Sell a House With Sewer Issues in Colorado Springs, CO

Sewer laterals in the older parts of Colorado Springs are clay tile or Orangeburg laid sixty to a hundred years ago, running under parkways planted with the elms and cottonwoods that make the Old North End, Patty Jewett and the Westside what they are. Roots find every joint. Clay cracks and offsets; Orangeburg flattens and collapses. The symptoms are a basement floor drain that backs up each spring, a toilet that gurgles, a plumber's annual root cutting that buys less time each year. A buyer's sewer scope, now standard in local inspections, finds the break and the negotiation becomes a $15,000 to $25,000 problem overnight.

Colorado Springs Cash Buyers buys houses with sewer problems across Colorado Springs and El Paso County, including houses with repeated backups and lines that have already collapsed. We buy as-is and replace or line the lateral after closing. This page explains the local sewer problems, who is responsible for what under Colorado Springs Utilities rules, what repair costs, what you must disclose, and how our offer accounts for it.

Clay tile laterals from the first half of the twentieth century have joints every few feet that roots penetrate and that shift with soil movement, including the expansive soils common here. Orangeburg, a tar-impregnated fiber pipe used from the 1940s into the 1970s, deforms and collapses with age and is common in post-war Knob Hill, Stratmoor and the Southeast. Cast iron under the house corrodes and scales. Bellies and offsets collect debris. Mature street trees accelerate all of it. Even newer neighborhoods have problems where builders' backfill settled or where a line was crushed during later construction.

In Colorado Springs the property owner is responsible for the lateral from the house to its connection with the public main, including the portion under the sidewalk and street. Colorado Springs Utilities maintains the main. That means a break in the parkway or under the street is the owner's repair, requiring a licensed contractor, permits, and street-cut work that drives the cost. Trenchless lining is sometimes possible and cheaper; a collapsed Orangeburg line usually is not lineable and must be dug.

A spot repair of a single break near the house is a few thousand dollars. A full lateral replacement from the house to the main, with a street cut and restoration, is commonly $15,000 to $25,000 and can exceed that for deep or long runs. Lining, where feasible, is less. Interior damage from backups, including flooring, drywall and sanitizing a finished basement, adds to the total. We price the repair the house needs at what our contractors charge.

Known backups, a sewer scope report showing a break, and prior repairs are known defects Colorado requires a seller to disclose. Share the scope video or report if you have one; it is the single most useful document for pricing, and disclosing it protects you after closing.

We assume an old lateral in any pre-1970 house and scope after closing. If you have a report, we price from it; if not, from the age of the house, the trees in the parkway and the history you describe. The repair, any backup damage, the rest of the renovation, our carrying and resale costs and a margin come off the renovated value of comparable homes near you. The written offer arrives within 24 hours of our visit and does not change when our own scope finds the break, because our contract has no inspection period.

Send the address, the year built, and any scope report or backup history. We visit within a day or two, give you a written offer within 24 hours, and close in about a week after a clean title search. We pay the customary closing costs and there is no commission.

We buy houses in Colorado Springs for any reason, any condition, or any challenge

Every link below is a page written for that situation in Colorado Springs and El Paso County.