Round Hill, VA Water Damage Restoration, Room by Room

Round Hill: the town and the country around it

Round Hill is an incorporated town at the far western end of Loudoun County, a few miles west of Purcellville on the older line of Route 7, with the ridge that marks the county's western edge rising beyond it. It has its own mayor and council. The town center is small, and a good deal of the 20141 ZIP code lies outside it, in newer subdivisions, farms and country houses on the slopes nearby.

The town runs its own water and sewer system, and most of its customers live not in town but in subdivisions outside the town limits. Beyond that, most homes rely on private wells and septic systems. Winters here are a little colder than in eastern Loudoun, and the higher ground catches wind, which is part of why frozen pipes come up so often.

The utility room: well or town water

Start where the water comes in. In a house on town water, the main shut-off valve is usually on the lowest level, near where the line enters: in a utility room, beside the water heater, or in a closet. Close it, and the house stops filling.

On a well, the utility room holds more: a pressure tank, a pressure switch, often a filter or softener, and the main valve. The well pump itself is down in the well, powered from a breaker in the panel. To stop a leak, switch off that breaker, close the main valve, and open a faucet low in the house to drain what's left in the tank. Label the breaker now; a panel full of unmarked switches wastes minutes when water is running.

The well system can be the leak. Pressure tanks rust through at the bottom, fittings at the tank loosen, and the buried line between the well and the house can crack, especially where it runs shallow. If the pump starts with every fixture off, water is going somewhere. If the water came up from a drain, septic is involved too; that water is treated as contaminated, and the system should be checked before normal use resumes.

The rest of the house

The houses in and around Round Hill cover a wide range. In the old town center are older frame and brick homes, many with cellars or crawl spaces under the original house and additions on block foundations. The subdivisions built since the 1990s are mostly single-family homes with full basements and sump pits, many finished. Out in the country are farmhouses, newer custom homes and outbuildings, each with its own mix of basement, crawl space, garage and well house.

Two things run through almost all of them: pipes that pass through spaces the heat doesn't reach well, and basement or cellar walls set into sloping ground that pushes water against them after rain.

Outside walls, garages and crawl spaces in a freeze

Pipes freeze where cold air reaches them: crawl spaces with open vents, attached garages, exterior walls with thin insulation, bathrooms and kitchens over unheated spaces, and the lines to well houses and barns. Outdoor faucets with a hose still attached freeze inside the wall, even the frost-free kind. A house left empty in winter is at the greatest risk, because a furnace failure or a thermostat turned too low can let the whole house get cold.

Ice rarely leaks while it's frozen. It splits the pipe, and water starts running when the pipe thaws, which is why the damage so often shows up a day or two after the cold breaks, and often in a crawl space or wall where nobody sees it at first.

Before winter, close crawl space vents, disconnect hoses, insulate exposed pipes and keep a little heat in the well house. In a cold snap, open cabinet doors on outside walls and let a vulnerable faucet drip. For an empty property, keep the heat on at a modest setting and use a temperature alarm. For a frozen pipe that hasn't burst, open the faucet it feeds and apply gentle heat. Never use an open flame.

The basement wall: seepage or a leak?

Many Round Hill basements are cut into sloping ground, so after a long rain the uphill wall carries a lot of water pressure. Water that comes from outside and water from a pipe can look alike on the floor, but the fix is completely different, so it's worth telling them apart before drying starts.

Seepage follows the weather. It turns up after rain or snowmelt, first along the uphill wall or at the joint where wall meets floor, and it may leave white mineral streaks as it dries. A plumbing leak ignores the weather. It appears in dry spells too, usually near a fixture, the water heater or the pressure tank, and it keeps going until the water is shut off. On a well, a pump cycling with nothing running points to plumbing.

Once the source is clear, drying follows the same plan: extract the water, remove wet carpet pad and the lowest strip of drywall, and dehumidify until the framing and slab read dry. If it was seepage, the lasting fix is outside, with gutters, downspouts, grading or drainage on the uphill side.

In Round Hill the damage from a freeze usually turns up after the cold has gone.

Services for Round Hill properties

• Frozen Pipe Burst Cleanup
• Basement Seepage & Groundwater
• Structural Drying & Dehumidification
• Sewage Backup Cleanup
• Storm & Heavy Rain Water Damage
• Vacant Unit Water Damage

Round Hill service area

We connect property owners across ZIP code 20141: the town, the neighborhoods around it and the farms and country homes on the slopes to the west. Round Hill is at the far end of the county, so we'll tell you straight when a crew can reach you and help you by phone until then.

ZIP codes served: 20141

Communities near Round Hill

Round Hill is part of our Loudoun County service area. Neighboring pages cover Purcellville and Hamilton to the east, and Upperville to the south.

• Purcellville
• Hamilton
• Upperville

Round Hill water damage questions