A pressure-reducing valve hidden in an irrigation box behind a Boulevard Bluffs house, replaced by Chase in September 2026 and checked again later that month
Location: Boulevard Bluffs, Everett, WA
Service: Pressure-reducing valve replacement
Technician: Chase
While installing a new water tank at a house in Boulevard Bluffs, Chase found the house running at 120 psi, half again the 80 psi the plumbing code allows. Its pressure-reducing valve was not next to the main shutoff where most of them sit. It was buried in an irrigation box behind the house, and in September 2026 Chase came back to replace it.
What We Did
The box sat in the gravel bed along the back of the house with its lid closed, and the valve inside was bedded in sand. Chase dug it out, replaced the three-quarter-inch regulator with a new one and checked every joint in the box for leaks. With the new valve in, his gauge read 62 psi at the front hose bib.
Before he left, he walked the homeowner through it: what a pressure-reducing valve does, where this one is, and where the water meter sits, partway up the ivy-covered slope above the road and marked with a blue flag.
Later that month the homeowner noticed an intermittent hum when the dishwasher, the washing machine or the shower was running. He could feel it at the valve outside, and opening a sink made it stop. By the time our crew came back on September 24, the sound had stopped on its own and had not returned. The house read 64 psi, right where Chase had set it, and the crew's best explanation was a little sand that slipped into the line while the old valve was apart and had since worked its way through. That visit was no charge.
Why It Matters
- Gauge the house on any water heater job. A pressure reading during a tank install is how this house's 120 psi came to light.
- Know where your regulator is. Most sit just past the main shutoff in a garage, basement or crawl space. This one was buried in a yard box, which made it easy to forget.
- A new noise after a repair is worth a call. Most settle down, as this one did, but a gauge reading is the only way to know the valve is holding its setting.
- Show the next person where it is. Chase made sure the homeowner knew where the valve and the meter are, so finding them next time does not start with a shovel.
Why Boulevard Bluffs
Boulevard Bluffs sits on the slope above the water in south Everett, where a house's pressure depends on how far below its supply it sits, and where regulators turn up wherever the original plumbing put them. Everett's city code makes the regulator on a house's water service the owner's to install and maintain, so knowing where yours is, and gauging the house once a year, is part of owning a home on the bluff. Our shop in Old Town Mukilteo is about ten minutes away.
Pressure that jumped, pipes that hum, or a valve you have never found? Call and we will gauge the house and find it. Related: water pressure testing in Everett · water pressure testing and PRV replacement · plumbing in Everett · pressure-reducing valve questions, answered · water heater service