Drain Cleaning & Sewer Line Repair in Ardmore, PA

Ardmore sits at the heart of Lower Merion Township on Philadelphia’s Main Line, and its drains tell the story of its age. Much of the housing stock here was built between the 1890s and the 1940s — the brick twins along Cricket Avenue, the stone Colonials near Linwood and South Ardmore Park, and the dense rowhomes that radiate off Lancaster Avenue. Homes that old were plumbed with vitrified clay and cast-iron laterals, and after 80 to 130 years in the ground those pipes are at the end of their service life. At Advanced Drains & Underground Solutions we work Ardmore week in and week out, and we know exactly what’s waiting under these properties before we ever open a cleanout.

We’re a licensed Pennsylvania home-improvement contractor (PA HIC PA151129) with a 4.8-star rating across 745+ Google reviews. We do trenchless and CIPP work in-house — never subcontracted — and we offer a free camera inspection and written estimate on sewer jobs. We’ll also beat any written estimate by 10%, and we run same-day or next-day on most calls.

Why Ardmore Sewer Lines Fail

The trouble in Ardmore is rarely a single clog — it’s the pipe itself. Clay laterals were laid in short sections with mortar joints, and those joints are exactly where the mature root systems from Ardmore’s tree-lined streets find their way in. Cast-iron stacks and laterals, common in the early-1900s homes around Ardmore Avenue and Spring Avenue, corrode and scale from the inside until the channel narrows to a fraction of its original diameter. Add the clay-heavy, shifting soils of Lower Merion and decades of freeze-thaw, and you get bellied lines, offset joints, and cracked pipe. The symptoms our Ardmore customers call about — slow tubs, gurgling toilets, a basement floor drain that backs up in heavy rain, sewage odor in the yard — almost always trace back to one of these failure modes.

Our Ardmore Drain & Sewer Services

Drain cleaning. For kitchen, bath, and main-line clogs we cable and clear the line and then verify the result, so you’re not paying for a snake that just punches a hole through a grease plug. On the recurring backups we see in older Ardmore kitchens, we recommend jetting over snaking.

Hydro jetting. High-pressure water scours the full diameter of the pipe — cutting roots, stripping grease, and flushing scale out of corroded cast iron. It’s the right call for the heavy root intrusion common in Ardmore’s clay laterals and for restaurant-grade grease lines along the Lancaster Avenue corridor.

Camera inspection. Before we quote a repair we run a sewer camera inspection down the line so you can see the exact problem — the cracked joint, the root ball, the belly — on screen. On Ardmore homes pre-dating the 1950s this almost always changes the conversation from guesswork to a precise fix. It’s also how we locate the lateral for Lower Merion Township sewer-lateral requirements.

Sewer line repair. When a section has failed, we repair or replace it. Sometimes that’s a spot dig at a single collapsed joint; often, given the age of Ardmore pipe, it’s a full lateral.

Trenchless & CIPP lining. Wherever the host pipe allows, we rehabilitate the line trenchless — either cured-in-place pipe (CIPP) lining or pipe bursting — so we’re not tearing up mature lawns, mature hardscape, or the brick sidewalks that make Ardmore Ardmore. CIPP creates a seamless, jointless new pipe inside the old one, which is the long-term answer to root-infiltrated clay. Because we own this equipment and run our own crews, we control the schedule and the quality from start to finish. See our full trenchless sewer line replacement page for how the process works.

Ardmore is part of our Main Line service area, alongside Bryn Mawr, Wynnewood, Narberth, Haverford, and Bala Cynwyd.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does sewer line repair cost in Ardmore, PA?

It depends on the length of the failed line, how deep it sits, and whether we can line it trenchless or have to dig. That’s why we run a free camera inspection and give you a written estimate before any work — and we’ll beat any competitor’s written estimate by 10%. You’ll see the actual problem on camera and know the price before you decide.

Can you fix my Ardmore sewer line without digging up my yard?

In most cases, yes. Where the existing pipe allows it, we use trenchless CIPP lining or pipe bursting to rehabilitate the lateral with little or no excavation — which protects the mature lawns, stone walls, and brick walkways common on Main Line properties. We confirm whether your line is a trenchless candidate during the camera inspection.

Why does my older Ardmore home keep getting drain backups?

Most pre-1950 Ardmore homes have clay or cast-iron laterals. Clay joints invite tree roots and cast iron corrodes and scales shut, so a snaking only buys you a few months. Hydro jetting clears the full pipe, and a camera inspection tells you whether the pipe needs lining or replacement to stop the cycle for good.

Call Advanced Drains for Ardmore Service

Whether it’s a single stubborn clog or a failed clay lateral under your front walk, we’ll show you what’s wrong on camera, put it in writing, and fix it — usually same or next day. Licensed PA HIC PA151129, 4.8 stars across 745+ reviews, free camera inspection and written estimate.