# Sewer and Water Line Services in Denver, Colorado Denver Sewer and Water repairs, replaces, and taps sewer and water lines across the City and County of Denver. We scope the line with a camera before quoting anything that involves digging, we pull the Denver permits ourselves, and our own crews do the excavation and the restoration. That is the whole answer to what we do here. Denver is not one kind of underground. The pre-1950 core from Baker and Capitol Hill out through Park Hill and the Highlands is largely vitrified clay laterals in short jointed sections, with cast iron inside the building and galvanized or older water services out to the main. Those neighborhoods fail at the joints, and mature street trees do most of the finding. Postwar Denver, roughly Harvey Park through Virginia Village, mixes clay, early cast iron, and Orangeburg, which deforms instead of cracking. Newer Denver, Green Valley Ranch, Central Park, and the redeveloped corridors, runs PVC and copper, and the calls there are usually construction damage, settlement, or a belly rather than material failure. The other thing that makes Denver work different is the street. In Denver the property owner owns the sanitary lateral all the way to the main, including the run under the sidewalk and under the pavement. When a defect sits in the right-of-way, the repair adds permitting, traffic control, and a restoration spec written to the surface we cut. We plan that into the quote instead of discovering it on the second day. We also do the work most plumbing companies subcontract out. Sewer taps, water taps, fire line taps, deep excavation, and coordination with Denver Water on the tap side are in-house here. If the job is buried and it is bigger than a snake, it is our lane. ## Who Has Authority Over Underground Work in Denver? Three separate authorities can touch one Denver job. Denver Water owns the water main and the tap and sets the tap application. Denver's wastewater side reviews and inspects sanitary sewer work and the connection to the main. Denver's transportation and infrastructure department controls any opening of the street, the alley, or the sidewalk, and it sets the restoration standard. In practice a water service replacement and a sewer lateral replacement on the same property follow two different approval tracks even when it is one trench in the ground. We carry both, schedule the inspections, and stay on site for them. - Water main and tap authority: Denver Water. - Sanitary sewer review, connection, and inspection: City and County of Denver. - Street, alley, and sidewalk opening: Denver right-of-way permitting, with traffic control where the street width requires it. - Tree protection rules apply along parkways and protected tree lawns. - Restoration is specified by the surface that was cut, not by what is cheapest to place. ## Tap and permit notes - A new or resized water tap in Denver is applied for through Denver Water, and the fee schedule is set by meter size rather than by the length of your service line. - Sewer taps into an existing Denver main require the main to be located and the new connection inspected before any backfill. We do not cover a connection that has not been seen. - Fire line taps carry their own sizing, backflow, and acceptance requirements, and the fire protection scope has to agree with the civil drawings before the tap goes in. - Right-of-way work in the older grid usually needs a traffic control plan because the residential streets are narrow and the parking is dense. - Concrete gets replaced with concrete. Restoration in Denver follows the surface spec for what was opened. ## Typical pipe era - Pre-1940 core: vitrified clay sewer laterals, bell and spigot, short sections, many joints. - Original water services in galvanized steel, with lead-era goosenecks on some of the oldest connections. - 1950s and 1960s: cast iron and early copper, often replaced only from the house to the property line. - Orangeburg in postwar infill and in mid-century repairs, failing by deforming rather than cracking. - Post-1990 and redevelopment areas: PVC laterals and type K copper water services. ## Common failure modes - Root intrusion at clay joints, heaviest under mature parkway trees. - Offset joints and bellies from decades of soil movement and expansive clay soils. - Galvanized water service scaling shut from the inside, which shows up as falling pressure rather than a leak. - Cast iron corroding through at the transition to the older clay run. - Shallow alley laterals cracked under repeated heavy truck loading. - Construction settlement and crushed pipe in redeveloped blocks and scrape lots. ## Areas served - Capitol Hill - Baker - Washington Park - Park Hill - Highlands and LoHi - Five Points and RiNo - Sloans Lake - Berkeley and Sunnyside - Harvey Park - Virginia Village - Green Valley Ranch - Central Park ## Response time Our shop is at 2491 W Iliff Ave in southwest Denver, so most of the city is a short drive for a scope or an emergency call. ## Frequently asked questions **Are you Denver Water or the City and County of Denver?