How hard is the water in Rockingham County, VA?
13.6 grains per gallon
A softener will pay its way here.
The median hardness measured in Rockingham County, VA is 232 mg/L as calcium carbonate, which is 13.6 gpg. That is very hard on the USGS scale. It comes from 258 samples at 61 sites between 1992 and 2026, drawn from groundwater wells, which is what most taps and private wells in the county draw on.
How much it varies here
Half the sites came in between 11.3 and 18.2 gpg. The whole middle of that range gives the same answer, so a test of your own tap is unlikely to change it. Confidence in the county figure: high (how it is measured).
What to do next
At 13.6 gpg a softener pays its way here. Before you buy, check the quoted unit's grain capacity against the sizing table below, and ask whether it regenerates on demand, which uses less salt than a timer. Call your utility for its own report if you are on city water.
More on sizing a softener for your household.
From 2.7 to 30.0 gpg
The softest single sample on record in Rockingham County was 45.5 mg/L and the hardest 514 mg/L, an 11-fold gap. The top quarter of sites read above 18.2 gpg and the bottom quarter below 11.3 gpg. So even here some sites draw water soft enough to need nothing at all.
Wells 13.6 gpg, rivers and lakes 9.8 gpg
258 groundwater samples from 61 wells put the median at 232 mg/L. 1,645 surface samples from 92 sites put it at 167.5 mg/L. In Rockingham County the wells come out 3.8 gpg harder. Groundwater sits in contact with rock for years and picks up calcium and magnesium as it goes, so wells usually read harder. A utility here that draws from the river can deliver noticeably different water from a private well next door.
What a softener would cost to run
For a household of 3, a 24,000-grain unit covers a week between regenerations. Expect about 296 lb of salt a year (8 bags of 40 lb, about $53), and roughly 2,346 gallons of regeneration water. Installed, most units run $1,000 to $4,500; spread over 15 years with salt, that is about $153 a year.
Sizing at 13.6 gpg
| People | Grains a day | Unit | Salt a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 816 | 24,000 | 99 lb |
| 2 | 1,632 | 24,000 | 199 lb |
| 4 | 3,264 | 24,000 | 397 lb |
| 6 | 4,896 | 40,000 | 596 lb |
Rockingham County against the rest of Virginia
Among the 126 Virginia counties with data, Rockingham County is number 9 of 126 counting from the hardest. Across the whole country it is harder than 64% of counties.
Softest in Virginia: Isle of Wight County at 0.4 gpg. Hardest: Clarke County at 20.1 gpg. Closest to Rockingham County: Montgomery County (13.6), Lee County (13.4), Bristol city (13.4).