Boiler repair and replacement in McLean.

McLean is where we see boilers most. Hot-water heat is a regular part of our McLean heating work, far more than anywhere else we go. It follows the age of the houses. Across ZIPs 22101 and 22102 the typical owner’s home went up in 1978, and in 22101 alone 56 percent of the homes were built between 1950 and 1979. Those brick colonials and split-levels are where the radiators and the baseboard are.

Most of our McLean boiler calls turn out to be about the parts around the boiler rather than the boiler. A house split into zones has a valve or a circulator for each one, and those wear out long before cast iron does. A boiler that fires and runs while the radiators stay lukewarm usually means the water isn’t moving. The $99 diagnostic names the part, and the repair gets a written price before anyone drains a loop.

Replacing one here usually comes down to the chimney. A cast iron boiler vented into the chimney can go back in on the same flue, and that kind of swap sits at the low end of $9,900 to $16,500 installed. A condensing boiler moves the venting out the wall in white plastic pipe and runs $12,782 to $16,500 installed. In the bigger houses, the ones with nine rooms or more, a heat-only boiler with its own water heater usually keeps up better than a combi when several showers run at once.

About two in three owner homes in McLean heat with gas, so a fall tune-up at $69 starts with the burner, the flame and the gas pressure, then the system pressure, the expansion tank and the circulator. About four in ten owner homes here are condos and apartments, many in the Tysons towers, and a boiler in one of those buildings is usually the association’s, not yours.