Sump pump replacement in Clifton.
Sump pump replacement in Clifton: $697 installed in your existing pit. A new pit, a battery backup, outside drain work or new wiring is extra.
- Cast iron pump, quiet check valve
- Extras priced in writing first
- Dedicated plumbing team
Book your sump pump replacement
Clifton ground that holds water, from the Springstone clays to the creek bottom in town.
Around Springstone Drive the ground is the reason to keep a good pump in the pit. On Fairfax County’s soil map, about three quarters of the land in the Census tract that holds those subdivisions is soil the county’s soil guide rates poor for drainage around yards, crawl spaces and basements. Much of it is what the guide calls Hattontown, clay-heavy ground that was mixed, graded and compacted as the houses went in, and that lets water through slowly.
Where the original Orange and Kelly soils remain, the guide puts a perched water table a foot and a half to two and a half feet down and calls for foundation drains and waterproofing to keep basements dry. Those drains usually empty into the sump pit. Nine in ten homes in that tract went up in the 1980s, so the pump in that pit today is almost surely not the builder’s.
Inside the Town of Clifton, the Town’s own plan rates about a fifth of its land, the Meadowville and Glenville silt loams, not suited for basements because of a high water table, and close to another quarter is Chewacla soil along the Popes Head Creek floodplain. On the county’s pump and haul lines a sump can’t empty into the sewer: Fairfax County counts that as an unpermitted connection, and in town that sewer ends in a vault the county empties by truck.
Out on the five-acre lots along Clifton, Compton and Yates Ford Roads the ground is kinder: about half the land in the Census tract around the town is Glenelg silt loam, which the soil guide rates good for drainage. A pump there can sit dry for months, and one that hasn’t run since spring is one nobody has tested. Run a bucket into the pit before the wet season.
Clifton houses, by the numbers
From the Census Bureau’s 2020 to 2024 survey, owner-occupied homes unless it says otherwise.
The Fairfax County side of 20124
Clifton mail outside the town: five- to ten-acre lots in the Occoquan watershed on Clifton, Compton and Yates Ford Roads, mostly on septic, and the 1980s subdivisions off Springstone Drive and Union Mill Road on county sewer.
ZIP 20124 as a whole, the Town included: its own homes are too few for steady Census figures.
- Median home built1988 Census
- Built before 1980about 1 in 10 Census
- Built since 2000about 1 in 10 Census
- Most homes aresingle-family houses, about 8 in 10 Census
- Heated withgas, about 6 in 10 Census
- Rentedabout 1 in 10 Census
- A basement from the 1980s or 90s is several pumps in by now, or overdue for its next one.
What sump pump replacement costs in Clifton.
The same price as our sump pump replacement page: one flat number for a new pump in a pit that’s still sound, with what costs extra named right beside it.
- Sump pump replacement, installed in your existing pit$697
- Sump pump and battery backup, installed together$3,200
- A new or deeper pit, discharge line work outside, or a dedicated circuitPriced in writing before we start
$697 covers a new cast iron pump, a quiet check valve, new PVC up to your existing discharge line, a battery water alarm by the pit, the old pump hauled away and a bucket test before we leave.
A battery backup keeps pumping through a power outage, and the outage usually comes with the storm. With a new pump, the pair is $3,200 installed. The sump pump estimator helps you decide whether you need one.
When a sump pump in Clifton needs replacing.
The power’s out, and the well stopped too
On a lot with a well, an outage stops the well pump and the sump pump together, and the Town’s plan says its power runs mostly on poles and overhead lines. A battery backup keeps the pit draining until the lines are back up.
You’re in Fairfax County and want a backup
The county’s Flood Mitigation Assistance Program pays back half of a battery backup, up to its cap, after the work is done and paid for. Not the pump itself, and not homes in the Town of Vienna, the Town of Herndon or the City of Fairfax.
It’s past seven years old
Zoeller, who make a lot of the pumps around here, puts a sump pump’s life at seven to ten years. Past seven, replace it on your schedule instead of the storm’s.
After a storm in Clifton, check the sump pump.
Six checks you can make yourself once the rain lets up, none of them with your hands in the pit. Then call us and we’ll check it all.
