24/7 Drain Cleaning & Sewer Service in Greeley, CO

The historic core around downtown, the University District and the blocks near Lincoln Park have homes from the 1880s through the 1930s, many with basements or cellars and clay tile laterals under huge American elms and cottonwoods.

Neighborhoods built from the 1940s through the 1970s, spreading west and south of downtown along 10th Street and 23rd Avenue, have brick ranches and split-levels with full basements and clay or cast iron laterals.

West Greeley, out past 47th Avenue toward 83rd Avenue and Highway 34, has grown since the 1980s with PVC drains, finished basements and ejector pumps in many homes.

The city sits near the confluence of the Cache la Poudre and South Platte rivers on a mix of sandy river soils and clay that swells after wet springs.

Greeley is home to the University of Northern Colorado, a large meatpacking and food processing industry and a growing oil and gas workforce, with many rental homes near campus and downtown.

The City of Greeley's water and sewer department operates the wastewater system and treatment plant. Greeley property owners maintain the sewer service line from the house to the public main.

Spring runoff and May and June storms soak the ground and push roots into old clay lines, making early summer the busiest time for basement backups. August move-in at UNC brings a wave of clogged rental drains.

Winter on the open plains brings arctic outbreaks, and drains in garages, crawlspaces and along exterior walls freeze in long cold snaps.

Greeley began as the Union Colony, a planned community organized by Nathan Meeker and backed by newspaper editor Horace Greeley. The colonists dug irrigation ditches and planted shade trees along wide streets on what had been dry prairie. Those elms, cottonwoods and maples grew into the canopy that defines the old neighborhoods today. Underneath them run clay tile sewer laterals that, in many cases, were installed in the early 1900s. Over a century, roots have worked into almost every joint.

The result is that main line calls in central Greeley are often about roots, and they tend to recur. Cutting the roots restores flow for a while, but lining or replacing the damaged sections is the long-term fix.

The University District and the blocks around the University of Northern Colorado are full of older homes converted to student rentals. Several tenants per house means a lot of showers, laundry and cooking running through an old clay lateral. Hair, grease and wipes build up fast, especially in homes where basements have been turned into bedrooms with their own bathrooms. Landlords who schedule a jetting each summer before move-in avoid many August and September emergencies.

Most older Greeley homes have a basement or at least a cellar, and the floor drain down there is the lowest point in the plumbing. When the main clogs, that is where water comes up first. In some very old homes, the cellar was dug shallow and the sewer exits just below the floor, which makes access tight. A backwater valve can protect a finished basement from future backups.

In mid-June, a family in a 1928 brick bungalow near Lincoln Park notices water seeping across the basement floor after a long run of laundry. The plumber clears the main from the basement cleanout with a root cutter and pulls back dense roots from a towering elm in the tree lawn about forty feet out. The camera shows cracked and offset clay joints along a ten foot stretch. The family chooses lining to avoid digging near the tree.

As Greeley grew after World War II, neighborhoods of brick ranches and split-levels spread west and south, often with cast iron under the house and clay out to the street. Those lines are now sixty to seventy years old, and scale in the cast iron or roots in the clay are common. Farther west, past 47th Avenue and toward the newer developments near Highway 34 and 83rd Avenue, homes have PVC drains and finished basements, sometimes with ejector pumps. Calls there are mostly about grease, wipes and pumps.

Greeley sits close to where the Cache la Poudre joins the South Platte. Neighborhoods near the river bottoms sit on sandy soil that can settle, while other parts of town are on clay that swells when wet and shrinks when dry. Either kind of movement can shift a lateral over the years, opening joints or creating bellies where waste collects. A camera inspection shows exactly where the line has moved.

Greeley's food processing plants run around the clock, and many households include shift workers, extended family or several adults sharing a home. Heavy use at odd hours, lots of cooking and full laundry schedules put steady pressure on drains. Grease from daily cooking is a leading cause of kitchen line clogs. Wiping pans before washing and keeping wipes out of toilets go a long way.

Greeley gets cold, windy winters, and arctic air can settle over the plains for days. Drains in garages, laundry lines along exterior walls and pipes in crawlspaces are the first to freeze. Close the garage door, insulate exposed pipe and keep a faucet dripping when temperatures drop below zero. A frozen drain should be thawed gently with warm air, never an open flame.

Downtown Greeley's restaurants and breweries occupy historic buildings with old sewer lines, and the corridors along 10th Street, 23rd Avenue and US 34 add many more kitchens. Interceptors pumped on schedule and lines jetted regularly keep them running, especially before busy events like the Greeley Stampede in summer.

Tell them your neighborhood and the home's age, whether there's a basement or cellar and whether it's a rental near UNC. Mention any large elms or cottonwoods along the sewer path, where the water showed up and whether it started after a storm, snowmelt or a cold snap.