root, a sag or a break. A quote to dig without one is a guess.
Do you get the price before the work?
Every plumbing job on our list has a range. A plumber who won’t say where yours lands until the wall’s open is asking for a blank check.
What our customers say.
Alex arrived on time and after some time he explained the situation regarding the low flow faucet and fixed the problem. Very professional. I would call on him and the company again for my plumbing repairs.
5.0 stars across 884 Google reviews. Read them on our reviews page.
Plumbing questions from Arlington.
Can you tell whether a foundation drain is tied into my sewer?
Often, yes. A camera down the lateral shows any side pipe joining it between the house and the street, and running water into a suspect drain while the camera is in tells us whether that’s the one. Then you know what you’re dealing with before anybody talks about digging.
Is Arlington’s water hard on pipes and fixtures?
It’s hard water by the usual scale: 142 milligrams per liter on the County’s 2025 average, about 8.3 grains per gallon, Potomac water treated at the Army Corps of Engineers’ Washington Aqueduct. That leaves white scale on aerators and showerheads and sediment in a water heater, which is what the yearly flush is for.
How much does a plumber cost in Arlington?
It depends on the job, and every one has a published range: drain cleaning for one fixture $200 to $800, main sewer line cleaning $550 to $1,650, leak detection $200 to $500, a pressure reducing valve replacement $500 to $1,000, toilet repair $250 to $900. A sewer camera inspection added to a visit is $89.
Plumbers in the towns next door.
- Plumbing in Falls Church
- Plumbing in Alexandria
- Plumbing in Annandale
- Plumbing in McLean
- Plumbing in Vienna
More from SwiftPro in Arlington
Tell us what the water is doing.
Call, or book online and pick a window. You get the price before the work, and if it can wait, we’ll tell you that too.
SwiftPro Heating, Cooling & Plumbing is a licensed, BBB Accredited (A rating), independently owned heating, cooling and plumbing company in Chantilly, serving Arlington and the rest of Northern Virginia. Virginia contractor license #2705192276. 5.0 stars across 884 Google reviews. SwiftPro maintains a dedicated HVAC team and a dedicated plumbing team.
SwiftPro Heating, Cooling & Plumbing, 4230 Lafayette Center Dr, Suite N, Chantilly, VA 20151, (703) 997-9757. Book online, read our reviews, or see every town we serve.