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Local Knowledge Matters

Los Alamos was essentially built from scratch starting in 1943, so you don't have the 200-year-old adobe retrofit situations like Santa Fe. The earliest housing used whatever was available during wartime, which wasn't much. Post-war expansion through the 50s and 60s used standard construction methods of the time—galvanized steel pipes for water supply, cast iron for drains. Those galvanized lines are 60 to 70 years old now and failing. Copper became standard in later construction. The Pajarito Acres area and Western Area subdivisions from the 80s and 90s have more modern plumbing materials. Municipal water and sewer cover the town proper, but some county properties near Los Alamos still use wells and septic. The infrastructure is generally more uniform than Santa Fe because of the planned nature of development, but that uniformity means whole neighborhoods age together.

How Los Alamos's Climate Affects Your Systems

Winter: Los Alamos winters are brutal on heating systems. We're talking sustained cold from November through March, with nighttime lows regularly in the single digits or below zero. Heating systems run nearly continuously, and any weakness shows up fast. Furnaces and boilers need to be properly sized for the altitude and the heating load, or they'll struggle to keep up. Frozen pipes are a constant risk despite homes generally having better insulation than Santa Fe's older stock. The dry cold here is intense, and wind chill on the mesas makes it worse. Snow can pile up, creating ice dam issues on roofs and blocking venting for gas appliances. We keep parts stocked for common heating system failures because when something breaks in January, people need it fixed now.

Summer: Summer is brief and generally pleasant, though afternoon thunderstorms are common in July and August. These storms can be intense—heavy rain, hail, high winds—and occasionally cause drainage issues or flooding in low-lying areas. It's the best time for any major HVAC work or replumbing projects because heating demands are low and weather cooperates. AC systems get limited use compared to lower elevations, but they still need maintenance.

Year-Round: The altitude never stops affecting HVAC systems. Gas furnaces, boilers, and water heaters need high-altitude burner orifices and properly calculated venting, or they won't burn efficiently and can create carbon monoxide hazards. Air is thinner, so forced-air systems have to move more volume to heat the same space compared to sea level. Temperature swings are significant even in summer—40-degree difference between night and day is normal. Water quality causes mineral buildup year-round, though not as aggressively as Santa Fe. Pressure in the municipal water system is generally good, though the mesa topography creates some variation.