Drain Cleaning in Eldorado Springs, CO

Eldorado Springs homes and their sewer lines

Most Eldorado Springs homes are small cottages and chalets from the resort era, packed onto tiny lots along the creek and stacked up the canyon walls, some 150 feet above the road.

The old cottages had poor or missing septic systems that could not be rebuilt on such small lots. After failures polluted wells and the creek, voters approved a local improvement district in 2004, and a community wastewater collection and treatment system started operating in November 2009.

Some properties outside the system still list septic, so it pays to confirm which kind of service your house has.

Eldorado Springs drain problems

In Eldorado Springs, the drain challenges come from old cottage plumbing and steep ground. Interior drains in converted cottages are often a patchwork of old and new pipe, service lines from the hillside chalets drop steeply to the collection system, and creekside cottonwoods and willows send roots toward any leaking joint. Narrow lanes and tight lots make access the biggest part of many jobs.

What drain work usually costs in Eldorado Springs

The resort years

Eldorado Springs drew crowds from Denver and Boulder in the early 1900s. The New Eldorado Hotel opened in 1908, a big pool filled with warm spring water, and on summer weekends thousands came to watch Ivy Baldwin walk a cable stretched hundreds of feet above South Boulder Creek. Jack Dempsey was among the famous visitors. The Depression emptied the resort, a fire burned the hotel in the late 1930s, and the September 1938 flood, still the highest recorded on South Boulder Creek, wrecked part of the ballroom. In the 1940s the owning family began bottling the canyon's artesian spring water, a business that continues today.

Cottages that became homes

Over the decades, the resort's summer cottages and chalets were sold off and turned into year-round homes. They were built for warm months, close together, on lots that leave almost no room for anything else. Their plumbing has been extended, rerouted and patched by many owners. In a converted Eldorado Springs cottage, it is common to find newer plastic drains feeding into old cast iron or galvanized pipe, with a sag or offset at each change. Those joints are where grease and hair build up.

Why the community built its own sewer

The old cottages relied on septic systems that were undersized or nonexistent, and the lots were too small to fix them. As they failed, wastewater reached private wells and South Boulder Creek. In 2004 residents approved a local improvement district through Boulder County to fund a community collection and treatment system. Building it was not simple: some structures sat partly in the roads or on neighboring lots, collection lines had to reach chalets 150 feet above the canyon floor, and the treatment plant site was habitat for the threatened Preble's meadow jumping mouse. The system began operating in November 2009.

The line between house and main

With the community system in place, most Eldorado Springs backups now happen in the private service line between the house and the collection main, or inside the house. Hillside chalets often have long, steep lines down to the road. Steep pipe usually drains well, but solids can strand where the line flattens out at the bottom, and a clog there backs up the whole house. A camera inspection shows exactly where it happens.

Creekside roots and cold canyon air

Cottonwoods, willows and other water-loving trees crowd the banks of South Boulder Creek, and their roots enter any old service line with a gap. Cold air also drains down the canyon on winter nights, and cottages that sit in shade can freeze drains under floors and in exterior walls. Insulating those lines and keeping crawlspaces closed are cheap fixes.

If your Eldorado Springs home backs up

1. 01

   Stop using water

   Hold off on showers, dishes and laundry until the line is cleared.

2. 02

   Check which system you have

   Most homes connect to the community system; a few still have septic.

3. 03

   Find the cleanout

   On tight lots it may be under a deck or behind a retaining wall.

4. 04

   Plan for parking

   Tell the plumber about narrow lanes and where a van can stop.

Eldorado Springs warning signs

• A toilet bubbling when the shower drains
• Kitchen sink slow in a converted cottage
• Water backing up in the lowest drain of a chalet
• Sewer smell near the service line
• A drain that stops on the coldest nights

Visitors and the canyon road

Eldorado Canyon State Park draws climbers and hikers year-round, and the single road through the community gets busy on weekends. If you need a plumber on a summer Saturday, mention the traffic and parking so they can plan the visit.

What affects the cost in Eldorado Springs

Simple clogs are routine. Tight access, steep hillside service lines, roots near the creek and frozen drains take more time. Knowing your cleanout location and whether the home is on the community system speeds things up.

Spring water and old fixtures

The artesian spring that made Eldorado Springs famous still flows, and wells in the canyon tap similar water. Mineral-rich water leaves scale on fixtures and inside older pipe, where it catches hair and soap. In a converted cottage with original galvanized or cast iron drains, scale can narrow the pipe enough to cause repeat clogs in the bathroom and kitchen.

Winter on the shaded side

Homes on the south side of the canyon get little direct sun in winter. Their drains, especially under decks and in uninsulated additions, are the ones most likely to freeze in an Eldorado Springs cold snap.