Water heater repair and replacement in Leesburg.
Water heater repair and replacement in Leesburg and Lansdowne, from a published price book with the Loudoun County permit already in the number.
A new water heater installed with the permit runs $2,757 to $5,493 for an electric tank, $3,379 to $5,485 for gas or propane and $8,886 to $10,486 for tankless. The water heater estimator gives your exact number.
- Permit and expansion tank included
- Tank or tankless
- Dedicated plumbing team
Get your water heater priced
In Leesburg, the county permits your water heater even inside the town.
Water heaters are a bigger part of our Leesburg work than anywhere else we work regularly. The median owner home in town was built in 1996 and more than a third of homes went up since 2000, so a lot of Leesburg tanks are the first or second one the house has had, and the date on the label tells you which decade yours came from.
The town line doesn’t decide who permits the job. Loudoun County’s Department of Building and Development issues every building permit inside the Town of Leesburg as well as outside it, gas, plumbing and mechanical included, from its office downtown at 1 Harrison Street SE. Since October 2025 the county has let a gas heater swap that keeps the old BTU rating and location go ahead without plans.
Downtown is where venting gets complicated. In the Old and Historic District the Town reviews exterior work, so trading a tank on the old chimney for a power vent or a tankless unit that exhausts through a side wall puts a new pipe on the outside of the house, and that needs a Certificate of Appropriateness first. A like-for-like tank on the existing flue changes nothing outside. We’ll tell you which your house can take before you choose.
Lansdowne and River Creek sit outside the town in Loudoun County, with the same 20176 address. Lansdowne is the newer side, nearly nine in ten homes built since 2000, and close to four in ten of its homes are in condo buildings, where the heater is usually an electric tank in a closet. A slow leak there ends up on the ceiling of the unit below unless a pan catches it and drains it away, and a new drain pan comes with every replacement we price.
What’s heating the water across Leesburg.
Census figures for each place, and the water heater that usually goes with its houses. Median year built and heat count owner-occupied homes only.
| Place | Median home built | Most homes are | Heated with | The water heater you usually find |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leesburg | 1996 | single-family houses, about 4 in 10 | gas, about 7 in 10 | Gas tanks on their second or third replacement. |
| Lansdowne | 2005 | condo and apartment buildings, about 4 in 10 | gas, about 8 in 10 | Original 2000s tanks, many past their years. |
Leesburg houses, by the numbers
From the Census Bureau’s 2020 to 2024 survey. Median year built and heat count owner-occupied homes only.
The Town of Leesburg
Inside the town limits: the Old and Historic District downtown, Exeter and Carrvale inside the bypass, Potomac Station and Edwards Landing outside it.
- Median home built1996 Census
- Built before 1980about 2 in 10 Census
- Built since 2000about 4 in 10 Census
- Most homes aresingle-family houses, about 4 in 10 Census
- Heated withgas, about 7 in 10 Census
- Rentedabout 3 in 10 Census
- Most houses here heat with gas, so most water heaters are gas tanks, and replacing one takes a permit even like for like.
The Loudoun County side
Lansdowne only. It’s the one Census place outside the town limits, so the farms and lots beyond it aren’t in these figures.
- Median home built2005 Census
- Built before 1980hardly any Census
- Built since 2000about 9 in 10 Census
- Most homes arecondo and apartment buildings, about 4 in 10 Census
- Heated withgas, about 8 in 10 Census
- Rentedabout 3 in 10 Census
- A lot of original water heaters here went in during the 2000s, and a tank that age is past the years most of them last.
What a new water heater costs in Leesburg.
Installed, from our water heater estimator, which is the price book. Everything is in the number: the permit and the inspection, the expansion tank, the drain pan, hauling the old one away, and the labor.
- Electric tank, installed$2,757 to $5,493
- Gas or propane tank, installed$3,379 to $5,485
- Power vent tank, installed$5,957 to $7,494
- Tankless, installed$8,886 to $10,486
How the house vents picks the row; where you land inside it is the tank size and the warranty. A hybrid heat pump water heater is quoted at the visit, never from a page.
Keeping the one you have? A yearly water heater flush slows the sediment down: $99 right now, normally $199. A tankless descale is $300, regularly $350. Or get the flush every year with Comfort+ membership, $199 a year, along with a dryer vent cleaning, a sewer camera inspection and heating and cooling maintenance visits.
What a failing water heater in Leesburg usually does.
White specks in the faucet screens
Leesburg’s water utility says those white or pale green bits are calcium that settled out in your water heater, and that they can also mean a failed dip tube inside the tank. Either way the heater is the source, and we can tell you which.
