Repiping Service Areas in Philadelphia and Nearby Suburbs

Haverford Township

Haverford is mostly detached and twin houses, about a third of them built before 1940. Aqua Pennsylvania supplies the water, and the township requires a plumbing permit with rough and final township inspections for every plumbing installation, including a water service. Its permit fee scales with the cost of the work, under the township's own fee schedule.

Upper Darby, its neighbor on the same utility

Abington Township

In Abington the plumbing permit has to be submitted, and its inspections scheduled, by a master or journeyman plumber registered with the township. The township names Aqua as its public water provider, though some properties are on private wells. Housing is mostly detached and somewhat newer than the city, with a median build year in the mid-1950s.

Cheltenham, next door with its own plumbing chapter

Bensalem Township

Bensalem's water system has belonged to Aqua Pennsylvania since 1999, and the township requires contractors to be licensed with it before permits are released. Most of its housing went up after 1960, so galvanized supply pipe is less common here than in the city; copper and plastic systems from later decades are more typical.

Lower Merion Township

Lower Merion has a large stock of pre-1940 houses. Its licensing and permit rules, and the water utility for a given street, are confirmed for each address before work is scheduled.

Northwest Philadelphia

Germantown, Mount Airy, Chestnut Hill and Roxborough are inside the city, so the Philadelphia Plumbing Code, L&I permits and the Philadelphia Water Department rules apply. The houses run larger than the rowhouse average, with more twins and detached stone houses, which usually means longer runs and more floors to reach.

Whole-house repiping

Lower Northeast and the River Wards

Kensington, Fishtown, Port Richmond, Frankford and the Lower Northeast share the city's code and permit office. Parts of the River Wards sit in ZIP 19134, one of the first ZIPs in PWD's service line pilot; the North Philadelphia page covers how that changes the order of the work.

North Philadelphia

Center City and high-rise buildings

Center City mixes rowhouses with apartment towers and buildings with shops on the ground floor. The city code requires metallic water piping in occupancies other than one- and two-family dwellings and apartments, and in buildings with an occupied floor more than 75 feet up.

Multi-unit repiping · Commercial repiping