Sewer Line Repair
Camera diagnosis, spot repairs and full line replacement, with the ground put back the way we found it.
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A sewer line is the one pipe in the house that nothing else can work around, and we have been repairing them across the Four Corners since 1954. Every job starts the same way: a camera down the line and a locator above it, so we know what is wrong, exactly where it is and how deep it sits before anyone quotes a number.
From there it is usually one of three jobs. A single bad spot is a short trench and a new section. A line that is sound but leaking at the joints is a candidate for lining from the inside. A line that has reached the end of its life gets replaced, start to finish, with new pipe laid to proper grade.
All of it is permitted, inspected before the trench closes, and backfilled in compacted lifts — then the driveway, the concrete or the lawn goes back. The repair is the easy part to promise; the part worth asking about is what the ground looks like afterwards.
Sewer Line Repair calls in Farmington run out of our 1215 Mission Ave office. We cover Farmington, Aztec, Bloomfield, Flora Vista, Kirtland, Shiprock, Fruitland and the rest of San Juan County, and the Farmington crew is on call 24 hours a day.
We find it before we dig for it
A self-leveling camera goes down the line from the cleanout and records the whole run. It shows the pipe material, the condition of every joint, how much of the diameter is open, and whether the line has a belly holding water in it.
A sonde in the camera head lets us mark the fault on the surface and give you its depth. That is what turns a sewer repair from an exploratory dig into a measured one — the trench goes where the pipe is, at the length the fault needs, and not a foot further.
You see the footage. It is your pipe, and the recording is the reason to believe the recommendation rather than take our word for it.
A spot repair, when that is all it needs
Plenty of lines have one problem in one place: a section crushed by a vehicle, a joint pulled apart by ground movement, a root ball at a single connection, or a length damaged when something else was buried near it.
When the camera shows the rest of the run is sound, the right job is a short trench, a new section of pipe and two couplings. It is a day, a small hole, and a fraction of the cost of replacing a line that did not need replacing.
Replacing a sewer line, start to finish
When a line has reached the end of its service life, replacing it properly is a sequence rather than a hole. Utility locates go in first, and private lines a locator will not mark — a gas run to a shop, a sprinkler main, a well feed — get located separately.
The permit comes before the machine. The trench is sloped or shored to depth so it is safe to work in, and the last stretch to any known utility is hand-dug.
New pipe is bedded in sand rather than laid on rock, and laid to a consistent fall so the line drains the way it is supposed to for the next fifty years. Then it is camera-tested, inspected while it is still open, and backfilled in compacted lifts.
Last comes the part most people are actually worried about: the driveway, the concrete, the pavers or the lawn going back. A trench that is merely filled shows up as a sunken stripe by spring, which is why the compaction matters as much as the pipe does.
A cleanout is worth having, and we will fit one
A cleanout is a capped access point that lets a camera and a drain machine reach the line directly. Where a property has one, every future visit is faster and cheaper, and a backup can be cleared without going through the house.
If yours does not have one, or it is buried somewhere nobody can find, we will put one in while we are on site and mark it so it is still findable in ten years.
Septic lines, leach fields and rural runs
A good deal of the Four Corners is on septic, and the line from the house to the tank fails for the same reasons a city lateral does — roots, settlement, crushing and age. We repair and replace those runs, and camera the line into the tank to confirm what is happening where.
Long rural runs bring their own questions: depth, fall, and where the line crosses a driveway or a field. Those are excavation questions as much as plumbing ones, and we do both.
Sewer emergencies, any hour
A main line backing up is not a next-week problem, and crews run 24/7 across both states. The first visit is about getting the line flowing and the house usable again; the camera and the permanent repair follow once there is nothing in the way of looking at it.
What this covers
- Camera inspection and line locating
- Spot repairs
- Full line replacement
- Cleanout installation
- Septic and leach line repair
- 24/7 emergency response
Towns we cover from Farmington
Questions
Sewer Line Repair in Farmington
How do I know whether I need a spot repair or a full replacement?
The camera decides it. One crushed section, one offset joint or one root ball at a single connection is a spot repair and a short trench. A line that is bellied along its length, or taking roots at every joint, is replaced — and we show you the footage either way, so the recommendation is something you can see rather than something you have to trust.
Do I need a permit, and do you handle it?
Sewer work is permitted and inspected in both New Mexico and Colorado, and the inspection happens while the trench is still open. We pull the permit as part of the job and book the inspection, because a trench closed before the inspector sees it is a trench that gets reopened.
What happens to my driveway or my lawn?
It goes back. Bedding sand around the pipe, native fill compacted in lifts above it, then the surface restored — concrete, asphalt, pavers, or topsoil and seed. The trench line will be visible for a season, which is honest, and the compaction is what stops it sinking.
Can you repair a sewer line in winter?
Yes. Frozen ground is slower to dig and the spoil behaves differently, but a sewer backup in January is an emergency and does not wait for spring. Where surface restoration has to wait for a thaw, we say so before the job starts rather than after.
How long does a sewer line repair take?
A spot repair is usually one day. A full replacement is typically two to three, depending on length, depth, what is on top of it, and how quickly the inspection slots in. The camera inspection that comes first takes about an hour and is what makes the rest of the schedule predictable.
Can the line be repaired without digging up the yard?
Often, yes. A line that is structurally sound can be renewed from the inside with a cured-in-place liner, and a line past lining can be replaced by pipe bursting through two small access pits. Both are on our trenchless sewer repair page, and the camera inspection is what tells us whether your line is a candidate.
Need sewer line repair in Farmington?
Most repairs are finished on the first visit. Emergency crews run 24/7 across the Four Corners.