Root Intrusion Removal
The defining downtown problem. Cleared properly, then inspected so you know what is left.
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Oldest pipe in the city
Plumbers in Downtown Greeley, where the pipe is a century old
Brick homes, mature trees and clay sewer laterals. Downtown has the most character in Greeley and the most demanding plumbing to go with it.
(970) 973-0235
What we find here
Three things go wrong in downtown houses, and they are all age
The housing stock between 8th Avenue and the river is largely pre-war, and a good share of it still runs on the infrastructure it was built with. That produces a very consistent set of calls.
First, clay sewer laterals. Vitrified clay was the standard here well into the 1950s, laid in short sections with mortared or gasketed joints. The pipe itself is remarkably durable; it does not corrode, but every joint is a seam, and every seam is an invitation. Add eighty-year-old street trees with root systems the size of the house and you get the single most common downtown call: a lateral that clears with a cable, then closes again nine months later.
Second, galvanized supply. Steel pipe rusts from the inside, and after this many decades the bore of a three-quarter-inch line can be down to a pencil width. It shows as brown water after the house has sat empty, weak pressure at upstairs fixtures, and flow that collapses the moment a second tap opens.
Third, cast iron drain stacks. The vertical stacks in these houses are cast iron, and they scale, then channel along the bottom, then finally rot through: usually at the base, in a crawlspace or a basement wall, where nobody looks.
None of that is a reason to panic. It is a reason to know what you own before it decides for you.
Call about an older home
We start with a camera, not a quote.
Roots
Downtown’s tree canopy is the reason your lateral keeps closing
The mature elms, maples and cottonwoods that make these streets worth living on are also the most persistent plumbing adversary in the city. A root does not break into a sound pipe. It finds a joint that is already weeping a little vapor, sends a hair-fine tendril through, and then thickens inside the pipe where there is water and nutrient and no competition.
By the time it backs your basement up, the mass inside the line looks like a wet rope. Cabling cuts a channel through it, which restores flow and tells you nothing about how much is left. That is why we camera the line after clearing rather than before: with the blockage gone, the camera can actually see the joint the roots came through and how bad the pipe around it is.
From there the options are honest ones. Annual maintenance cabling on a line that is otherwise sound is a legitimate long-term plan and plenty of downtown homeowners run it that way. Hydro jetting scours the walls properly rather than boring a hole. And if the pipe is cracked or offset at the joint, a trenchless liner or pipe burst avoids trenching a mature front garden, which on these lots is worth a great deal.
The one thing we will not do is sell you a replacement line without showing you the footage that justifies it.
Camera after, not beforeWith the blockage cleared, the camera can see the joint the roots came through and the state of the pipe around it.
Basements
Old basements, floor drains and the water that comes back up
Nearly every downtown house has a basement, and most of those basements have a floor drain that predates any of the current occupants. When a lateral restricts, that floor drain is the lowest opening in the system and therefore the first place sewage reappears.
The tell that separates a blocked lateral from a blocked branch is simple: if the floor drain backs up when someone upstairs flushes or runs a washing machine, the restriction is downstream of everything, out in the main lateral. If only one fixture is slow, it is local.
Two things are worth doing in a basement like this even when nothing is currently wrong. One is knowing where the cleanout is, on many of these houses it is outside near the foundation and has been buried under decades of soil and landscaping. Finding it on a calm afternoon is much better than finding it at midnight with water rising. The other is considering a backwater valve, which stops the city main pushing back into your basement during a surcharge event.
If the basement has been finished at some point, we are also looking for whether the original floor drain was covered over during that work, which is more common than you would think and turns a manageable backup into a much worse one.
Book a camera inspection
Footage, a written finding, and no pressure.
Find the cleanout first On many downtown lots it is buried outside near the foundation. Locate it before you need it.
Remodelling
What to check before you renovate a historic Greeley house
Downtown renovation work goes wrong in predictable ways, almost all of them because the plumbing behind the walls was assumed rather than checked.
Before you commit to a bathroom, find out what the supply pipe is. If it is galvanized, tiling over it is throwing money at a wall you will open again. Repiping in copper or PEX during a remodel is dramatically cheaper than repiping afterwards, and it is the single best-value decision available in a house of this era.
Check the drain and vent arrangement too. A lot of pre-war houses were plumbed to a code that no longer exists, with vents that would not pass inspection today. Adding a fixture to a stack that is already marginally vented produces a bathroom that gurgles and smells and nobody can explain why.
