Boiler repair and replacement in Upperville.

ZIP 20184 counts just 67 owner homes, and about seven in ten were built before 1960. None heats with utility gas; electricity heats about two in three and propane the rest, so an Upperville boiler burns propane from a tank on the property. The owner homes here are all detached houses. About seven in ten homes here are rented, so the call often comes from a tenant while the repair decision rests with the owner.

In a house that old the boiler often sits in a tight cellar or crawlspace. A wall-hung condensing boiler, at $12,782 to $16,500 installed, can fit a cramped cellar better than a large floor-standing one, but it changes the exhaust path from the chimney to a wall, and in an old wall that opening needs care. Houses this old predate central heat, so their radiators and piping were added later. None of the owner homes in the Census count went up after 1999, so an Upperville boiler sits in an older house by definition.

Upperville straddles the county line. On the Fauquier side, the County issues permits for fuel-fired appliances, a propane boiler included, from its office in Warrenton. Loudoun’s rule since October 2025 skips submitted plans for a same-BTU replacement in the same location. Which county your address is in decides which rule applies.

Purcellville’s weather station, about 14 miles away, shows January lows around 24.5 degrees and roughly 115 freezing nights a year, and Fauquier County sizes heating for a 17 degree day. Weeks of that wear on the circulator and the expansion tank first, which is what a fall tune-up checks. A boiler that sits idle all summer in a cold cellar can also seize its circulator, and the fall start-up is when that shows.