Plumber in Wheat Ridge, CO

Wheat Ridge relies on special districts rather than a city utility. The city says water and sanitary lines are owned and maintained by those districts, and it posts maps so residents can find theirs. Names you may see on a bill:

Call your district about a break in a main or a backup in the public sewer.

• Fall: shut off and drain exterior hose bibs and disconnect hoses. Older bibs that aren't frost-free can split inside the wall, and the leak often goes unnoticed until spring.
• Fall: have the sprinkler system blown out and the backflow preventer drained before the first hard freeze.
• Winter: keep garage doors and crawlspace vents closed during cold snaps. Supply lines along exterior walls freeze first.
• Spring: run every fixture and look under sinks for drips after the freeze-thaw season.
• Any time: if the basement floor drain gurgles or backs up when the washer drains, the blockage is probably downstream in the main line or lateral. Book drain cleaning with a camera, not a bottle of chemicals.

A yearly visit through our plumbing maintenance service covers most of this list.

Galvanized steel water pipe was standard in much of the housing built before the 1960s. It corrodes from the inside, so the first sign is usually falling pressure or brownish water after a tap sits unused, not a visible leak. When it does leak, it tends to fail at threaded joints, where the pipe wall is thinnest.

For a single dripping joint, targeted leak repair is reasonable. Repeat leaks on the same run are the signal to stop patching.