And check the gas line if you are moving a range or adding a fireplace. Older black iron is often adequate but frequently undersized for what people now want to hang off it.
We are happy to walk a house before you buy or before you start, and give you a plain assessment of what is behind the plaster. It is a short visit and it changes budgets.
Book a pre-renovation walkthrough
Plain findings, in writing, before you commit to a scope.
Parking and access downtown
Narrow lots, alley access and street parking make some downtown addresses slower to work than the square footage suggests, particularly for anything needing a jetter or an excavator. Tell us about alley access, gate widths and any parking restrictions when you book, it changes the equipment we bring and stops a job stalling on arrival.
Services here
What downtown homes call us for most
Sewer Camera Inspection
Footage of your actual lateral, so any recommendation comes with evidence.
See details →Trenchless Sewer Repair
Liner and pipe-burst repairs that avoid trenching a mature front garden.
See details →Repiping & Galvanized Replacement
Galvanized supply replaced in copper or PEX, ideally during a remodel.
See details →Basement Drain & Sewer Backup
Basement floor drains and sewage backups, answered around the clock.
See details →Boiler & Radiant Heat Service
A lot of these houses still run hydronic heat. We service boilers and radiant systems.
See details →
Nearby areas
Other areas we cover nearby
University District
A few blocks west, similar housing era, very different tenancy patterns.
Plumbers here →East Greeley
Older lots toward the river bottom where groundwater compounds everything.
Plumbers here →North Greeley
Mid-century ranches with the basements and sump pumps to match.
Plumbers here →Downtown Greeley plumbing questions
Most laterals serving pre-war downtown houses are vitrified clay, laid anywhere from the 1900s through the 1950s. Clay does not corrode, so the pipe body often survives remarkably well, but it is jointed every few feet and those joints are where roots enter and where offsets develop as the soil moves.
Not necessarily. A clay lateral with root intrusion but sound pipe walls can be maintained indefinitely with annual cabling or jetting, and plenty of downtown homeowners do exactly that. Replacement becomes the better answer when the camera shows cracks, a bellied section holding water, or a joint that has offset far enough to catch solids.
Look at the exposed supply lines in the basement. Galvanized steel is dull gray, magnetic, and joined with threaded fittings. Copper is obviously copper. Other signs are brown water after the house sits unused, poor pressure upstairs, and flow that collapses when a second tap opens. If it is galvanized in a pre-war Greeley house, assume it is well past its intended service life.
Usually, yes. Trenchless lining and pipe bursting both work from access pits rather than an open trench, which on a downtown lot with a mature tree and established landscaping is often the difference between a repair you can live with and one that ruins the garden. Whether your line is a candidate depends on its condition, which the camera tells us.
Most likely the trap under it has dried out, which lets sewer gas straight into the basement. Pour a couple of liters of water down it and the smell should stop within a day. If it does not, the trap may be cracked, or the smell is coming from a failed stack joint nearby, which is common in cast iron of this age.
It is worth considering seriously if your basement is finished, if you have had a backup before, or if your floor drain is the lowest point in a system connected to a main that surcharges in heavy rain. It is a mechanical flap that closes when flow tries to reverse. Installation means cutting the floor, so it is best done during other work if you can plan it.
Yes. A significant share of downtown houses still run hydronic heat, and we service boilers, circulators, zone valves and radiant systems. Old systems are often perfectly serviceable and worth maintaining rather than replacing, but they need someone who has seen them before.
It depends almost entirely on access, how much of the run is reachable from a basement or crawlspace versus buried in finished plaster walls. A house with an open basement and a straightforward layout is a very different job from one that has been finished throughout. We walk the house and quote from what we actually see rather than by square footage.
Usually, but tell us before we come. Jetters, cameras and excavation equipment all have different access needs, and narrow downtown lots with gates and alleys occasionally rule out a piece of kit. Knowing in advance means we bring the right van and the right crew size rather than discovering it on arrival.
Yes, dispatch is answered around the clock every day of the year, and downtown is one of the shortest runs in our coverage area. If you have water coming up through a floor drain or a burst supply line, shut the water off at the main and call, do not wait until morning.
Call (970) 973-0235
Historic house? Tell us the era on the phone. It changes what we bring.
Old house, older pipes?
Camera inspections, root work, repiping and 24/7 emergency response in Downtown Greeley.
(970) 973-0235Answered 24 hours a day, seven days a week, every week of the year.