Your town decides what breaks.

The City of Alexandria, plus the Fairfax County side with an Alexandria address: Kingstowne, Franconia, Rose Hill and Mount Vernon.

• Galvanized
• Cast iron drains
• Pre-1970 copper
• Polybutylene
• Boilers
• Furnaces
• Heat pumps

More plumbing eras than anywhere else we work. The median house went up in 1977 and roughly three in ten are older than 1960, so one street can hold galvanized supply, cast iron drains, 1960s copper and 1980s polybutylene.

Most Alexandria addresses we work at are really in Fairfax County, on different water from the City. Inside the City we still work on boilers and radiators; on the county side we almost never see one. And on older City streets, ask about the chimney before a new high efficiency furnace goes in.

Arlington County: North Arlington’s capes, colonials and bungalows, and the condo corridor from Rosslyn to Ballston.

• Cast iron drains
• Pre-1970 copper
• Furnaces
• Heat pumps

Houses from the 1930s through the 1950s, which means cast iron drains and copper from the era that grows pinhole leaks. Lots are small, so sewer work leans toward trenchless because there’s no room to dig.

Replacing heating equipment costs more here, and it isn’t a surcharge: it goes up narrow stairs, onto a roof, or into a closet sized in 1948. In a condo, you own less of the plumbing than you’d think.

The City of Falls Church, and the Fairfax County streets around it that share the name.

• Galvanized
• Cast iron drains
• Pre-1970 copper
• CPVC or PEX
• Boilers
• Furnaces

Some of the oldest lived-in houses we work in. Galvanized supply, cast iron drains and pre-1970 copper, sometimes in the same house as a renovated half running PEX.

Boilers and radiators are a regular part of the work here, more than anywhere but McLean. So are furnaces short of combustion air once a basement gets finished around them, and old sewer laterals under old trees.

The City of Fairfax, and the Fairfax County addresses around it from 22030 to 22033.

• Galvanized
• Pre-1970 copper
• Polybutylene
• CPVC or PEX
• Furnaces
• Heat pumps

Four pipe eras across four ZIP codes: galvanized, 1960s copper, 1978 to 1995 polybutylene and modern PEX. Which decade your house came from tells you more than the street name.

Two jurisdictions share one mailing address, and replacing a gas furnace or water heater needs a permit in both, even like for like. Heating repairs are a bigger share of our Fairfax work than elsewhere in Northern Virginia, so an October furnace check earns its keep here.

McLean, in Fairfax County, from the older streets near the village to the rebuilt houses in 22101 and 22102.

• Cast iron drains
• Pre-1970 copper
• Boilers
• Furnaces
• Heat pumps
• Ductless

McLean is where we see boilers most, far more than anywhere else we go. The larger and rebuilt houses run two or three separate systems, zoned, often a mix of gas, heat pump and ductless.

The most common comfort complaint here is rarely a broken furnace. It’s an addition the original system was never sized to reach.

Reston, in Fairfax County: the original clusters and townhouses, and the newer phases around them.

• Pre-1970 copper
• Polybutylene
• CPVC or PEX
• Heat pumps
• Furnaces

Heat pump country, and heating and cooling is more of our work here than anywhere else. The 1960s and 70s clusters share walls and have copper from the pinhole era; the later phases fall inside the polybutylene window.

Duct cleaning comes up here more than anywhere else we work. And every winter we get paid to tell Reston homeowners their heat pump is fine: cool-feeling air and steam off the outdoor unit are both normal.

The Town of Herndon, and the Fairfax County side of 20170 and 20171 built out for the Dulles corridor.

• Pre-1970 copper
• Polybutylene
• CPVC or PEX
• Furnaces
• Heat pumps

The 1980s and early 90s build-out sits inside the polybutylene window, so the first question on a Herndon plumbing call is what the supply pipe is made of.

Furnaces from that build-out are reaching twenty five years. Hard water is rough on tankless heaters here, so the yearly flush isn’t optional.

Chantilly: 20151 in Fairfax County, where our shop is, and 20152 on the South Riding side in Loudoun.

