Sewer line repair in Loudoun County, camera first, yard intact.
Loudoun splits neatly in two for sewer work. Leesburg and the older villages have clay and cast iron with decades of roots in the joints. Ashburn, Brambleton and South Riding have newer plastic, where the failures are bellies from settled backfill and damage from somebody else’s shovel. Different pipe, different answer, same camera.
Lining done in house
Camera before the quote
Two Loudouns, two different sewer problems.
The county’s building booms are far enough apart that the sewer pipe under a Leesburg house and the pipe under a Brambleton house have almost nothing in common. Knowing which one you have changes the repair.
Older Leesburg and the villages
Clay and cast iron, joints every few feet, and root systems that have had fifty years to find them. These are the best lining candidates in the county: the pipe is usually still round, and a jointless liner takes away the thing the roots were using.
Ashburn, Brambleton, South Riding
Newer plastic pipe that rarely fails as a material. What fails is the ground under it. Fast-built subdivisions mean fast backfill, and a section that settles turns into a belly that holds waste. Lining a belly does not fix a belly, and we will tell you that.
Damage from digging
A county still adding fences, pools, patios and fiber is a county where laterals get clipped. Virginia code now requires nonmetallic sewer pipe to carry a locatable tracer wire, 18 gauge minimum, within a foot of the pipe. If yours has one, it is a lot harder for the next crew to hit.
What a Loudoun sewer call looks like
The camera goes in first
Nobody quotes a sewer line they have not seen. A self-leveling camera runs the lateral from the cleanout, and a locator marks the fault on the ground in your yard, so you know the depth and the spot before anyone talks about money.
You watch the footage
Roots at a joint, a belly holding water, a crushed section, a separated clay hub. You see which one it is on the screen, at your house, and you keep a copy.
Line it, or dig it
If the host pipe is intact enough to line, we cure a new pipe inside the old one and the yard stays shut. If the line is collapsed, badly bellied or offset past the point a liner can bridge, we say so and we dig that section.
Permit, inspection, restore
The county plumbing permit is pulled, the work is inspected before it gets covered (Virginia USBC 113.3(5) requires that), and the ground goes back the way we found it.
Loudoun has one rule worth knowing before the work starts. Loudoun Water’s customer handbook makes the customer responsible for maintaining the lateral, and adds that when the work falls in the right of way, Loudoun Water controls how it is done and bills the customer for faulty materials or workmanship. In plain terms: the part near the street is still your bill, and it has to be done to their standard. We pull the county permit, at $70 for a sewer line under Loudoun’s schedule, and get the inspection before anything is covered.
What it costs, from our own sold jobs
SwiftPro’s own sold ServiceTitan estimates, not a national average. Every line is quoted off its own camera footage. Full detail in our sewer cost guide.
Camera down the main, added to a visit
$89 when we are already at the house.
Camera or scope visit on its own
$500 to $1,725, middle around $618.
Main line cleared
$554 to $1,648, middle around $1,101. Hydro jetting sits at the upper end and is the right tool on grease and heavy root mass, where a cable only bores a hole through the middle.
Line dug up and replaced
$7,500 to $8,570, middle $8,230.
Lined instead of dug
Quoted from the footage, never from a published flat rate.
Across Loudoun County
Ashburn already has its own SwiftPro sewer page. This is the rest of the county, worked by the same crew out of Chantilly:
Sterling
Leesburg
South Riding
Brambleton
Broadlands
Lansdowne
Stone Ridge
Aldie
Potomac Falls
Cascades
Dulles
Belmont
Purcellville
Hamilton
Round Hill
Loudoun County sewer FAQ
Who is responsible for the sewer lateral in Loudoun County?
The customer maintains it. Loudoun Water’s customer handbook also states that work in the right of way is controlled by Loudoun Water, which bills the customer for faulty materials or workmanship, so the near-street portion is your responsibility but their standard.
What does a sewer permit cost in Loudoun County?
Loudoun County charges $70 for a new or replacement sewer line under its published plumbing fee schedule. Street work can add a separate permit depending on who maintains the road.
Is hydro jetting worth it, or should I just get it snaked?
It depends on what is in the pipe. A cable bores a hole through a blockage and leaves the walls coated; jetting scours the pipe back to its full diameter, which is what you want against grease and heavy roots. On fragile or unknown pipe, camera first, because jetting pressure belongs in a pipe somebody has actually looked at.
Do you cover Ashburn, Sterling and Leesburg?
All three, plus South Riding, Brambleton, Broadlands, Lansdowne, Stone Ridge and out to Purcellville and Round Hill.
How much does trenchless sewer lining cost?
We quote lining off the camera footage, because the price follows the length of the run, the diameter and how many bends are in it. What we will not do is print a lining number we cannot stand behind: the trade benchmark published by In-Line Renewal Solutions, the lining system manufacturer, averages about $3,800 for a four to eight-foot spot repair, and that is a contractor average sale price across the country, not a SwiftPro quote. Our own dug-and-replaced sewer jobs in Northern Virginia have run $7,500 to $8,570.
What does a sewer camera inspection cost?
$89 as an add-on if we are already at your house on another call. A scope visit booked on its own has run $500 to $1,725 across our recent jobs, with the middle around $618, because a standalone visit usually includes clearing the line far enough to get the camera through.
Is my sewer lateral my responsibility or the county’s?
In most of Northern Virginia it is yours, from the building all the way to the main, including the part under the street. Fairfax County and Arlington both put it that way in writing. There are real exceptions: the Town of Herndon draws the private portion from the property line to the house only, and the City of Fairfax reimburses part of a lateral repair. Ask us and we will tell you which rule your address falls under.
How long does the work take?
A camera inspection is an hour or so. A lining job on a residential lateral is usually a single day, with the cure itself measured in minutes. An excavation and replacement depends on depth, what is on top of it, and how fast the permit and inspection move.
Do you have to dig up my whole yard?
That is the point of lining: the line is renewed through existing access, so the lawn, the driveway and the mature trees stay where they are. Even when we do have to dig, it is the failed section, located first with the camera, not a trench down the length of the property.
Should I get the sewer scoped before I buy a house?
Yes, and know that a standard home inspection does not include it. InterNACHI’s standards of practice do not require an inspector to scope the sewer, so on a 1960s or 1970s Northern Virginia house it is a separate call and a cheap one against what a failed lateral costs.
More on sewer lines, in plain English
Loudoun sewer work, diagnosed before it is quoted.
Roots in a Leesburg clay line or a belly under a Brambleton lawn are two different jobs. Book the camera and we will show you which one you have before anyone talks about price.
Licensed Class A #2705192276 · Based in Chantilly, serving all of Northern Virginia