Two things decide most plumbing conversations in Fairfax: which jurisdiction you are in, and which decade your pipe came from.
The City of Fairfax is independent with its own permit office. Most addresses that say Fairfax, including the bulk of 22030, 22031, 22032 and 22033, are Fairfax County. That matters for any work that needs a permit, which includes water heater replacement on gas and any repiping.
Identify your pipe in three minutes
Look at the main water entry, usually a basement wall on the street side, and under a bathroom sink.
Grey plastic with crimped metal rings. Polybutylene, installed nationally between 1978 and mid 1995, which covers a lot of Fairfax’s 1980s and early 1990s construction. It fails at fittings without warning, it is harder to insure, and a buyer’s inspector will find it. What to do about it is here.
Copper. The most common thing we find. Sound copper lasts generations, but copper in pre-1970 houses in this region develops pinhole leaks; the regional utility across the Potomac found nearly 80 percent of thousands of reported pinholes in homes built before 1970.
Dull grey threaded metal that a magnet sticks to. Galvanized steel, which corrodes from the inside until pressure drops. If your pressure has declined for years and the pipe is magnetic, that is the answer.
White rigid plastic is CPVC; red and blue flexible is PEX. Both modern enough not to worry about.
What we get called for here
Hidden leaks. A leak search runs $200 to $470, with the middle around $330, and that covers the diagnosis including opening drywall where the evidence points. Do the meter test first: everything off for fifteen minutes, then read the meter again. The full method is here.
Drains. A single fixture clearing runs $200 to $800 with the middle around $430; a main line is $860 to $1,600. In the older neighborhoods the drains are cast iron, which rusts from the inside and eventually thins along the bottom of horizontal runs. Repeated backups in the same line after clearing is the sign, and a camera settles it.
Water heaters. $2,000 to $4,800 installed for a tank. In Virginia, a gas water heater replacement needs a permit; in Fairfax County it is a household appliance permit, and it becomes a plumbing permit if new gas piping is involved.
Pressure reducing valves. $500 to $994. They wear out in ten to fifteen years, and a failed one puts the whole house at street pressure, which causes pinholes, running toilets and banging pipes. A $12 gauge on a hose bib tells you.
Sump pumps. $700 to $1,200 for a replacement with a new check valve, relevant on the county’s marine clay soils that hold water against a foundation.
The sewer lateral
Fairfax County is explicit that the homeowner owns and maintains the private sewer line from the house to the county sewer. In the older neighborhoods that pipe is clay or cast iron with joints that roots find, and the mature trees between the house and the street are exactly where they find them.
If a drain has backed up more than once in a year, or you are buying a house built before 1980, a camera inspection is the few hundred dollars that prevents a five figure surprise.
Three things to do this month
Identify your pipe material and write it down. Put a gauge on a hose bib and read the pressure. Find the main shutoff and confirm it turns, because a seized main valve is common in older houses and far better discovered on a Tuesday than at 2am.
And before the first freeze, disconnect every hose, including from frost-free spigots, because a hose attached defeats the frost-free design entirely. That is the pipe that floods a wall in April.
SwiftPro handles plumbing across the City of Fairfax and Fairfax County under Virginia Class A contractor license 2705192276. Call (703) 997-9757, book online, or see our plumbing services.
