Plumbing Fixes
Plumbing in Woodbridge, VA: Three Zip Codes, Three Pipe Eras
22191, 22192 and 22193 were built in different decades and fail differently. Which one puts you inside the polybutylene window, the meter test, and…
SwiftPro Knows Best / Plumbing Fixes
Plumbing Fixes Articles
Honest plumbing fixes answers from the licensed pros serving Northern Virginia.
Plumbing Fixes
Plumbing in Springfield, VA: Galvanized, Cast Iron, and Four Zip Codes
Springfield sits in the galvanized-supply and cast-iron-drain era. Why your pressure has been quietly declining, why the same drain keeps backing up, and what…
Plumbing Fixes
Plumbing in Fairfax, VA: Two Jurisdictions and Four Pipe Eras
City or county decides who permits the work, and the decade decides the pipe. How to identify galvanized, copper, polybutylene and PEX, plus what…
Plumbing Fixes
Toilet Replacement Costs: Repair Versus Replacement Guide
Installing one you supply runs about $430 to $500; supplied and installed most often $840 to $1,300. When a repair is the right purchase,…
Drains & Sewers
Sewer Camera Inspection: When It Is Worth It and When It Is Not
The strongest case is buying a house built before 1980, because a home inspection does not cover the sewer lateral and that pipe is…
Plumbing Fixes
Hard Water in Northern Virginia: What the Number Is Where You Live
Fairfax Water, Arlington, Alexandria, Prince William and Loudoun each publish their own hardness number. What yours is, what it is doing to your water…
Plumbing Fixes
Plumbing in Reston, VA: Clusters, Shared Walls, and 1960s Copper
Which pipe era you have, where your responsibility stops and the cluster’s begins, the shared-wall leak problem, and the water heater in an upstairs…
Plumbing Fixes
Plumbing in Ashburn, VA: If Your House Went Up Before 1996, Check the Pipe
Polybutylene was installed until mid 1995, which lands on Ashburn’s earliest neighborhoods. How to check in three minutes, plus the water heaters aging out…
Plumbing Fixes
Plumbing in Arlington, VA: Pinhole Leaks, Cast Iron, and No Room to Dig
Arlington houses sit in the pre-1970 copper pinhole cohort and on lots too small to trench. What that means for repiping and sewer work,…
Plumbing Fixes
Plumbing in Alexandria, VA: What Is Actually in These Walls
Alexandria spans more plumbing eras than anywhere nearby. How to identify galvanized, copper, polybutylene and PEX in three minutes, the cast iron drain problem,…