The median owner home dates to 1986. About one in five were built before 1960, another one in five from 1980 through 1999, and a bit under four in ten from 2000 on. Each stretch leaves its own supply pipe. Older houses can still carry galvanized steel, some from the 1980s and 90s got polybutylene, a grey plastic that fails at its joints, and newer ones run plastic or copper. The decade tells a plumber where to look first.
Dulles logs 101.7 days a year with lows at or below freezing, and the first fall freeze arrives around October 24. Pipes in an outside wall, a crawlspace or a garage are the ones that burst, and the late January 2026 Arctic outbreak, with Extreme Cold Warnings on three nights, was a long test of them. Find your main shutoff before a freeze, not during one.
If you’re on Prince William Water, its 2025 entry-point tests ran 44 to 180 mg/L, about 2.6 to 10.5 grains per gallon, which it rates moderately hard. The utility also says the pressure reducing valve is the homeowner’s to install and keep up, and the plumbing code recommends one where pressure runs 80 psi or more. A new valve runs $500 to $1,000. On a private well, hardness varies from well to well, and only a test tells you.
Rain does its own plumbing damage. On September 30, 2010 a flash flood closed Gum Springs Road after 6.80 inches fell nearby, and Little Bull Run’s floods in December 2023 and July 2025 covered Artemus Road. Floor drains and washing machine standpipes show it first. Drain cleaning at one fixture runs $200 to $800, toilet repair $250 to $900, and locating a leak inside a wall $200 to $500.