Plumbing, electrical and roofing in Broomall, Marple Township
One number for plumbing, electrical, heating & cooling, roofing, handyman work and more in Broomall.
Part of our Delaware County service area · median home here was built around the late 1950s
What breaks in Broomall
The age of the housing decides the work.
Broomall sits right on the seam between two pipe eras. It went up mostly between the late 1940s and the mid 1960s, the years when residential supply was moving off galvanized steel and onto copper, and the same years when bituminized fiber, sold as Orangeburg, was the normal sewer lateral. Two houses on the same street can have opposite answers on both. Broomall is also not its own borough. It is a village inside Marple Township, so every permit, every inspection and every ordinance you read about is Marple's.
Two houses, one street, opposite plumbing
Residential supply pipe moved from galvanized steel to copper through the 1950s, and Broomall was going up on both sides of that change. Galvanized rusts closed from the inside, so the upstairs shower loses pressure first and patching one section just moves the problem to the next one. Copper of the same age often has decades left in it. Identify the material at the meter and at the water heater before anyone quotes a repipe, because it decides whether this is a repair or a whole house job.
Orangeburg does not crack, it closes
Bituminized fiber pipe was the standard lateral material for houses built between roughly 1945 and the early 1970s, which covers most of Broomall. It fails by softening and going oval rather than by cracking, so the line gets cleared, works for a while, and closes again. Marple Township puts the private lateral on the property owner from the dwelling to and including its connection to the township main, and states plainly that it does not have the equipment to clean a four inch lateral.
Marple wants a packet, not a form
A permit application here has to arrive with the application form, the signed contract between you and the contractor, plans or the scope of work, a certificate of insurance for the general contractor and every sub with Marple Township named as the certificate holder, and a physical copy of the contractor's Pennsylvania Home Improvement Contractor registration. Code enforcement sits at 227 S Sproul Road in Broomall. If a contractor cannot produce all of that, the permit does not open.
The seller fixes the sidewalk, the apron and the curb
Marple's resale use and occupancy inspection covers sidewalks, driveway aprons, curbing, handicapped ramps, trash, debris and rental apartments. On a sale or transfer the seller is responsible for repairing the public sidewalk, the driveway apron and the curb, and where curbing and sidewalk are replaced, handicapped ramps go in at the corners to ANSI specification. It is a right of way inspection, which means it tells you nothing at all about the pipe or the wiring.
What we run in Broomall
What actually gets called in the most here
Plumbing
Broomall went up in the exact window when Orangeburg fiber laterals and the tail end of galvanized supply were both standard, and Marple Township puts the entire private lateral, up to and including the connection at the main, on the property owner while stating it cannot clean the line itself.
See plumbing →Electrical
A Broomall rancher or split level was wired around a 60 or 100 amp service on two wire cable with no equipment ground, so a finished lower level, a detached garage circuit or an EV charger here starts as a service and grounding question rather than a device one.
See electrical →Roofing
The postwar houses here almost all have an attached garage or a breezeway under a shallow pitch section that asphalt shingles were never rated to cover, so a Broomall roofing call is usually about that one low slope run and its wall flashing rather than about the shingle field, and it comes with Marple's permit packet attached.
See roofing →On the ground in Broomall
Broomall is an address, not a government. It is a census designated place inside Marple Township, and your permits, your inspections and your sewer main all belong to the township, which happens to run its code office out of a building on South Sproul Road in Broomall. Anything you read described as a Broomall ordinance is a Marple ordinance.
The build out was not uniform either. Most of it is postwar detached ranchers and split levels, and a scattering of houses predates all of it, including the 1696 Thomas Massey House on Lawrence Road, one of the oldest English Quaker houses in Pennsylvania and now on the National Register.
Sanitary sewer here runs through the Radnor Haverford Marple Sewer Authority, which handles the Darby Creek drainage basin as part of the DELCORA regional system, and the neighborhood is on public water and public sewer throughout. So the well and septic questions that matter further west mostly do not apply. What applies in Broomall is the age of the material, and a fairly narrow band of it.
Broomall questions
Straight answers for Broomall.
Does my Broomall house have Orangeburg sewer pipe?
It is a real possibility if the house went up between roughly 1945 and the mid 1960s, which covers most of Broomall. Orangeburg is bituminized fiber pipe and it was the cheap standard lateral material for exactly that build window. It does not crack the way clay does. It softens, ovals inward and closes off, so repeated backups that clear and then come back are the usual tell. A camera run settles it before anyone quotes an excavation.
Do I need a permit in Broomall, and what does Marple ask for?
Yes for most construction work, and Marple asks for more than a form. The packet is the application, the signed contract between you and the contractor, plans or the scope of work, a certificate of insurance for the general and every sub with Marple Township as the certificate holder, and a physical copy of the contractor's Pennsylvania Home Improvement Contractor registration. Broomall has no borough hall, so it all runs through Marple code enforcement on South Sproul Road.
Does Marple Township's resale inspection cover my plumbing and wiring?
No, and that surprises people. Marple inspects properties for resale for sidewalks, driveway aprons, curbing, handicapped ramps, trash, debris and rental apartments. It is a right of way and property maintenance check, not a systems inspection. So nothing in the township process will tell you about a collapsing Orangeburg lateral, a 60 amp service or an ungrounded circuit. If you want that known before settlement, order the camera run or the electrical assessment yourself.
Why do the three prong outlets in my 1950s Broomall house have no ground?
Because the house was wired with two wire cable and somebody swapped the receptacles later. Most of Broomall's postwar stock was built before general branch circuits carried an equipment ground, so ungrounded runs are normal here. Putting a three prong face on one is a common shortcut and it is not legal. The fixes are running a ground to the outlet, or protecting the circuit with a GFCI and labeling the outlets as ungrounded.
The upstairs shower in my Broomall house has no pressure. Is that the pipe or the fixture?
In a house of this age it is usually the pipe, and the top floor is where galvanized steel announces itself first. Rust builds inward and narrows the bore, so the fixture furthest from the meter loses out. Before you replace a valve, look at the exposed pipe at the meter and at the water heater. If it is galvanized, changing the shower trim buys you very little and the real question is how much of the run is left.
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