Residential sewer lateral lining in Columbine

Three generations of pipe on one block

Walk a single street in an older part of Columbine and you can pass three eras of sewer construction without noticing. The pre-1950 houses, the bungalows and foursquares with full basements, drain through vitrified clay laid in short segments with mortar or tar joints, and after seventy or more years of soil movement nearly every one of those joints has shifted. The ranches and split-levels built from the 1950s into the 1970s typically have cast iron beneath the slab or basement floor and clay out in the yard; some postwar subdivisions in Jefferson County got Orangeburg, a tar-impregnated fiber pipe that flattens as it ages. Anything built since the late 1970s runs on PVC or ABS, which does not rust or let roots in at the joints but can still crack, belly or separate when the clay underneath it swells. Each material fails in its own way, and the camera is what tells you which one you have.

Why the clay and the trees always win

The Front Range sits on expansive soils. Bentonite clay takes on water during spring snowmelt and summer storms, swells, then shrinks and cracks as the dry season sets in. That is why foundations here are drilled onto piers, and it is why a lateral that was straight when it was laid now has an offset at every joint. Each offset is a place for groundwater to enter and for roots to follow. In a semi-arid climate, cottonwood, silver maple, elm and ash roots travel surprising distances toward a steady source of water, and a sewer joint that leaks a little is exactly that. A plumber's cable clears the roots and the drain runs again, until the next growing season. The joint has not changed, so the roots come back to it.

The pipe you own and the street you do not

In nearly every Front Range city and sanitation district, the lateral belongs to the homeowner as far as the tap on the main, which is usually under the street. The city owns the pavement, the utilities own what is buried beside your pipe, and the right-of-way permit and traffic control to dig there are your cost. Lining removes that cost. The liner runs from the cleanout to the main in one piece, and the sidewalk and street never come up. the verified installer covering Columbine handles the plumbing permit and the right-of-way permit and confirms whether Columbine requires a sewer scope or lateral certificate at point of sale, a rule that several Front Range jurisdictions now enforce.

Basement, slab or crawlspace

How the crew reaches the pipe depends on the house. An older home with a basement usually has a cleanout near the foundation wall, and the entire lateral can be lined from there. A slab-on-grade house in a newer subdivision may have an exterior cleanout in the yard, or need one installed, and the cast iron under the floor is lined from that single opening rather than by cutting the slab along the run. A crawlspace house gives access at the point where the drain exits the foundation. None of these require trenching the yard, and on a foothill lot where shallow bedrock would turn a trench into a rock-breaking job, that is a considerable saving.

What the install day looks like

The crew arrives, confirms the camera findings, and jets the line clean down to bare pipe so the liner can seat. The resin-saturated liner is inverted or pulled into the host pipe, inflated, and cured over a few hours with hot water or steam. Branch lines from a basement bathroom or a floor drain are cut back in with a robotic cutter, and a final camera pass records the finished pipe. Water use pauses during the cure, and most homes are back in service the same evening. The work goes on in January as readily as June, since the pipe is below frost and the cure is heat-driven.

When the line is past lining

Some laterals cannot be saved. Orangeburg that has gone oval, a clay segment that has collapsed, a long belly that holds water, or a four-inch pipe serving what has become a duplex each call for replacement by pipe bursting, where new HDPE is drawn along the old alignment between two small pits. The decision is made from the video, not from the curb. The methods are explained without a sales angle at the CIPP reference.

What to ask for

Ask for the pre-repair recording and a written finding before any quote. Ask that the quote name the method, the liner material, the cure method and the warranty term. Ask for the post-cure video. And check that the contractor is listed at the verified installer directory, where installers are held to a published standard.

Estimates are free. Call now: (720) 606-6223.

Residential services in Columbine

Questions about residential work in Columbine