Drain Cleaning in Ordway, CO

Ordway homes and their sewer lines

Ordway's homes are mostly modest frame and brick houses on a small grid around Main Street, many built between the 1900s and the 1950s when the county farmed sugar beets and melons on irrigated ground, with ranch houses and manufactured homes added later.

Water and sewer inside town are run by the Town of Ordway. Farms and homes out in the county are on their own wells or rural water and private septic tanks, so ask which system serves a property before buying.

Many Ordway houses still drain through original cast iron and clay tile, and plenty of laterals have never been scoped.

Ordway drain problems

Ordway drain problems mostly come from aging pipe in alkaline, salty soil and from the trees that shade old lots. Clay joints shift as the ground dries and wets, roots follow the moisture, and heavy summer storms test lines and yards that sit low.

What drain work usually costs in Ordway

A county seat named for a Denver politician

Ordway took its name from George N. Ordway, a Denver politician, and a post office has used the name since 1890. The town incorporated on September 4, 1900, and when Crowley County was created out of Otero County in 1911 it became the seat. In those years the county was irrigated farmland, growing sugar beets, melons, alfalfa and vegetables on water from the Arkansas River system, and Ordway's Main Street, its brick storefronts and many of its houses come from that era.

Today about 1,070 people live in town, the most of any community in Crowley County, and Highways 96 and 71 cross at its edge. Pueblo is about 49 miles west and Rocky Ford about 11 miles south, which is where many tradespeople who work in Ordway are based.

When the water was sold

Crowley County is known across Colorado for what happened to its water. Beginning in the 1970s, farmers sold their irrigation rights to growing Front Range cities, and after the last big sale in 1987, roughly 43,000 of the county's 50,000 irrigated acres had no water rights left. Many fields went back to weeds and dust. For Ordway homeowners that history shows up in a few practical ways: some houses date from the farming boom and still have their original drain lines, many lots have large old trees that once lived off irrigation and now hunt for water underground, and dry soil around foundations shrinks and cracks more than it used to.

Town sewer and the line you own

The Town of Ordway runs water and sewer service inside its limits and publishes its water quality reports through the town's public utilities office. The town maintains the public mains; the lateral from your house to the main is yours, cleanout included. If you're not sure where your line runs or whether a repair at the main needs a town permit, call town hall before digging. Homes outside town use private septic systems and either wells or rural water.

Old pipe in alkaline, shifting soil

Much of the Arkansas Valley has alkaline, salty soil, and clay sewer pipe laid in it decades ago has had a hard life. Soil that dries out and then soaks up a summer thunderstorm moves, and every movement works at the joints. Cast iron under older Ordway kitchens and bathrooms rusts from the inside and grows scale that catches grease and paper. The result is a line that slowly loses capacity until one day it cannot keep up. Jetting removes the scale and grease; a camera shows whether a joint has opened or a section has cracked.

Thirsty trees and sewer roots

Cottonwoods and Siberian elms grow big along old ditches and around Ordway homes, and many were planted when the ground around town was still irrigated. With less water in the soil now, their roots follow any steady source, including a cracked sewer joint. Root intrusion usually starts small, with a few hair roots catching paper, and grows into a mass that stops the line. Cutting it out restores flow; regular cutting or a repair keeps it from coming back. A Siberian elm that sprouted in a fence line next to the sewer route is worth removing before it gets large.

Cloudbursts and low yards

Ordway only averages about 11 inches of precipitation a year, but much of it comes in short, heavy summer storms. Poor drainage has flooded parts of town before, enough that a floodplain study and master drainage plan were done in 1987. When storm water pools in a yard or alley, it can find its way into a cracked lateral or an uncapped cleanout and overload the line, so a basement floor drain backs up during the storm even though nothing is clogged. Keep cleanout caps tight, grade soil away from the house and point downspouts away from the sewer route.

Cold snaps on the plains

Ordway's record low of 29 below zero was set on February 15, 2021, in the cold wave that froze pipes across the region. A cold snap like that finds drains in crawlspaces, along outside walls and under manufactured homes. A washer drain that freezes will overflow the standpipe the next time the machine empties. Close foundation vents in winter, keep the skirting tight, and leave cabinet doors open on outside walls during the coldest nights. If a drain does freeze, warm the space gently and call; don't pour boiling water into PVC or use an open flame.

When an Ordway drain stops

1. 01

   Hold the water

   Every gallon you run in an Ordway house with a blocked main ends up at the lowest drain.

2. 02

   Look outside after a storm

   Standing water over the sewer route or at the cleanout points to storm water in the line.

3. 03

   Find the cleanout

   Check the yard between the house and the street or alley, and the basement wall where the line exits.

4. 04

   Ask about the drive

   Most plumbers come from Rocky Ford, La Junta or Pueblo, so confirm the trip charge on the call.

Ordway warning signs to take seriously

• A floor drain that backs up during an Ordway thunderstorm
• Gurgling from a toilet when the kitchen sink drains
• Roots on the cable after a clearing
• Slow drains through the whole house at once
• Wet, smelly ground over a farmhouse leach field

How an Ordway price comes together

Distance is part of every Ordway bill. Beyond that, a quick clog stays near the low end of the table, while root cutting, jetting, thawing and camera work add time. Ask for the trip charge and the hourly or per-job rate before work begins, and ask the plumber to show you the camera footage if they recommend a repair.