Heating, cooling and plumbing in Falls Church, inside the City line and out.
Most Falls Church mail goes to Fairfax County, not the City. The permit office, the sewer rules and the age of the house change with it.
- Prices in writing, first
- Dedicated HVAC and plumbing teams
- Virginia license #2705192276
Get your price in writing
Postwar basements and brand-new condos, a few blocks apart.
Falls Church is two governments under one mailing address, and most of its houses went up in the same three decades after the war.
In the City, the median owner-occupied house was built in 1964 and a third of all homes predate 1960, yet close to three in ten went up after 2000, and nearly half the City’s homes are in condo and apartment buildings. So a City job is often one of two very different things: a 1950s basement with a gas furnace and the water heater side by side, or a closet system several floors up in a much newer building.
On the Fairfax County side, West Falls Church is the biggest piece: about 7,100 owner-occupied homes, the median one built in 1957, and six in ten of its homes are single-family houses. Lake Barcroft is the same era and heats with gas more than anywhere around it, about eight in ten owners. Idylwood runs to the 1970s with condos and townhouses, while Seven Corners and Bailey’s Crossroads are mostly apartment and condo buildings, and most Bailey’s Crossroads owners heat with electricity.
Falls Church is one of the two places, with McLean, where boilers are a regular part of our heating work. And maintenance-plan visits are a bigger part of our Falls Church work than anywhere else we work regularly.
One call for the boiler, the AC and the drains.
A dedicated HVAC team and a dedicated plumbing team, so the water on the basement floor gets the right person whether it came from the condensate line or the tank.
Heating
Boilers with radiators or baseboard, gas furnaces in the older basements, and heat pumps where the heat is electric, as it is for most Bailey’s Crossroads owners. Inside the City a one-for-one gas furnace swap needs only a gas permit; on the county side it takes a Fairfax County permit and a chimney vent certification.
Cooling
In a single-family house in the City, an air conditioner or heat pump can be replaced without a permit, while Fairfax County treats the same swap as mechanical permit work. A radiator house has no ducts, so its cooling is usually a ductless mini-split.
Plumbing
Galvanized supply on the oldest streets, cast iron drains, and a sewer lateral that’s yours out to the main. Inside the City, a house that has had sewage back up can get up to half the cost of a backflow preventer paid back, $2,000 at most.
One price book on both sides of the City line.
Whether the house is in 22046 or in Fairfax County, the price is the same, and you have it 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
Every line comes from the price book on our plumbing page and our AC repair page. For a new water heater, the water heater estimator gives your installed price with the permit already in it.
A tank in a 1950s basement and a tank in a condo closet cost about the same to replace. What moves the number is getting to it, and that goes in the quote, not on the day.
One mailing address, two governments, one water company.
Your water
Fairfax Water serves both sides. It bought the City’s water system on January 3, 2014, along with its contract for Washington Aqueduct water, and its 2026 report maps most of Falls Church as Aqueduct water from the Dalecarlia and McMillan plants. Those ran 5.6 to 10.9 grains per gallon in 2025, softest in late spring. Bailey’s Crossroads drinks from Fairfax Water’s own plants, below.
Reports: Fairfax Water (Washington Aqueduct water), 5.6 to 10.9 gpg; Fairfax Water, 3 to 10.8 gpg.
Your permit office
The City issues its own permits at City Hall, 300 Park Avenue, and its address finder says plainly that Merrifield, Seven Corners and Bailey’s Crossroads are Fairfax County. Inside the City any work on a gas appliance takes a permit, removal included. On the county side Fairfax County wants one for any gas appliance swap, plus a chimney vent certification.
Permit pages: City of Falls Church or Fairfax County.
Your sewer line
On both sides, the line from the house to the main is the owner’s. Inside the City, roof downspouts, sump pumps and outside floor drains may not be tied into it, and the City’s backflow program pays up to half of a sewer backflow preventer, $2,000 at most, for a house with a documented backup.
Sources: the City’s backflow program and Fairfax County Code 65-6-5.
What our customers say.
I needed emergency plumbing and AC services and they made it happen immediately.
They managed to come the same day that I called about a leak which was helpful.
Called SwiftPro around 5 am and their electronic system scheduled an appointment for us same day.
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.
The City, and the county all around it.
In the City: 22046, plus a few addresses in 22042 and 22044. On the Fairfax County side: West Falls Church, Idylwood, Lake Barcroft, Seven Corners, Bailey’s Crossroads and Merrifield. Next door:
Falls Church questions.
Is my Falls Church address in the City or in Fairfax County?
Most aren’t in the City. The City of Falls Church’s address finder says its main ZIP is 22046, with a few City properties in 22042 and 22044, and that addresses on Route 7, Route 50 or Route 29 are likely outside it. SwiftPro Heating, Cooling & Plumbing works both sides at the same prices; the side decides the permit office and the sewer rules, not the work.
Who supplies the water in Falls Church now?
Fairfax Water, on both sides of the City line. It took over the City’s system in January 2014 and kept the City’s contract with the Washington Aqueduct, so most of Falls Church still gets Potomac water treated at the Aqueduct’s plants. Its hardness ran 5.6 to 10.9 grains per gallon in 2025, which is why SwiftPro tells Falls Church homeowners to flush a tank water heater once a year.
Will the City of Falls Church help pay for a sewer backflow preventer?
Yes, if the house is on the City’s sewer and has a documented backup. The City’s pilot program pays back up to 50 percent, no more than $2,000, when a licensed plumber installs the preventer under a City permit that passes final inspection, and no downspout or sump pump is tied into the sewer line. It runs as long as the City funds it.
Do you still work on boilers and radiators in Falls Church?
Yes. Falls Church is one of the two places, with McLean, where boilers are a regular part of our heating work: circulator pumps, zone valves, expansion tanks, radiators that need bleeding. If the house has never had ducts, cooling it usually means a ductless mini-split rather than central air.
Do I need a permit to replace an air conditioner in Falls Church?
Inside the City, not in a single-family house: the City’s permits page says an A/C or heat pump can be replaced without one. On the county side, Fairfax County lists a heating or cooling replacement as mechanical permit work. A repair needs no permit on either side.
Inside the City or out, it’s the same phone number.
Say your street and what it’s doing. We’ll tell you whose permit it is, what’s typical for a house that age, and what it usually costs.
SwiftPro Heating, Cooling & Plumbing is a licensed, BBB Accredited (A rating), independently owned heating, cooling and plumbing company serving Northern Virginia, including Chantilly, Herndon, Reston 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 Falls Church, SwiftPro repairs and replaces boilers, furnaces, heat pumps, air conditioners and ductless mini-splits, cleans air ducts and dryer vents, and handles plumbing from drains, leaks and sewer laterals to water heaters and backflow preventers, in the City of Falls Church and on the Fairfax County side.
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.