Plumbing in Colorado is freeze, heaving ground, and a mix of old city pipe and foothill wells. Exterior walls, crawl spaces, and hose bibs let go on a hard night after a mild afternoon, which this state delivers often. Older Front Range houses still hide galvanized lines and clay sewer laterals. Expansive clay shifts those laterals and opens joints that roots then find. Spring melt and summer storms test foundation drains and basements. The western slope adds irrigation ties and harder heat on water heaters. Mountain houses add long freeze seasons and sometimes long runs from a well. Say which of those houses you have before you describe the puddle.
Know the main shutoff. Say if you have used it. Separate a burst supply from a slow drain, and separate both from groundwater in a basement. A cable clears a clog and does not repair a broken or shifted sewer. Ask whether a camera is included, especially where clay soil moves. On a heater, say gas or electric and ask for a shutoff, a pan, a discharge line, and haul-away. Ask whether the flue and the combustion air make sense at this elevation before a like-for-like swap is assumed. A frozen condensate line on a furnace can look like a plumbing leak. Mention the air handler if the water is near it.
Wells and septic fields need to be named. So does a backflow device on an irrigation system, without turning the call into a lecture. If the leak started on a thaw, say so. If the yard has a low spot that enters the basement every June, say that too. Those are different repairs from a dripping angle stop.
A chinook thaw is a plumbing event. Snow leaves, clay moves, and a lateral that was quiet all winter opens or backs up. Say if the trouble started on a warm wind after a freeze. That pattern belongs to the Front Range and the mountain edge, not to a steady drip from a tired washer.
Do not leave a freeze or a sewer backup through another night. Call the number on this page.