Plumbing Services in Harrisburg, PA

Renting or owning? Start there

Nearly two-thirds of Harrisburg homes are rented, according to Census estimates, so the first question for many callers isn’t which plumber, it’s whose job this is. If you rent, report leaks, backups and no-hot-water problems to your landlord or property manager first and in writing; most leases make them responsible for building plumbing. Call a plumber yourself only if your lease says to, or if water is causing damage and you can’t reach anyone. The steps on our emergency plumbing page apply either way.

If you own, the rest of this page is about the pipes you are responsible for.

The houses: old, attached and close to the street

Harrisburg’s housing is among the oldest in the region. The median home was built in 1947, more than four in ten were built in 1939 or earlier, and about two-thirds predate 1960. A similar share are rowhomes or townhouses.

That combination shapes the plumbing in predictable ways:

• Drain lines are usually cast iron or clay, sometimes with later sections of PVC where something was repaired. Cast iron scales up and cracks from the inside; clay fails at its joints.
• Each rowhome typically has its own sewer lateral running from the front basement wall under the sidewalk to the main in the street. A backup in your house rarely means the neighbour’s line is involved, but the work often means opening the sidewalk.
• Supply pipe in older houses may still be galvanized steel, which narrows with corrosion and causes pressure to fall gradually over years. Our page on water line replacement explains how to identify it.
• Basements are shallow and close to the main, which matters when the sewer in the street is running full.

Combined sewers and storm backups

About 60 percent of Harrisburg’s sewer system is combined, according to Capital Region Water: a single pipe carries both sewage and stormwater. During heavy rain those pipes can run full. Combine that with an old lateral that has open joints, and a basement floor drain becomes the lowest exit point in the system.

If your floor drain gurgles or backs up mainly during storms, three things are worth checking:

1. The condition of your lateral. A sewer camera inspection shows cracks, roots and separated joints that let groundwater in.
2. What is connected to it. Downspouts or a sump pump piped into the sanitary line add water exactly when the system is least able to take it.
3. Whether a backwater valve makes sense. Basements with fixtures below the level of the street sewer are the usual candidates. See sewer backup repair for how they work and their limits.

If sewage is coming up right now, stop using water and follow emergency sewer repair.

Who is responsible for which pipe

Capital Region Water is clear about the split: the drinking water service line and the sewer lateral running from your building to its mains are the property owner’s responsibility, and the utility is responsible for the mains themselves. That includes keeping those lines working and repairing them when they fail.

There is one partial exception worth knowing about. Capital Region Water has run an assistance program for service lines and laterals, but under its published guidance it only applies to the portion of a line in the public right-of-way or a public easement, not on private property, and the request has to be approved before any repair starts. If a camera inspection shows the defect under the sidewalk or street, ask the utility about current terms before you hire anyone. Our sewer line repair page explains how the camera footage and measurements establish where a defect sits.

Hiring a plumber in the city

Harrisburg is one of the places in Pennsylvania with its own plumber licensing. The City’s Bureau of Codes issues plumbing licenses along with permits and inspections, and installing or replacing plumbing pipe in the city has to be done by a master plumber licensed by the City. When you call, ask the plumber whether they hold a City of Harrisburg license and whether the job needs a permit.

That is in addition to the statewide rule that home improvement contractors doing $5,000 or more of work a year register with the Attorney General. Our page on how calls work lists the other questions to ask before work starts.

Lead and the water line

Capital Region Water has published an inventory of service line materials with an online map, so you can look up what its records show for your address. In a city where so much housing predates 1940, it is worth checking. If the record says lead, galvanized or unknown, ask the utility about its replacement plans before replacing your side alone, and read our guide to water line replacement for what the work involves.

Winter in Harrisburg

A normal year at the nearest NOAA station brings roughly 111 nights at or below freezing and about seven at or below 10°F, with an average winter low near 24°F. Rowhome end units, kitchens on exterior walls and hose bibs that weren’t shut off in the fall are the usual failures. If a pipe splits, the main shutoff is usually on the front basement wall where the service line enters. Burst and frozen pipe repair covers thawing safely and what a plumber repairs.

Harrisburg plumbing questions