Drain Cleaning in Denver, CO

Capitol Hill, Highland, Baker, Washington Park, Congress Park and the Park Hill neighborhoods are full of Denver Squares, bungalows and Victorians from the 1890s through the 1930s. Nearly all have basements, and most still drain through vitrified clay tile laterals running under front lawns and tree lawns lined with elms, silver maples and cottonwoods.

Postwar neighborhoods like Harvey Park, Virginia Village, Hampden and much of southwest and northeast Denver were built from the late 1940s through the 1960s, many with clay or cast iron laterals and some with Orangeburg fiber pipe.

Stapleton, now Central Park, Lowry and the new apartment and townhome blocks across RiNo, LoHi and the Highlands have been built since the 1990s with PVC drains.

Denver's soil varies from sandy river bottoms along the Platte to swelling clay on the east side. Winter freezes and spring snowmelt both stress old pipe.

Sewer scopes are a standard part of home inspections in Denver, and many buyers learn about their lateral's condition before closing.

Denver Wastewater Management collects sewage within the city, and Metro Water Recovery treats it. Denver homeowners own the sewer service line all the way to the public main, including the section under the street.

Spring snowmelt and May and June hailstorms bring the most water into the soil, and roots grow fastest in early summer. Basement backups cluster then.

Winter cold snaps can push temperatures well below zero. Lines in crawlspaces, garages and shallow laterals can freeze, and frozen yard hydrants are common.

Capitol Hill, Highland, Baker, Wash Park and the Park Hill neighborhoods were built between 1890 and 1930, and their laterals are vitrified clay tile laid in two- or three-foot sections. Every joint is a gap roots can find. A sewer scope in these neighborhoods almost always shows roots, and often shows offset joints or a sag near the street. Lining or pipe bursting replaces the line without digging up tree lawns and old sidewalks.

Nearly every older Denver home has a basement, and many have been finished into bedrooms and family rooms. The basement floor drain is the lowest point in the plumbing, so when the main backs up, sewage shows up there first, sometimes soaking carpet and drywall. A backwater valve on the main line can stop it, and keeping the floor drain trap filled keeps sewer gas out.

Denver's older streets have tree lawns between the sidewalk and the curb, and the city has planted elms, maples, lindens and honey locusts there for over a century. Those trees sit right over many laterals. Roots enter at the joint closest to the street, so clogs that keep happening forty or fifty feet out are classic. Because the homeowner owns the line to the main, repairs under the street are also the owner's responsibility.

In Highland, Sloan's Lake, Berkeley and other neighborhoods, many older bungalows have been scraped and replaced with modern homes. New houses often connect to the original clay lateral. Scoping it before the new landscaping goes in can save a messy surprise.

In late May, after a week of snowmelt and rain, a family in a 1925 bungalow in Washington Park finds sewage coming up through the basement floor drain. The plumber clears the main from the basement cleanout, cutting a dense root mass from a silver maple about forty-five feet out, then runs a camera that shows an offset joint under the tree lawn. The family schedules pipe bursting.

Denver's winters swing from sunny 50s to subzero arctic blasts. Shallow laterals, lines in crawlspaces and garage drains can freeze. Keep garage doors closed, insulate exposed pipe and let faucets drip during cold snaps.

Harvey Park, Virginia Village and the ranch-home neighborhoods from the 1950s and 1960s have clay or cast iron laterals, and some have Orangeburg. Many have basements too. A sewer scope shows which material you have and its condition.

RiNo, LoHi, Five Points and the light rail corridors are full of new apartments with shared building drains. Property managers who jet them on schedule avoid most backups.

Denver Water draws from mountain reservoirs, and while it's softer than many western cities, some minerals still build up in traps, shower drains and water heaters over the years. Pull and clean bathroom traps every few years, keep a hair catcher in each shower and flush the water heater annually. A sink that slows a little more each month usually has a crusted or hair-packed trap, not a main line problem.

Give your neighborhood and the home's age, whether there's a basement and whether water came up through the floor drain. Mention trees in the tree lawn and whether the home was scraped and rebuilt.