Sewer line repair in Kensington

Kensington homes and their sewer lines

Kensington was laid out in the early 1730s by Anthony Palmer and grew as a shipbuilding village on the Delaware. In the 1800s it became a center of iron and steel work and textiles, especially carpet mills, and blocks of small brick rowhomes went up for mill workers. The City’s Philadelphia Rowhouse Manual lists Kensington among the neighborhoods with small “trinity” and bandbox houses, one room per floor.

After the mills closed in the 1950s and later, many houses were abandoned or torn down. Lower and East Kensington, below Lehigh Avenue, have since seen heavy redevelopment: 19122 and 19125 were among the city’s busiest ZIP codes for new construction from 2021 to 2024. So a 120-year-old clay lateral can sit next to a brand-new PVC connection.

Kensington is in the combined-sewer part of the city. A PWD blog post on its basement backup program names Kensington among the low-lying areas most affected by rain-driven backups. The old Cohocksink Creek, which once ran through Kensington, now flows in a buried sewer.

Common sewer problems we hear about in Kensington

• Original clay or cast iron laterals more than a century old under narrow sidewalks
• Rain-related backups through basement floor drains on low-lying blocks
• Connections abandoned when a neighboring house was demolished, which can affect shared or nearby lines
• Rehab projects that replaced the plumbing inside the house but left the old lateral

What to know before you fix it

If you are rehabbing a Kensington row, have the lateral scoped before the new basement floor goes in. It is much cheaper to replace an old lateral while the house is open. If your basement backs up when it storms, call PWD’s hotline at (215) 685-6300 while the water is still there and ask about the free Basement Backup Protection Program. PWD requires the lateral to be in good condition before it installs a backwater valve.

The rules are the same citywide

In every Philadelphia neighborhood, the owner is responsible for the house drain, curb trap, lateral and the connection to the sewer. A licensed plumber must do the work, and PWD can issue a Notice of Defect with a deadline to fix it. Eligible owners can spread the cost over 60 months at zero interest with the HELP loan. Read the PWD & HELP guide · See typical costs · Problems in older Philly homes

Services in Kensington

• Sewer line replacement
• Trenchless sewer repair
• Sewer camera inspection
• Sewer backup & emergencies
• Lateral, curb trap & main line issues

Nearby: Fishtown · Port Richmond · All neighborhoods

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