Journal · 8 min
After the flood: what Front Range homes still get wrong
Lessons from 2013 and 2022 water events — backwater valves, finished-basement tanks, and laterals nobody re-checked.
Vintage Home Services exists because of flood work. After 2022 we were in more than a thousand homes that had water where water should not be. A lot of those houses were put back together in a hurry. A few years later, the shortcuts show up as ‘random’ leaks and backups.
Tanks over finished basements
If the rebuild put a tank back on a platform with no pan and no drain, you are one failed nipple away from another claim. Pans are not decorative. Drain lines should terminate somewhere that isn’t a crate of Christmas ornaments.
Backwater valves are not folklore
On streets that surcharge, a backwater valve is the difference between your basement and the city’s main. They also need to be exercised. A valve no one has opened since the remodel is a stuck valve.
Laterals that were never re-shot
Floodwater and saturated soils move clay bells. If you had a backup in the event and never camera’d the lateral after, do it before you finish the last of the basement. We would rather find an offset now than after the new flooring.
If your house took on water in those years and the plumbing still feels like a question mark, that’s a fair visit — not an upsell.