** No. Denver Sewer and Water is a private, family owned and operated company. We are not Denver Water or the City and County of Denver. Denver Water owns the main and the tap and bills you for water service. We are the licensed contractor you hire to work on the pipe that belongs to your property, and we coordinate with Denver Water and with the city when a job touches their infrastructure. **In Denver, does the owner or the city own the sewer lateral?** The property owner is responsible for the sanitary lateral from the building out to the main, including the portion under the sidewalk and under the street. That is why a defect at the connection costs more than the same defect in the yard. The pipe length is similar, but the right-of-way work adds permitting, traffic control, and a restoration standard. **Do I need a permit to replace a sewer or water line in Denver?** Yes. Sanitary sewer work is reviewed and inspected by the city, water taps go through Denver Water, and anything that opens the street, alley, or sidewalk needs a right-of-way permit. We pull the permits and stand for the inspections rather than handing you a phone number and a form. **Can a Denver sewer line be repaired without digging up the yard?** Often, yes. Where the host pipe still holds its shape and the grade is sound, lining or pipe bursting rehabilitates the run from access pits instead of trenching its full length. Where the line has collapsed, lost slope, or has to be re-routed, excavation is the honest answer and we will tell you that before you spend money on a method that cannot work. **How do you decide between a repair and a full replacement?** The camera decides it. We look at material, depth, slope, the number of defects, and where they sit. One offset joint in an otherwise sound clay run is a spot repair. Repeated bellies, multiple separations, or a deformed Orangeburg line is a replacement, because spot repairs on a failing run just buy time at full price. **What does a sewer or water tap in Denver involve?** A tap is the connection between your private service line and the public main. It involves an application to the right authority, sizing, locating the main, excavating and shoring to reach it, making an inspected connection, and restoring the surface. Denver Water handles water tap authority and the city handles the sanitary side. We do the physical work and the coordination. **Do you work in the older neighborhoods with narrow alleys and protected trees?** Yes, and that is most of what we do. Tight lots, narrow alleys, mature canopy, and shallow alley laterals are normal conditions in the Denver core. They change access, equipment selection, and the traffic control plan, and they are part of the quote from the start. **Does Denver soil affect how sewer lines fail here?** It does. Expansive clay soils move seasonally with moisture, and that movement is what pulls jointed clay pipe out of alignment over decades. That is why offsets and bellies are so common in older Denver laterals, and why grade matters as much as material when we grade a line on camera. **Do you handle emergency line failures in Denver after hours?** Yes. Sewage backing into a basement and a water service failing under a driveway do not wait for business hours. Call (720) 935-6221 and you will reach us directly. **What is the difference between your work and interior plumbing?** We handle the buried infrastructure: sewer laterals, water services, fire lines, storm lines, taps, and excavation. Interior fixtures, water heaters, and in-house plumbing go to Afford-A-Rooter Plumbing, our sister company. Routine septic pumping and cleaning go to Affordable Septic Pumping, also our sister company. ## Nearby service areas - [Aurora](https://www.denversewerandwater.com/locations/aurora-co) - [Lakewood](https://www.denversewerandwater.com/locations/lakewood-co) - [Englewood](https://www.denversewerandwater.com/locations/englewood-co) - [Arvada](https://www.denversewerandwater.com/locations/arvada-co) - [Wheat Ridge](https://www.denversewerandwater.com/locations/wheat-ridge-co) - [Edgewater](https://www.denversewerandwater.com/locations/edgewater-co) --- Denver Sewer and Water is a privately owned, licensed and insured plumbing contractor. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Denver Water, the municipal water utility, or any government entity. To pay a municipal water bill or reach the public utility, visit denverwater.org. Source: https://www.denversewerandwater.com/locations/denver-co