Sewer Line Replacement in Denver, CO

Replacing a failed sewer or drain line, start to finish

The sewer line, or drain line, is the buried pipe that carries everything from your house to the municipal main. When it fails, the symptoms rarely stay in the yard: slow drains throughout the house, gurgling, sewage smells, and eventually a backup into the lowest drain. Replacement means exposing the pipe, removing the damaged section or the whole run, and laying new pipe in its place.

Much of Denver's older housing was built with vitrified clay sewer pipe or cast iron, installed in short sections joined at the seams. Those joints are where roots get in and soil shifts them out of line, and over many decades the pipe cracks or breaks. The expansive clay soils common along the Front Range move with moisture, which can pull a rigid line out of alignment even without roots.

New lines go in as PVC, which has smooth walls and long sections with far fewer joints, set in a gravel bed with the slope drainage requires. We also handle the details that decide whether the job is clean: locating buried utilities first, protecting the surrounding area, and restoring the surface once the pipe is in and tested.

Signs your sewer line may need replacing

• Backups that return after cleaning. A line that clogs repeatedly, even after it has been cleared, often has a break, a low spot or roots at a joint.
• Multiple drains slow or gurgling. Problems in more than one fixture point away from a single branch and toward the main line.
• Sewage smell in the yard or basement. A cracked line leaks gas and wastewater into the soil.
• Soft, sunken or unusually green patches along the line path. Wastewater escaping from the pipe waters the soil above it, and sinking is the soil settling into a void.
• A camera inspection showing a crack, low spot or collapse. If a drain company has already inspected the line and found damage, replacement is usually the lasting fix.
• A home built before the 1960s with the original clay or cast iron line. Age alone does not mean failure, but these are the lines that fail most often.

How a sewer line replacement is done

1. Locate and plan

   We confirm where the line runs and where it fails. Before any digging, buried utility lines are marked through Colorado 811, which is required before excavation.

2. Excavate to the pipe

   We open a trench along the line, or at the failed section, taking care around foundations, fences and landscaping.

3. Remove old pipe, lay new PVC

   The damaged clay or iron comes out. New PVC goes in on a bed of gravel at the right slope, with joints sealed and a cleanout installed where access is needed.

4. Test and tie in

   We confirm the line carries water freely and the connections at the house and at the main are sound. Where the work requires an inspection, we arrange it.

5. Backfill and restore

   The trench is backfilled and compacted, and soil, concrete or a floor slab is put back or patched so you can use the area again.

What affects the cost of a sewer line replacement

Replacement is quoted per job because no two lines are alike. These are the factors that move the price most:

Why Perez Plumbing for sewer line replacement

Replacing a sewer line is the work Jaime knows best: digging it, cutting out the old pipe, laying new PVC at the right slope, and finishing the job so the trench does not turn into a sunken strip in your yard a year later.

He explains what he finds in the trench and what each option costs. If a spot repair will do the job, you will hear that. If the whole run is failing, you will see why.

Where we do this work

We replace sewer and drain lines in Denver, especially in older neighborhoods, and in nearby Lakewood, Aurora, Littleton and Englewood.