Is your water pressure or supply failing in Custer County?
We've been working water systems across the Wet Mountain Valley for over 15 years, covering Westcliffe, Silver Cliff, and the ranches and rural parcels spread through the Sangre de Cristo foothills. Custer County sits in the Arkansas Basin, which means specific state rules govern your well — and specific geology shapes what breaks and why. This page explains what we see out here and what we can do about it.
- National Ground Water Association
- Colorado Water Well Contractors Association
- Bonded & insured
- Free estimates and project quotes
What's going wrong
Water problems in the Wet Mountain Valley tend to follow patterns
The high valley floor, the rocky Sangre de Cristo benches, and the alluvial draws along Grape Creek each put different stress on a water system. Here's what callers from Custer County describe most often.
What we do out here
Supply-side work from your well to the building — nothing else
Everything from the wellhead to where the line enters your house is our territory. Interior plumbing, fixtures, water heaters, and drains are not — we'll tell you who to call for those.
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Well pump service and repair
We pull, inspect, and replace submersible and jet pumps across Custer County. Pump work is often the middle option cost-wise — more than a tank recharge, less than a full line replacement or cistern install. We carry parts for most common makes.
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Pressure tank replacement
The tank that looks like a propane tank holds pressurized water so your pump isn't running constantly. When it waterloggs, pressure swings wildly. Replacing it is frequently the least expensive repair on a struggling system.
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Water line repair and replacement
Rocky soil, deep frost lines, and the occasional equipment strike from ag or grazing operations all crack lines out here. We locate, excavate, repair, and backfill — and we use proper bedding so the fix holds through the next freeze cycle.
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Cistern installation and repair
Some parcels in Custer County have low-yield wells that can't keep up with household demand. A properly sized cistern and transfer pump lets a slow well fill storage overnight and deliver on demand during the day. We install new cisterns and service existing ones.
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Water filtration
Alluvial and fractured-rock aquifers in the Arkansas Basin can carry sediment, iron, or biological load depending on the season and the well's construction. We size and install filtration at the supply side — before the water enters the house.
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Septic system service
Many rural Custer County properties have no municipal sewer connection. We service and repair septic systems on the same visit as water work when the schedule allows, which saves a separate trip fee.
We work supply side only — well to the building envelope; interior plumbing, fixtures, water heaters, and drains are outside what we do.
How a call usually goes
What happens when you call, from cheapest to most involved
We name likely causes in order of cost because that's what you'd want a neighbor with 15 years of pump experience to do. Here's the typical sequence.
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Free estimate and phone triage
Before anyone drives out, we talk through what you're seeing. A lot of Custer County symptoms point clearly to one or two causes over the phone. This costs nothing and sometimes saves a trip entirely.
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Pressure tank check and recharge
If the tank has just lost its air charge, we can restore it without replacement — the cheapest outcome on this list. If the bladder is gone, replacing the tank is still less expensive than pulling the pump.
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Pump inspection and testing
We test amp draw, flow rate, and pump response before pulling anything. Sometimes a capacitor or control box is the actual problem, which costs a fraction of a pump replacement. We won't pull a pump we don't need to pull.
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Line location and repair
If the problem is in the buried line, we locate the fault, excavate, repair, and backfill. Line work varies with depth and soil — rocky bench land runs harder than valley floor — but it's usually in the mid-range cost-wise.
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Pump replacement
When a pump has reached end of life, we pull it, match the replacement to your well's yield and depth, and set it correctly. All parts carry our 1-year labor and materials warranty, and equipment from us carries a 5-year dealer warranty.
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Cistern or filtration install
Low-yield wells or water quality issues that can't be resolved at the source call for a longer-term infrastructure fix. These are the most involved projects cost-wise, but they're also the ones that change how reliable your system is for the next decade.
Free estimates, real answers, no pressure to buy anything we don't think you need.
