Sprinkler Blowout & Winterization
Winterization that drains the backflow assembly, not just the laterals.
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One of the fastest-growing towns in Weld County. Almost everything here is recent construction, which changes what goes wrong and when.
(970) 973-0235Severance has grown at a pace that means a large share of its houses are under fifteen years old, and a meaningful number are under five. That produces two distinct kinds of call.
The first is new-build defects. Modern plumbing is good, but installation volume during a building boom is not always matched by installation care. The things we find are consistent: a PEX crimp that was not fully seated, a trap arm run at the wrong grade so a fixture drains slowly from day one, a dishwasher drain hose with no high loop, a water heater expansion tank fitted but never pressurized, and a knockout plug left in a disposal so the dishwasher will not drain. All are minor and all are worth catching inside a warranty period.
The second is the maintenance nobody has started. A house at year twelve has a pressure reducing valve near the end of its life, an expansion tank that may have waterlogged, a water heater into its back half, and an irrigation backflow assembly with a legal annual test requirement that a surprising number of owners have never heard of.
If your house is new, get the defects found. If it is a decade old, get the maintenance started. Those are the two conversations here.
Worth doing inside the warranty period.
Lots in Severance are generous and almost universally irrigated, which makes the sprinkler system the biggest and most exposed plumbing installation on the property: more pipe, more valves and more freeze-vulnerable components than everything indoors combined.
The autumn blowout decides the following spring. A system left holding water in its backflow assembly loses that assembly to the first hard freeze, and a split brass preventer is the most expensive avoidable spring cost in any irrigated town out here. The critical detail is that the blowout must drain the assembly body itself, not just the lateral lines: that step is the one most often skipped, including by people who charge for the blowout.
Spring is the mirror image: crack the main isolation valve a fraction of a turn, wait several minutes for air to escape, and only then open fully. Opening wide on an empty system slams water into closed zone valves and cracks fittings.
And the annual backflow test is a legal requirement with a real deadline. We test, repair where we can on the spot, and file the report with the district for you.
Backflow test and filing on the same visit.
Drain the assemblyBlowing the laterals is not the job. Water left in the backflow body is what splits it.
You can check most of these yourself in twenty minutes, and finding one inside a warranty window is worth real money.
Run every fixture and watch the drain. A sink or shower that has always been slow is not normal wear; it is usually a trap arm at the wrong grade or a partially obstructed line, and it will never improve on its own.
Look under every sink with a torch. Dry the joints, run the fixture hard for a minute, and look again. A weeping slip joint or a supply connection that was left hand-tight shows up immediately.
Check the dishwasher drain hose. It should rise to a high loop under the countertop before dropping to the disposal or tailpiece. Lying flat across the cabinet floor lets sink water siphon back into the machine, which is the cause of most new-house dishwasher smells.
Put a gauge on a hose bib. Above eighty PSI means the pressure reducing valve is not set right or not working, and it is chewing through seals from day one.
Tap the expansion tank. The top should sound hollow and the bottom solid. All-solid means it is waterlogged and doing nothing.
Anything you find, we can confirm and document, which is what a builder will actually respond to.
Written findings are what a builder responds to.
Dry it, run it, look again A weeping joint in a new house is an installation issue, not wear. Catch it in warranty.
For a new house: a check inside the warranty period, then the ordinary annual rhythm: spring irrigation startup with the backflow test, autumn blowout with hose bibs drained and a heater flush.
That is the entire program, and it prevents almost everything that would otherwise become an emergency.
Winterization that drains the backflow assembly, not just the laterals.
See details →Controlled spring charge-up with zone and drip repairs.
See details →Annual testing, filed with the district for you.
See details →Regulators and expansion tanks, checked and replaced when they quit.
See details →Pinhole leaks at PEX fittings, located without opening walls on a guess.
See details →Knockout plugs, high loops and the small install faults new houses arrive with.
See details →Yes, for scheduled and emergency work. It is a straightforward run north from Greeley. Dispatch is answered around the clock, and we will give you a realistic arrival window on the phone rather than an optimistic one.
Installation volume during a building boom is not always matched by installation care. The common findings are small but real: an unseated PEX crimp, a trap arm at the wrong grade, a dishwasher hose with no high loop, an unpressurized expansion tank, a knockout plug left in a disposal. All are worth catching inside the warranty period.
Run every fixture and watch how fast it drains. Dry the joints under every sink, run the tap hard, and look again. Check the dishwasher drain hose rises to a high loop. Put a pressure gauge on a hose bib. Tap the expansion tank, the top should sound hollow. Twenty minutes covers most of it.
No. Wear does not cause slow drainage in a house this new; installation does. Usually it is a trap arm run at the wrong grade, or debris left in a line during construction. It will not improve on its own, and it is a warranty item.
Before the first hard freeze, generally the second half of October, though it varies year to year. Book early, every crew in the county is solid in the final fortnight. Make sure whoever does it drains the backflow assembly body and not just the lateral lines.
Yes, if your irrigation is connected to the municipal supply: a test every twelve months, with the report filed by the deadline on your notice. A lot of newer homeowners have never been told this. We file the report for you.
Screw a gauge onto an outside hose bib with everything in the house off. Above eighty PSI on a house that has a regulator means it is not regulating properly. Worth doing on any house past ten years, and worth doing on a new house too, because a wrongly set valve from day one wears seals out early.
Nothing, which is the problem. The tank absorbs the expansion of heated water in a closed system using an air bladder. When the bladder fails the tank fills with water and pressure climbs whenever the heater runs. Symptoms are a weeping relief valve and pressure that reads higher in the evening than the morning.
Almost always a drain hose lying flat across the cabinet floor instead of rising to a secured high loop under the countertop. Without the loop, dirty sink water siphons back into the machine. It is a five-minute fix with a hose clip and it is one of the most common new-build faults we find.
The tubing is very good and handles freezing better than copper. The fittings are where problems arise, usually from an incomplete crimp rather than a defective part. A pinhole inside a wall produces a slow ceiling stain rather than an obvious flood, so an unexplained stain in a new house is worth investigating properly.
New house? Get it checked before the warranty runs out.
New-build checks, irrigation and annual maintenance in Severance.
(970) 973-0235Answered 24 hours a day, seven days a week, every week of the year.