Trenchless methods
Hydro jetting in Denver
Hydro jetting pushes water through a nozzle at enough pressure to slice roots, scour grease and carry sand and scale out of a sewer line to the main. In Denver it is the way a root-choked clay lateral or a grease-bound restaurant drain is opened, and it is the required first step before any pipe is lined. This page covers what it does, what it does not, and how it fits with the repairs on this site.
Serving Denver · Denver County
All Sewer and Plumbing Services, LLC
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What the jetter does inside the pipe
A jetting unit pumps water through a hose to a nozzle sized for the pipe. The nozzle has rear-facing jets that pull the hose forward and scour the wall behind it, and often a forward jet to break through a blockage. Pressure for a residential lateral in Denver is set in the low thousands of pounds per square inch, high enough to shear fine roots at the joints of a clay line and to cut grease back to bare pipe, and it is reduced for soft or fragile hosts. Root-cutting heads with rotating or chain attachments handle the heavy masses that cottonwood, elm and silver maple grow into mortar joints over several seasons. Everything that comes off the wall is flushed downstream to the main, and a camera run afterward shows the result.
Three jobs it is used for in Denver
The first is the emergency. A basement floor drain in a Park Hill bungalow backs up on a Sunday, and the line needs to flow before anything else is decided. Jetting opens it and the camera that follows explains why it blocked. The second is maintenance. Restaurants along Colfax and in LoDo and RiNo, apartment buildings in Capitol Hill, and older houses with known root problems keep their lines open with periodic jetting while a permanent fix is planned or budgeted. The third is preparation. Every cured-in-place liner and every point repair on this site requires a host pipe cleaned to bare wall, because resin bonds to pipe and not to roots, scale or grease. Jetting is how the pipe gets that way, and on a lining day it is the first thing that happens.
What it does not fix
Jetting removes what is in the pipe; it does nothing to the pipe. The joint the roots came through is still open the day after cleaning, and in a semi-arid climate the roots return to a leaking joint quickly. Grease rebuilds faster on a scaled cast iron wall than on a smooth one. Sand and silt keep arriving through an open joint that groundwater passes into every spring. A lateral in Denver that has been jetted three or four times is announcing a structural defect, and the money spent on repeat cleaning is usually more than the gap between a lining quote and the dig-and-replace alternative. The camera after the jetting shows which repair that defect points to, and the methods are laid out side by side at the CIPP reference.
Pipe material changes the approach
- Vitrified clay in the pre-war neighborhoods takes standard pressure well; the joints are the weak spots, and the camera checks them after cleaning for offsets and holes.
- Cast iron under mid-century slabs is cleaned with descaling heads as well as water, since tuberculation on the invert is what catches solids.
- Orangeburg is jetted at reduced pressure with a gentle nozzle, and the honest advice after cleaning is nearly always lining or bursting rather than another cleaning.
- PVC and lined pipe clean easily and rarely need it, which is the point of installing them.
Commercial and industrial jetting
Kitchens are jetted with hot-water units that liquefy grease rather than pushing it down the line as a plug, and the interceptor is pumped in the same visit. Hotel stacks and roof drains are jetted from above. Plant sewers and storm culverts in the Commerce City and Globeville corridor are cleaned with truck-mounted combination units that jet and vacuum, which keeps debris from reaching the outfall. In each case the cleaning is a maintenance service on its own and the preparation for lining when the camera says the line has reached that point.
The crew and the paperwork
Jetting is maintenance and needs no city permit. the verified installer covering Denver jets and inspects laterals and building drains throughout Denver and Denver County, and when the video afterward shows a defect, the lining or bursting quote is built from that same recording. The installer is verified for cured-in-place work under the standard published at the verified installer directory, which is relevant because the quality of the cleaning is the first thing a liner depends on.
Estimates are free. Call now: (720) 606-6223.
Other trenchless services in Denver
Trenchless Sewer Repair Denver
Repair or replace a failed sewer line with little or no excavation.
Sewer Pipe Lining (CIPP) Denver
A resin-saturated liner cured in place forms a new, jointless pipe inside the old one.
Pipe Bursting Denver
A bursting head splits the old pipe while pulling new HDPE pipe in behind it, through two small pits.
Sectional Point Repair Denver
A short liner fixes one bad spot and leaves the rest of a sound line alone.
Sewer Camera Inspection Denver
See what is actually wrong before anyone quotes a fix.
Sewer Line Repair & Replacement Denver
When a line cannot be lined: spot excavation or trenchless replacement, chosen from the footage.
Questions we hear about hydro jetting
Is jetting safe for an old clay or Orangeburg lateral in Denver?+
Clay, cast iron and PVC tolerate jetting well when the nozzle and pressure are matched to the pipe. Orangeburg is the exception: its walls are soft, and an aggressive nozzle can tear them. A camera look before jetting tells the technician what the pipe is made of, and Orangeburg is cleaned gently and then usually scheduled for lining or bursting rather than repeated cleaning.
How is jetting different from snaking?+
A cable with a cutting head bores a hole through a blockage; it does not clean the wall. Jetting removes the roots, grease and scale from the full circumference and flushes the debris to the main, so the pipe is back to its real diameter. For roots in the mortar joints of a Denver clay lateral the difference is weeks of relief versus a year or more.
Does a restaurant need jetting on a schedule?+
Most kitchens in Denver do, because grease builds on the line walls between the fixtures and the interceptor regardless of how well the trap is maintained. The interval depends on the menu and the line, and it shortens sharply when the pipe is rough, scaled or offset inside. A line that needs jetting every few weeks is a line that should be inspected and probably lined.
Can jetting damage the pipe?+
Not when it is done by someone who has seen the inside of the pipe first. Pressure and nozzle type are chosen for the material and condition, and a camera pass afterward confirms the result. The risk comes from blind jetting of a line that turns out to be Orangeburg or badly cracked, which is why the installer on this site inspects before and after.
How do I get a price?+
Call (720) 606-6223 or use the form and say whether the line is blocked now. Emergency clearing is scheduled first and the camera follows; for maintenance or pre-lining cleaning, the inspection and the jetting are priced together, with the recording delivered to you. Estimates are free; call now.