- Free estimates — we quote after we diagnose
- One year on labor and materials
- Colorado License #1447
Why the cheap answer is safe to give
We can afford to tell you it is the cheap part
Not because we are nicer than the next outfit. Because of how this business is built — and all three of these are checkable.
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No rig to keep busy
A drilling rig is the most expensive thing a water contractor can own, and it has to stay working to pay for itself. We do not own one. A new well is not on our list of answers, because we could not drill it if we wanted to.
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We are a dealer, not a manufacturer
Authorized dealer — that is where the five-year equipment warranty comes from. We do not build pumps and we do not carry a quota on them. A pump we talk you out of costs us nothing.
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A wrong diagnosis comes back to us
One year on labor and materials means we are the ones who drive back out if the fix does not hold. Guessing expensive is not only dishonest here — it is expensive for us.
None of that is a claim about our character. You do not have to take our word for any of it — the license, the association memberships and the warranty terms are all verifiable, and they are the same on paper as they are on this page.
Questions we get asked
Before you call
We don't drill wells — no rig. That's actually the point: because we have no financial stake in whether you need a new well, we'll tell you honestly if that's the real answer. If it is, we'll refer you to a licensed driller and explain what to ask them.
Yes. Custer County sits in the Arkansas Basin, which has its own Division of Water Resources rules around well permits, spacing, and allowed uses. Those rules affect what you can legally pump and how a new well must be permitted. We've linked the basin rules page below.
Start with the pressure tank. A pump that won't shut off almost always means the tank has lost its air charge and the pump is carrying the whole load itself. That's the cheapest thing to check and it's often the fix. We can usually confirm it over the phone before anyone drives out.
We cover all of Custer County — Westcliffe, Silver Cliff, and the rural parcels out to the county edges. Our service area runs 75 miles from Weston, so the valley and surrounding ranch land are well within range.
That's worth acting on. Wells along Grape Creek and other alluvial draws in the valley can pick up surface water infiltration after heavy runoff, especially if the well casing seal has degraded over time. We can inspect the wellhead and the casing seal, and recommend filtration or remediation depending on what the water test shows.
Not necessarily. The most common cause is a tripped breaker or a blown fuse in the pump control box, both of which cost nothing to reset. Check the breaker panel and the box near the pressure tank first. If resetting doesn't restore water, call us and we'll walk through the next steps.
We back labor and materials for one year on everything we do. Equipment we supply as an authorized dealer carries an additional 5-year equipment warranty. We put that in writing.
Often yes, depending on what each job requires. If you've got issues on both sides, let us know when you call and we'll see whether the schedule allows us to combine them — one trip out to a rural property is better than two.
If your situation doesn't fit cleanly into what's above, call (719) 859-1148 — we answer 24 hours Monday through Saturday and we'd rather talk it through than have you guess. Call (719) 859-1148
Before you call
A few things to note down — it makes the conversation faster
You don't need to have all of this, but anything you can tell us shortens the diagnosis and saves a trip.
- When it started. Even a rough timeline — 'after the last hard freeze' or 'about three weeks ago' — helps narrow the cause significantly.
- What the pump sounds like. Short rapid cycling, constant running, or complete silence each point in different directions. If you can safely listen at the pressure tank, note what you hear.
- Your well permit number or driller's log if you have it. This tells us the well depth, casing size, and original yield — information that's very useful before we pull anything out.
- Whether anything changed recently. New appliance, heavy irrigation, a nearby excavation, a power outage — changes in usage or conditions often explain why a system that was stable for years has started struggling.
If you don't have any of it, that's fine — we've diagnosed systems with a lot less.
Tell us what the water is doing.
We’ll tell you what it usually turns out to be, what it will take to confirm it, and what it costs — before we touch anything.
Call (719) 859-1148Answering 24 hours a day, Monday through Saturday
- Colorado License #1447 · bonded and insured
- One year on labor and materials, five on equipment
- Free estimates and project quotes — we quote after we diagnose
- NGWA and Colorado Water Well Contractors Association
Or have us call you back
If you are on bad signal or would rather not talk right now.