Sewer Line Repair in St. Louis County, MO

• Coverage across the county: Florissant, Ferguson, University City, Webster Groves, Kirkwood, Ballwin, Chesterfield, Affton, Lemay, Oakville and Mehlville.
• Crews work along I-270, I-64, I-44, I-55 and I-170, with Lindbergh Boulevard (US 67) linking the north and south county.
• Before booking, check your tax bill for the lateral fee. If it's there, call the program first; private work done before the program approves it may not be covered.

• Camera inspections to document a defective lateral for the county program
• Repairs outside the program, such as lines under the house or in cities that don't take part
• Root cutting and descaling in older clay tile and cast iron laterals
• Cleanout installation where none exists outside the foundation
• Disconnecting roof downspouts that drain into a sanitary lateral
• Backwater valve installation in basements that flood during heavy rain

• HomeGuide's published national average for replacing a residential sewer line is $6,000, with most jobs between $2,000 and $10,000.
• HomeGuide lists a sewer camera inspection at $125 to $500. In St. Louis County that's often the main out-of-pocket cost: a 2014 St. Louis County Public Works article says homeowners typically paid around $300 to diagnose a failure, while the program paid the repair, then averaging $2,800.
• By method, HomeGuide lists pipe bursting at $60 to $200 per linear foot and cured-in-place lining at $90 to $250 per linear foot.
• Method: national per-foot ranges from HomeGuide, adjusted for local factors: whether your lateral is covered by the county program, the depth of the main, and street or sidewalk restoration in the right-of-way.
• Basement plumbing, finished floors and mature trees over the lateral add labor. Work inside the foundation isn't part of the program.

• Step 1, check coverage: Missouri law (RSMo §249.422) lets St. Louis County and its cities charge a lateral repair fee of up to $50 a year on residential property with six or fewer dwelling units, if voters approve it. The county's fee is $28.
• Step 2, diagnose: the owner pays for the diagnosis, usually a camera inspection, and submits it to the program in their jurisdiction.
• Step 3, repair: under the program, private plumbing firms bid competitively for the repair, according to the county article, and the work covers the lateral from the outside of the foundation to the main. Clogs and root clearing aren't repair work.
• Step 4, permits and inspection: repairs outside the program need a plumbing permit from St. Louis County or the city where the home sits, and connections to the public sewer follow MSD rules.
• The county council adopted a FY 2025 Sewer Lateral Fund budget of $3,999,030 under Ordinance No. 29,193.

• Census ACS figures put St. Louis County's housing stock at 446,192 units with a median year built of 1969, and 68.6% were built before 1980.
• Older homes in inner-ring suburbs such as University City, Webster Groves and Maplewood often have clay tile or cast iron laterals, which crack and let roots in at the joints.
• Tree roots from mature street trees in neighborhoods near the older city limits are the most common cause of repeat backups.
• Heavy rain is the other stress. The county article blames many lateral failures partly on downspouts tied into the lateral, a practice that is now illegal.
• MSD says Project Clear is a $6 billion, 28-year program under a consent decree with EPA and the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, aimed at reducing basement backups and overflows. It doesn't repair private laterals.
• Freeze and thaw cycles and clay soils that shrink and swell can shift joints in shallow pipe along the Missouri and Meramec river bluffs.

Florissant · Ferguson · University City · Webster Groves · Kirkwood · Ballwin · Chesterfield · Affton · Oakville · Mehlville