Home services in Aston Township
One number for plumbing, electrical, heating & cooling, roofing, handyman work and more in Aston.
Part of our Delaware County service area · median home here was built around the mid-1960s
What breaks in Aston
The age of the housing decides the work.
Aston is postwar Delco, not the twin and row belt. Seven in ten houses here are detached, the 1950s put up more of them than any other decade and the 1960s came close behind, so the failure list is different from the older townships east of here. Less knob and tube. More sixty and hundred amp services doing a modern job, and more copper supply and cast iron waste now reaching sixty years old. And more outdoor work, because in Aston you own a driveway apron, a curb and a sidewalk that the township inspects before you can sell.
Your water and your sewer answer to different authorities
Three separate bodies stand behind an ordinary Aston repair, and none of them is the one people assume. Most of the township buys water from Chester Water Authority, and the rest gets the same water through Aqua's pipes and an Aqua bill. The sewer main under your street belongs to a regional authority rather than to the township, and DELCORA only treats what that authority collects. When the fault is out at the curb, that is who you start with.
The concrete out front is part of the sale
Aston inspects the outside of your property when it changes hands, which most sellers do not expect. Sidewalk, curb and driveway apron all get looked at, and concrete that has failed has to be made good before the certificate is issued. Where there is no curb or walk at all, the township can require one to be put in. This is the item that blows up settlements, because concrete needs a dry week and a cure, and a closing date offers neither.
The wiring window nobody warns you about
About 1,080 Aston houses went up in the 1960s and roughly 860 more in the 1970s. That period overlaps the years when solid aluminum was run for ordinary lighting and receptacle circuits, and aluminum at that size expands, loosens and heats where it is terminated rather than anywhere along the cable. So it is a connection problem, not a cable problem. That is why it usually has a fix short of a rewire, and why it is worth identifying before you put more load on the panel.
The creek villages are a different township
Chester Creek forms Aston's eastern boundary, and the mill hamlets strung along it are a different township in everything but name. They grew up around the cotton, wool and paper mills the creek powered through the 1800s, on the lowest ground Aston has, and the mapped floodplain follows the creek and its tributaries rather than covering the township at large. Two miles up on Pennell Road the houses are seventy years newer and none of it applies.
What we run in Aston
What actually gets called in the most here
Plumbing
A pressure complaint or a backup in Aston is a boundary question before it is a repair. Two companies bill for water here depending on the street, the sewer main is a regional authority's asset and not the township's, and the lateral between that main and your house is yours. Which side of which line the fault sits on decides who pays for it and who digs.
See plumbing →Electrical
About 1,940 Aston houses date from the 1960s and 1970s, which lands on the aluminum branch wiring years, while the larger 1950s half of the township is still running services that were sized long before anyone added a heat pump, a charger and a finished lower level to them.
See electrical →Handyman
Aston asks for a permit on far more than people expect. Replacement windows, doors, siding and roofs all take one, and so do sheds and fences, while the resale inspection reaches past the house to the sidewalk, curb and driveway apron. The jobs are small; the paperwork attached to them is not.
See handyman →On the ground in Aston
Nobody in Aston owns the whole chain. Water is billed by Chester Water Authority on most streets and by Aqua on the rest. The sewer main is the Southwest Delaware County Municipal Authority's, and has been since 1957. Treatment has been DELCORA's since the end of 2014. Permits and inspections are the township's. None of it is unusual once you know it. It is only expensive when you find it out on the day of a settlement.
The housing range here is wider than the postwar picture suggests. About 460 Aston houses were standing before 1940, most of them down in the creek hamlets at Rockdale and Crozerville. At the other end, roughly 360 homes in the township are manufactured housing, which means a different foundation, a different hookup and a different permit path again. Between those two sit the 1950s and 1960s subdivisions that most of Aston actually lives in.
Aston questions
Straight answers for Aston.
Who supplies water in Aston, Chester Water Authority or Aqua?
Chester Water Authority, for about 93 percent of the township, delivered through CWA's own pipes. The remaining homes drink the same CWA water but receive it through Aqua's connecting pipeline, which is why two houses a few streets apart can get bills from different companies. The water itself is surface water from the Octoraro Reservoir on the Lancaster and Chester county line. Check the name on your bill before you call anyone about a leak at the curb.
Who owns the sewer line under my Aston street?
The main belongs to the Southwest Delaware County Municipal Authority, which has owned and operated the collection system here since 1957, roughly 60 miles of it. DELCORA has treated the flow since the end of 2014, when the plant in Aston stopped treating, but DELCORA does not own the pipe in your street. The lateral running from your house out to that main is generally yours. Establish which side of the connection a blockage is on before anyone digs.
I am selling my Aston house. What does the township inspection look at?
The outside as well as the inside, and the outside is what surprises people. The code official inspects sidewalks, curbs and driveway aprons, and anything broken, cracked, scaling or showing loose aggregate has to be repaired or replaced before the certificate is issued. Where no curb or sidewalk exists, the township can require one to be installed. Start that early, because concrete has both lead time and cure time in it.
Does my Aston house have aluminum branch wiring?
Possibly, if it was built between roughly 1965 and 1973, which covers a meaningful slice of the township. The way to check is the printing on the cable jackets where they enter the panel, which will read AL or aluminum. The symptoms are all local rather than whole-circuit: a warm cover plate, a scorch mark at a switch, an outlet that works some days and not others. Do not start pulling devices apart yourself.
There are old stone houses down by Chester Creek. Is that a different kind of job?
Very different. The houses in the old mill hamlets along Chester Creek, Rockdale and Crozerville among them, predate the rest of Aston by about a century and sit on its lowest ground. Expect stone foundations, additions resting on later footings, and a water table close enough to matter to anything you dig. The mapped floodplain runs with the creek and its tributaries, so look your own address up before scoping a large foundation or basement job.
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