24/7 Drain Cleaning & Sewer Service in Louisville, KY

Old Louisville, one of the largest Victorian neighborhoods in the country, along with Butchertown, Germantown, Schnitzelburg and Portland, has homes from the 1860s through the 1910s, with basements or crawlspaces and clay laterals.

The Highlands, Crescent Hill, Clifton and the neighborhoods along Bardstown Road and Frankfort Avenue were built from the 1880s through the 1930s.

The South End and neighborhoods like Beechmont, Iroquois and Shively filled in from the 1920s through the 1960s with bungalows and ranches.

The East End and suburban Jefferson County grew from the 1950s onward with ranches, split-levels and newer subdivisions.

About a third of the urban core has combined sewers, and the Metropolitan Sewer District built the Waterway Protection Tunnel to reduce overflows into the Ohio River and Beargrass Creek.

Louisville MSD, the Metropolitan Sewer District, runs the wastewater system for Louisville and Jefferson County. Homeowners own the private lateral from the house to the public sewer.

Spring and summer thunderstorms overload the combined sewers and flood low basements, and roots grow fastest in summer. Derby season in late April and early May fills restaurants and rentals.

Winter cold snaps freeze pipes in crawlspaces, back additions and exterior walls of shotgun houses.

Old Louisville, just south of downtown, has about 48 blocks of Victorian mansions and row houses built from the 1870s through the 1900s, many with basements. Big trees line the streets and fill the courtyards like St. James Court. Clay laterals under those trees are often original, and roots are the leading cause of backups. Many large homes have been divided into apartments, adding heavy use.

Germantown, Schnitzelburg, Butchertown, Portland and other older neighborhoods are full of shotgun houses, narrow homes one room wide and several rooms deep, built for German, Irish and working families in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Most sit on crawlspaces or shallow basements, with the bathroom and kitchen at the back and a long lateral running to the street or alley. Long runs give roots more chances, and some homes have no cleanout.

Louisville's urban core has combined sewers that carry rain and wastewater together, and for decades they overflowed into the Ohio River and Beargrass Creek during storms. MSD built the Waterway Protection Tunnel, a four-mile tunnel 200 feet underground, and other storage basins to capture overflow. Local sewers can still surcharge in big storms, and low basements can take on water. Backflow devices help.

The Highlands, along Bardstown Road, and Crescent Hill, along Frankfort Avenue, have Victorian homes, bungalows and Tudors from the 1880s through the 1930s on tree-lined streets. Clay laterals and big trees mean roots. Some neighborhoods sit near Beargrass Creek, where flooding is a risk.

After a June thunderstorm, a family in an 1895 shotgun house in Germantown sees the bathtub fill with dirty water. There's no outside cleanout, so the plumber goes under the house, opens the line and cables toward the street, cutting roots from a big maple about forty feet out. The camera shows cracked clay. They add a cleanout and plan a liner.

Parts of Louisville and Jefferson County sit on limestone karst with sinkholes. When the limestone dissolves under a lateral, the pipe loses its support and can sag or snap. If the ground sinks over the sewer path, have it inspected.

Beechmont, Iroquois, Shively and the South End filled in from the 1920s through the 1960s with bungalows and ranches for workers at the Ford, GE Appliance Park and distillery plants. Their cast iron and clay pipe is now seventy to a hundred years old, and scale inside and roots outside are what the camera usually finds.

The Kentucky Derby brings huge crowds in late April and early May, and restaurants, bars and short-term rentals run at capacity. Bourbon distilleries and the restaurants along Whiskey Row, NuLu and Bardstown Road put a lot of waste into the system. Kitchens that pump their interceptors ahead of Derby week rarely shut down during it.

The Ohio River flood of 1937 put about 70 percent of Louisville under water, and the floodwall and levee system built afterward protects much of the city. Behind the floodwall, storm water must be pumped over during high water, and local sewers can back up when the river is high and it rains hard.

The East End and suburban Jefferson County have ranches, split-levels and newer subdivisions with cast iron, early plastic or PVC drains. Calls there are mostly about grease, wipes and roots in older lines.

Louisville winters bring cold snaps and occasional ice storms. Shotgun houses with crawlspaces and back additions are vulnerable. Close crawlspace vents and keep a faucet dripping on the coldest nights.

In older homes, the kitchen and bathroom at the back often sit over an unheated addition, so those pipes freeze long before the ones in the front rooms.

Share the neighborhood, the home's type and age, whether it has a basement or crawlspace and whether there's a cleanout. Mention whether a storm came first.