• Pre-1970 copper
• Polybutylene
• CPVC or PEX
• Furnaces
• Heat pumps

Two Chantillys, ten years apart. 20151, toward Route 50 and Westfields, is 1980s and 90s houses mostly on their second furnace. 20152 is larger and newer, often two systems, a good share still original.

It’s the shortest drive we make, which makes it the town where we can most often get someone out the same day in January.

Springfield, in Fairfax County: 22150 to 22153, West Springfield and North Springfield included.

• Galvanized
• Cast iron drains
• Pre-1970 copper
• Furnaces
• Heat pumps

Most of Springfield went up between the 1950s and the 1970s, squarely in the two eras that cause the most plumbing trouble: galvanized supply that narrows from the inside, and cast iron drains.

Heating and cooling repairs here tend to run bigger than elsewhere in Northern Virginia, and it isn’t a Springfield surcharge. It’s original ductwork and crawlspaces doing what sixty-year-old ductwork and crawlspaces do.

Centreville, in Fairfax County, built out over about fifteen years in the 1980s and 90s.

• Pre-1970 copper
• Polybutylene
• CPVC or PEX
• Furnaces
• Heat pumps

The furnaces went in together and have been failing together ever since, so most of Centreville is on its second furnace and a fair number on a third, usually on ductwork nobody ever touched.

Water treatment questions come up here more than anywhere else we work. And houses from the 1980s and early 90s fall inside the polybutylene window, so check the supply pipe too.

Ashburn, in Loudoun County: Ashburn Village and Ashburn Farm out through Brambleton and Broadlands.

• Polybutylene
• CPVC or PEX
• Furnaces
• Heat pumps

Ashburn went from about 3,400 people in 1990 to over 46,000 by 2020, so almost every house is the same age as its neighbors. The earliest neighborhoods fall inside the polybutylene window, which closed in mid 1995. Everything after is CPVC or PEX.

More of our Ashburn visits end in replacing a system or a water heater than anywhere else we work, and the calls pile up in winter. Houses that went up in the same few years wear out in the same few years.

The Town of Leesburg, Loudoun’s county seat, and the county addresses around it.

• Galvanized
• Cast iron drains
• Polybutylene
• CPVC or PEX
• Furnaces
• Heat pumps
• Ductless

Two kinds of house. The historic district predates central heat by a long way, so ducts thread through closets and chases and additions often run ductless. The subdivisions from the 1980s on are gas furnaces and heat pumps, now fifteen to thirty years old.

Inside town limits, Leesburg makes its own water from the Potomac; outside, it’s usually Loudoun Water. Permits work the other way: Loudoun County issues them on both sides of the line, and the town reviews exterior work in the historic district.

The City of Manassas, the City of Manassas Park, and the Prince William County addresses in 20109, 20111 and 20112.

• Galvanized
• Pre-1970 copper
• Polybutylene
• CPVC or PEX
• Furnaces
• Heat pumps
• Boilers

Three jurisdictions behind one mailing address. The City of Manassas runs its own water from Lake Manassas, the county side is on Prince William Water, and each city and the county has its own permit office.

Houses near the historic downtown have pre-1970 copper that grows pinholes and heat that was fitted in later; the 1980s and early 90s subdivisions spreading west and south overlap the polybutylene years. The City’s Lake Manassas water tested the softest of any utility here in 2025, on a single reading.

Woodbridge, in Prince William County: 22191, 22192 around Lake Ridge, and 22193 on the Dale City side.

• Galvanized
• Cast iron drains
• Pre-1970 copper
• Polybutylene
• Heat pumps
• Furnaces
• Boilers

Three ZIP codes built in three decades. 22191 is the oldest, with galvanized supply and cast iron drains. 22192, around Lake Ridge, went up in the late 70s and 80s, inside the polybutylene window, and much of it heats with heat pumps.

22193 is 1960s to 80s houses on their second or third system, and more of our Woodbridge calls end in a full system replacement than in most towns. The soil holds water, so a finished basement makes the sump pump worth testing every spring.