The pilot won’t stay lit
On a gas tank that’s usually the thermocouple or the gas valve, both repairs. A burner that lights but smells of exhaust is different: shut it off and call.
Water on the floor around it
A drip from a valve can be fixed. Water from the tank itself can’t; once the lining goes, the only fix is a new heater, and sooner beats later.
After a storm in Leesburg, check the water heater.
A water heater usually sits on the lowest floor of the house, so it’s one of the first things standing water reaches. Three checks, then call us.
Water reached the burner or the gas controls
Leave it off and don’t relight it. The warning label on a gas water heater says not to use it if any part has been under water, and to have a service technician replace the gas control.
An electric tank sat in water
Shut its breaker off at the panel, but only from somewhere dry. The elements and the thermostats get checked before it heats again.
Water around it after the rain stopped
Mop it up and look again in an hour. Water that comes back with no rain is the tank or a valve, not the storm.
Call us after a storm and we’ll check it: the gas control or the elements, the burner, the venting and the drain pan. If it has to be replaced, you get the price in writing before anything comes out.
Who signs off on a new water heater in Leesburg.
Town of Leesburg
Virginia’s building code lets an emergency replacement start before the permit is issued, as long as the application reaches Loudoun County by the close of the first working day after the work begins. Source.
If the water pressure through the house seems too high or too low, the Town’s Utilities Department sends staff during business hours to check it at the nearest fire hydrant and at your outside hose bib. Source.
Loudoun County
Loudoun Water’s rules put the pressure regulator entirely on the customer. Source.
How to pick the best water heater installer in Leesburg.
Questions worth asking anybody who quotes you, us included.
Do they know which water utility serves your house?
Inside the town limits the Town of Leesburg is your water utility, and it also serves some homes just outside; most of the county side is on Loudoun Water. That decides who you call about the pressure and whose hardness figure your tank lives with, and a plumber who works here should ask.
Is the permit in the price?
A gas water heater always needs a permit, an electric one often does, and skipping it tends to surface when the house sells. Ask whether the quote includes it and the inspection.
Is there an expansion tank in the quote?
Most houses here have a check valve or a pressure reducer on the incoming line, so the heated water has nowhere to go. An expansion tank gives it somewhere, and leaving it out is how quotes come in low.
Will they tell you when a repair will do?
A thermocouple, an element or a valve is a repair, not a new heater. A good plumber says so, and saves the replacement talk for a leaking tank.
What our customers say.
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Water heater questions from Leesburg.
Do I need a Town of Leesburg permit to replace a water heater?
Usually not from the Town. Its Community Development FAQ says a replacement with no exterior work probably needs no Town permit, because Loudoun County issues the gas, plumbing and mechanical permits. That county permit, and the inspection that closes it, is already in our price.
Can I put a tankless water heater in a house in the historic district?
Often, yes, but plan for the outside. A gas tankless unit needs its own vent through a wall or the roof, and in the Old and Historic District that’s exterior work the Town reviews first, sometimes at staff level and sometimes at the Board of Architectural Review. A tankless runs $8,886 to $10,486 installed; we’ll look at where it could vent before you price it.
How much is a new water heater in Leesburg?
Installed, with the permit, the expansion tank, the pan and the haul-away: an electric tank $2,757 to $5,493, a gas or propane tank on the flue you have $3,379 to $5,485, a power vent tank $5,957 to $7,494, and a tankless unit $8,886 to $10,486. The estimator gives your exact number in about a minute.
Water heaters in the towns next door.
- Water heaters in Hamilton
- Water heaters in Ashburn
- Water heaters in Middleburg
- Water heaters in Lovettsville
- Water heaters in Purcellville
More from SwiftPro in Leesburg
Tell us how old yours is.
Call, or book online and pick a window. The age on the label and what it’s doing tell us most of what we need, and you get the price before anything comes out.
SwiftPro Heating, Cooling & Plumbing is a licensed, BBB Accredited (A rating), independently owned heating, cooling and plumbing company in Chantilly, serving Leesburg and the rest of Northern Virginia. Virginia contractor license #2705192276. 5.0 stars across 884 Google reviews. SwiftPro maintains a dedicated HVAC team and a dedicated plumbing team.
SwiftPro Heating, Cooling & Plumbing, 4230 Lafayette Center Dr, Suite N, Chantilly, VA 20151, (703) 997-9757. Book online, read our reviews, or see every town we serve.