Does the pump kick on?
Watch the pit during the rain or right after. The pump should start as the water rises, empty the pit and shut off. A full pit, or a pump that hums and moves nothing, isn’t keeping up.
Is there water where it shouldn’t be?
Walk the basement: the corners, the walls, the floor by the pit, under the water heater and the furnace. Photograph any wet spot before you mop, so we can see where it came in.
Is the discharge line clear?
Outside, find where the pump’s pipe ends. It should be open, not crushed, buried or full of leaves, and aimed away from the house so the water doesn’t run back to the foundation.
Does the check valve hold?
Listen when the pump shuts off. Water rushing back into the pit means the check valve isn’t closing, and the pump has to move that water again.
Did the power go out?
The pump stops when the power does, often at the height of the storm. If the basement took water during an outage, that’s the job a battery backup does.
Water near an outlet? Stay out.
If water is standing near the pit, an outlet or anything plugged in, don’t wade in to check. Call us, and only switch the power off at the panel from somewhere dry.
Not sure what you saw? Call us after a storm and we’ll check it all: the pump, the float, the check valve, the discharge line and where the water came in. If the pump can’t keep up, a new one is $697 installed in your existing pit; a new or deeper pit, a battery backup, discharge line work outside and a dedicated circuit are extra, priced in writing before we start.
How to pick the best plumber for a sump pump in Clifton.
Questions to ask anybody who quotes you, us included.
Did they ask what’s under the yard: septic, county sewer or the pump and haul?
Where a Clifton sump may empty depends on it. Whoever replaces the pump should check that the discharge runs to neither the sanitary sewer nor the drainfield, and price any change in writing.
Is the price for the whole job?
Ask what the number covers: the pump, the check valve, the pipe, hauling the old one off, a test before they leave. Then ask what costs extra, and get it in writing.
What’s the new pump made of?
Cast iron, ideally. Plastic pumps cost less and are usually the ones that quit early. Ask before the old one comes out.
Do they look at where the water goes?
A discharge line that’s cracked, buried or frozen shut every January leaves the new pump pushing against a closed pipe. Whoever replaces it should check the outside end too.
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Sump pump questions from Clifton.
Does Fairfax County’s battery backup program cover a house in the Town of Clifton?
The program’s page names the places it leaves out, the Town of Vienna, the Town of Herndon or the City of Fairfax, and the Town of Clifton isn’t one of them. It pays back half of a battery backup, never the pump, after the job is finished and paid for. Ask the program to confirm your address before you buy.
Can my Clifton sump pump drain into the septic tank?
It shouldn’t. A septic system is sized for the household’s own water, and in a wet spring a sump can move more than the house does, pushing it out to a field that’s already soaked. Send it to daylight on your own ground.
When does a Clifton sump pump get its hardest test?
In the storms that close the roads. NOAA’s storm records show Main Street shut by flooding near Chapel and Clifton Roads on August 1, 2018, and Yates Ford Road closed at its Bull Run bridge on June 1, 2012, after a nearby gauge caught 2.6 inches. Rain like that keeps the town’s wet soils full for days. Once it lets up, watch the pump start, empty the pit and stop, and look outside to see that its line is running. Then call us after the storm and we’ll check all of it.
How much does sump pump replacement cost in Clifton?
$697 installed in your existing pit: a new cast iron pump, a quiet check valve, new PVC to your discharge line, a battery water alarm, the old pump hauled away and a bucket test. A new or deeper pit, discharge line work outside, a battery backup and a dedicated circuit are extra, priced in writing before we start. A new pump and a battery backup installed together are $3,200.
Can I check my sump pump myself?
Yes. Pour five gallons of water into the pit. The float should rise, the pump should start within a few seconds, and it should shut off clean once the water’s down. If you hear water rushing back into the pit after it stops, that’s the check valve.
More from SwiftPro in Clifton.
More from SwiftPro in Clifton
A new pump before the next storm.
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SwiftPro Heating, Cooling & Plumbing is a licensed, BBB Accredited (A rating), independently owned heating, cooling and plumbing company in Chantilly, serving Clifton 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.