Drain Cleaning in Milliken, CO

Milliken homes and their sewer lines

The original town around Broad Street has homes from the 1910s through the 1960s, many with clay laterals and cast iron drains that have never been replaced.

Most of Milliken's homes are newer, built in subdivisions since the late 1990s on former farm ground, with PVC laterals, full basements and plenty of bathrooms.

The Town of Milliken runs its own sewer system and treatment plant. Farm homes and acreage outside town limits are generally on septic.

Milliken drain problems

In the new subdivisions, basement backups from wipes, grease and settled laterals are the common calls. In the old core, roots from mature shade trees fill clay joints. Irrigation water keeps the clay wet much of the year, and homes near the rivers sit on ground that stays damp. Farm homes on septic back up when tanks run overdue.

What drain work usually costs in Milliken

Basements in the new subdivisions

Most Milliken homes built since the late 1990s have full basements, and many of those basements have since been finished with bedrooms, family rooms and a bathroom. That basement bathroom or the floor drain beside the furnace is the lowest opening in the house, so it's where a main line clog shows up first. Water appearing there while the washer drains, or a toilet that bubbles when someone showers upstairs, points to the main line rather than the basement fixture itself.

Farm ground that settles

The subdivisions went onto land that had been farmed and irrigated for most of a century. Builders compact the trench around new sewer laterals, but irrigated clay keeps settling for years after construction. The result is sometimes a shallow belly in a PVC lateral, a low stretch where water stands and solids collect. In a Milliken home under twenty years old, a clog that keeps returning at the same distance from the cleanout usually means a belly, and a camera with a distance counter will show exactly where.

The old core along Broad Street

Milliken began around 1910 as a railroad and sugar beet town, and its original blocks still have homes from those early decades along with mid-century houses. Those homes drain through clay laterals under big shade trees. Roots get into the joints and grow into a mat that catches paper and grease. A cable machine with a root cutter opens the line, and many owners in the old core plan on cutting roots every year or two.

Two rivers on the south side

The Little Thompson joins the Big Thompson just south of Milliken, and both rivers are lined with cottonwoods. During the September 2013 floods, high water came down the Big Thompson toward town. Homes on the lower ground near the rivers sit where the soil stays damp, and older lines there see more root intrusion. If your home is near the river corridor and has had a past flood, a camera inspection of the lateral is a smart check.

Clay that swells and shrinks

Weld County clay swells when wet and shrinks when dry, and Milliken's yards are watered heavily in summer. That seasonal movement works on old clay joints, and even on the connection between a newer lateral and the house. A joint that has pulled apart lets roots and soil in. Keeping sprinklers from soaking the ground right over the sewer line helps limit the movement.

If your Milliken basement backs up

1. 01

   Stop water use upstairs

   Every flush and shower adds to the water coming up downstairs.

2. 02

   Find the cleanout

   In newer homes it's often outside near the front foundation or in the basement utility area.

3. 03

   Move belongings

   Lift rugs and boxes off the floor around the floor drain.

4. 04

   Ask for a camera

   Once the line is open, see whether it was a one-time clog or a sag that will return.

Milliken drain warning signs

• Bubbling at the basement floor drain
• A basement toilet that gurgles when the washer runs
• The same clog every few months
• Sewer smell in the utility room
• Slow drains in every room at once

Wipes, grease and family kitchens

Most of the drain calls in Milliken's newer neighborhoods come down to what goes into the pipes. Wipes labeled flushable don't break down quickly enough, grease cools and coats the line, and kids find creative things to flush. Keeping a trash can in every bathroom and a grease can by the stove prevents most of them.

Getting a Milliken call done right

Tell the plumber whether you're in the old core or a newer subdivision, whether you have a finished basement, and where the cleanout is if you know. If you live outside town on septic, say when the tank was last pumped. Those details help the plumber bring the right equipment and get your drains running in one visit.

Commuters, kids and busy mornings

A lot of Milliken households commute to Greeley, Loveland, Fort Collins or the Denver area, and mornings in a house with several kids mean showers, toilets and the dishwasher all running within the same half hour. That burst of water is when a partly blocked main line shows itself, often as a gurgle from the basement toilet or water at the floor drain. If your drains only act up during the morning rush, the main line is narrowing and worth clearing before it stops completely.

Oil and gas country around town

Milliken sits in one of the busiest oil and gas areas in Colorado, with well pads, pipelines and heavy truck traffic on the county roads. For homeowners, that mostly means traffic and noise, but heavy equipment crossing or working near a yard can crush or shift a shallow sewer line or septic pipe. If drains changed after nearby construction or utility work, a camera inspection can show whether the line was damaged.