# Storm Drain Work Across the Denver Metro

Denver Sewer and Water inspects, cleans, repairs, and replaces the privately owned storm drainage on residential and commercial property: area drains, trench drains, downspout collection lines, catch basins, and the buried runs carrying that water out to a connection point. We camera the system before quoting, because a storm line that floods can be blocked, broken, or simply mis-graded.

- Private storm drainage on residential and commercial sites.
- Camera survey before any repair recommendation.
- Silt, gravel, leaf mass, and root removal.
- Excavation, re-grading, and replacement in house.
- Serving the Denver metro from southwest Denver.

## Why Does Private Storm Drainage Fail?

Storm systems carry what the surface hands them, and in Denver that means grit, gravel, decomposed granite, leaf litter, and the sediment that comes off a landscape bed after every heavy rain. Unlike a sanitary line, a storm line has no continuous flow to keep itself scoured, so material settles and accumulates in the low spots between storms and then has to be moved by the next one.

The second driver is grade. Storm lines are often laid at minimal fall, and minimal fall leaves no tolerance for settlement. A run that settles an inch over a joint stops moving sediment and starts collecting it, and the flooding that follows is a grade failure presenting as a blockage.

- Water standing over a yard grate hours after the rain stopped.
- Water backing up out of a basin instead of draining into it.
- A window well or areaway that floods in every storm.
- Downspouts discharging at the base of the wall because the buried line is blocked.
- Soft ground or a depression tracking the line of the buried run.
- Silt fans deposited at a grate after every event.

## How We Tell a Blocked Line From a Broken One

We camera the run. On storm lines that means clearing enough material to get a camera through first in many cases, because a line packed with silt will not pass a lens. What we are reading is whether the pipe is intact, whether it holds water at rest, and whether the material in it is loose sediment or root mass locked into a joint.

Standing water in a run at rest is the single most useful observation. On a properly graded storm line there should not be any. Where there is, the grade has been lost, and cleaning the run will restore drainage temporarily while guaranteeing the same call next season.

- Pipe material, diameter, and condition.
- Whether the run holds standing water at rest.
- Sediment depth and composition.
- Root entry points and joint separations.
- Basin and sump condition.
- Where the run discharges and whether that point is clear.

## How a Storm Drain Call Runs

1. **Walk the site during or after a storm where possible** Where the water actually stands tells us more than a dry site inspection does. We ask you to photograph it if we cannot be there for the event.
2. **Open access and clear enough to see** Basins opened, obvious sediment removed, so the camera can pass.
3. **Camera the run to the discharge** Material, grade, defects, and distance to each recorded out to the discharge point.
4. **Clean, repair, or re-grade** Cleaning where the pipe is sound. Repair or re-grade where the camera shows the run cannot drain itself.

## What Drives Storm Drain Cost

Length of run, depth, access, and how much material is in the line all move the number. Storm work is also unusually variable because the system was often installed by a landscaper rather than a plumber, which means there may be no record of where it goes or what it connects to.

We charge for the survey and we apply what it finds. Anyone quoting a storm drain repair from a photograph of a puddle has not looked at the pipe.

Call (720) 935-6221 to get the system looked at properly.

## Frequently asked questions

**Who owns the storm drain on my property?**

In almost every case across the Denver metro, the storm drainage inside the property line is private. Area drains, trench drains, downspout lines, private catch basins, and the pipe carrying that water to the connection point are the owner's responsibility. The public system generally begins at the connection in the right-of-way.

**Can a storm drain be connected to the sanitary sewer?**

It should not be, and in most of the metro it is prohibited. Storm water entering a sanitary system consumes treatment capacity and causes backups downstream during heavy rain. Where we find an illicit connection during a survey, we tell you, because it is both a compliance exposure and a genuine cause of basement backups.

**Why does my yard drain work most of the year and fail in a big storm?**

Because a partially blocked or under-graded line still passes low flow. It only fails when the volume exceeds what the restricted section can carry. That is the classic signature of sediment accumulation or a lost grade, and it will get worse each season until the run is cleaned or corrected.

**Do you install new drainage as well as fixing existing runs?**

Yes. Area drains, trench drains, downspout collection, catch basins, and the buried runs connecting them. Where the right answer is surface grading rather than more pipe, we say that too.

**Are you the city stormwater department?**

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. We work on the privately owned storm drainage on your property. The public system in the street belongs to the municipality.

## Storm Drain Services We Provide

- [Storm Drain Scope and Video Inspection](https://www.denversewerandwater.com/storm-drains/storm-drain-scope-video-inspection) Camera survey of storm lines, basins, and outfalls before anyone quotes work.
- [Storm Drain Cleanout](https://www.denversewerandwater.com/storm-drains/storm-drain-cleanout) Clearing silt, gravel, leaf mass, and root growth from storm lines and basins.
- [Storm Drain Repair](https://www.denversewerandwater.com/storm-drains/storm-drain-repair) Fixing collapsed, offset, root-bound, and separated storm drain runs.
- [Storm Drain Replacement and Installation](https://www.denversewerandwater.com/storm-drains/storm-drain-replacement-installation) New storm drainage and full replacement of runs that cannot be repaired.

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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/storm-drains/denver-co