Water and Sewer Connection Fees in Winder, GA

Water connection

The City has adopted connection fees for water by meter size or by the number of equivalent residential units per meter. For a 5/8 to 3/4 inch line, the full connection is $5,000 and the system development charge is $3,289. A 1-inch line is $10,000 and $7,598.

A footnote explains that taps performed by developers, builders or property owners pay the SDC plus either meter, materials and labour provided by the City, or a meter relocation fee, as applicable.

Master-metered connections are calculated from the number of units multiplied by the 5/8 to 3/4 inch SDC, plus labour and materials.

Sewer connection

A 4-inch sewer stub full connection is $5,000, which includes one ERU. A 4-inch tap is $2,253, and the sewer SDC is $3,281 per ERU. Six-inch connections are based on ERUs.

The City defines an ERU for sewer as 244 gallons per day. In force main service area H.1, a surcharge of $330 per ERU is added for lift station operation and maintenance.

Ask the City which line applies to your lot: a full connection where the City builds the stub, or a tap plus SDC where it already exists or a builder does the work.

What the plumber adds

The City's fees stop at the connection. The private side, from the meter or sewer stub to the house, is the plumber's work: trenching, pipe, cleanouts, backflow or pressure-reducing valves if needed, and the connection inside.

Ask for a quote that lists City fees separately from the plumber's own work, so you can match the City lines to the published sheet.

Inside the city, a trade permit for the plumbing is $225.00 on the Planning and Development fee schedule.

Barrow County comparison

Barrow County Utilities publishes its own new-meter charges by size on its FY2026 rate schedule, alongside its usage rates. If your lot is in the county's service area, use that schedule instead.

Its plumbing permits for unincorporated areas start at a $75.00 base fee plus items. See the county permit page.

Usage rates for both utilities are on the Winder and county rate pages.

Moving a meter instead

If the service exists and the meter just needs to move, for a driveway or an addition, the City has a separate relocation schedule. A 5/8 to 3/4 inch relocation is $1,419.28 on the short side and $2,383.04 on the long side.

See meter relocation.

Rock or debris excavation is charged at actual cost on top.

Planning checklist

Confirm the utility. Get the current sheet. Identify full connection versus tap plus SDC. Ask about the force main surcharge. Get the plumber's quote with City fees on separate lines. Ask who pulls the trade permit.

Put tap, inspection and meter-set dates on one calendar before the foundation is poured.

Send a Free Quote Request with the lot address and what the City told you.

Reading a Winder-area bill line by line

Start at the top of the bill and find the name of the utility. City of Winder bills follow the City's Form 520 rate sheet; Barrow County Utilities bills follow the county's FY2026 schedule. Everything else on this site depends on getting that first step right, because the two utilities use different tiers, different base charges and different leak rules.

Next, find the reading dates and the gallons used. Divide the gallons by the number of days in the cycle to get a daily figure, and compare it with the same cycle a year earlier. A household that normally uses a little over a hundred gallons a day and suddenly shows several hundred has either changed its habits or has water going somewhere it should not.

Then look at the charges. The base water and base sewer lines do not move with use. The volume lines do. If the volume lines jumped and the base lines did not, the change is in gallons, not in rates, and the meter test on the high bill page is the next step.

Finally, note the due date. On a City of Winder account, the 30-day window to contest a bill runs from that date, and a missed window cannot be reopened by the policy's own terms.

Keeping records that make every later step easier

Most of the trouble homeowners describe after a plumbing problem is not the repair itself but the paperwork around it: a leak credit request without an invoice, a permit nobody can find at resale, a disputed meter reading with no photo. A simple folder fixes most of it.

Keep the bill that showed the problem and the one before it. Take a dated photo of the meter dial when you first notice something odd and again after the repair. Ask the plumber for an invoice that names the address, the date, where the problem was and exactly what was replaced. If a permit was pulled, keep the permit number and the final inspection result.

Write down every call to the utility or the permit office: the date, the person's name and what they said. Policies change, and staff answers are easier to rely on when you can quote them back.

None of this costs money, and every piece of it helps if you later need a credit, sell the house or have to show an insurer when a problem started.

Timing a new connection

New service involves several offices: the utility for the tap and meter, Planning and Development for permits, and the plumber for the private line. Each has its own lead time. Ask each one early, and write the expected dates on one calendar so a missing inspection does not hold up the meter set or a closing.

Sources: City of Winder, GA: Water & Sewer Rates, effective July 1, 2026 - June 30, 2027 (Form 520, PDF); City of Winder, GA Planning & Development Services: Fee Schedule; Barrow County, GA Utilities Department: Water and Wastewater Rates FY2026 (PDF); Barrow County, GA Planning & Community Development Fees, FY 2025 / FY 2026 (PDF). Checked 2026-10-30.