PCS Move-In Plumbing Checklist for Colorado Springs
In your first week, find and test the main water shutoff, check static pressure with a $12 gauge, read the water heater date code, and run every fixture and drain for ten minutes. Summer PCS arrivals should add freeze prep in September, because the first hard freeze in Colorado Springs averages October 2 and split hose bibs from the previous winter stay hidden until you use them.
Orders to Fort Carson, Peterson Space Force Base or Schriever mean you are house hunting from four states away, signing something on a video walkthrough, and moving in during the two weeks everybody else in the military is also moving. Plumbing is the last thing on the list and the first thing that ruins a weekend.
This is the walkthrough we would do if we moved into your house.
Week one: find the shutoffs before you need them
At two in the morning with water coming through a ceiling, you do not want to be learning your new house.
- Main water shutoff. Usually in the basement or a mechanical closet on the wall nearest the street. Turn it fully off and back on to prove it works, because old gate valves seize and fail exactly when used.
- Water heater shutoff. The cold inlet valve on top of the tank. Same test.
- Gas shutoff at the meter, and know which way the wrench turns.
- Stop valves under every sink and behind every toilet. Test each one. Replacing a seized stop is a small job today and a big one during a flood.
- If the property is on a well, find the pressure tank, the pump breaker and the well head.
Label them. A marker on a luggage tag takes five minutes and outlives your tour here.
Week one: the ten minute pressure and fixture test
Buy a water pressure gauge. They cost about twelve dollars at any hardware store and screw onto an outside hose bib.
Static pressure above 80 psi needs a pressure reducing valve, and plenty of houses in this county sit above that because the terrain climbs so hard across the pressure zones. High pressure quietly shortens the life of every valve, every supply line and your water heater. If your gauge reads 95, you have found a real problem on day three rather than in year two.
Then run everything. Every faucet hot and cold for a minute. Every shower. Flush every toilet twice and watch whether the fill valve keeps running. Fill each tub and sink and let it drain while you watch the speed. Run the dishwasher and the washing machine, then look underneath and behind both.
Slow drains in a house that just sat empty through a PCS turnover are common and usually simple. Slow drains in more than one fixture at once point at the main line and deserve a camera.
Week one: read the water heater
There is a date code in the serial number on the rating plate. Most manufacturers encode the year and week in the first four characters. A tank over ten years old is on borrowed time, and knowing that now lets you plan rather than react.
While you are there, check three things. Is there a drip pan under it with somewhere for water to go. Does the relief valve have a discharge pipe running down to within six inches of the floor. Is there an expansion tank, which a closed system needs.
Looking for last winter’s damage
This is the part that catches summer arrivals.
A hose bib that split during a January freeze does not leak in July, because nobody has opened it. The first time you connect a hose in August, water runs inside the wall. So test every exterior hose bib now, with the water on, and go look at the wall and ceiling directly inside while it runs.
Same for the sprinkler system. Find out whether it was blown out before the previous winter and whether the backflow assembly cracked. Ask the seller, the agent or the property manager in writing.
Your first Colorado winter, on a calendar
Colorado Springs sits above 6,000 feet with enormous daily temperature swings. The National Weather Service office in Pueblo puts the average first 32 degree freeze at October 2, with a fifty percent chance of 28 degrees by October 10. Coming from Georgia, Texas or Hawaii, that arrives sooner than you expect.
| By this date | Do this |
|---|---|
| Late September | Every garden hose off every hose bib, including timers and splitters |
| Late September | Sprinkler system blown out and the backflow drained |
| Early October | Foam sleeves on pipe in crawlspaces, garages and attics |
| Early October | Crawlspace vents closed for the season |
| Mid October | Main shutoff located, labeled and confirmed working |
| Any single digit night | Cabinet doors open under sinks on outside walls, one faucet at a trickle |
If you deploy or travel over the winter and the house sits empty, set the thermostat no lower than 55 degrees and have someone check it. The alternative is coming home to a house that froze in week two of a four week absence.
Renting rather than buying?
Colorado law gives residential tenants a warranty of habitability that includes running water at all times, hot water for ordinary use, and plumbing maintained in good working order. If something in that list fails, put the request to your landlord in writing and keep a copy with a date, because written notice is what starts the legal clock. Photograph the condition of every fixture the day you move in, before anything is yours to explain at move-out.
If you are in privatized base housing, the maintenance line for your housing office is the first call rather than a private plumber.
Buying? Two inspections worth the money
A general home inspection does not go inside the sewer lateral. In Fountain and the older Security-Widefield streets, mid century houses often have clay outside and cast iron inside, and the service line from the house to the public main belongs to the property owner. A camera run before closing costs a few hundred dollars and can save five figures.
If the property sits on a well and a septic system, which is common toward Monument, Black Forest and Falcon, add a well water test and a septic inspection. El Paso County Public Health regulates onsite wastewater systems and can tell you what the record shows for that address.
One last check
Whoever you call, run the name through the state license lookup first. Colorado licenses plumbers through the Department of Regulatory Agencies, and the search takes under a minute. PCS season brings a lot of people through this town, and some of them are not licensed here.
If the drains in your new place are slow or the main line gurgles, our drain cleaning page sets out what a visit covers and what it costs. Move-in checks get a same-week slot during PCS season.