Sewer line repair in University City

The houses

38% of the city's housing was built before 1940 and 72% before 1960. The median build year is 1949, the oldest of any St. Louis County city with more than 10,000 people. Unless a lateral has been replaced, it dates from the same years.

The city's program

The city covers an approved repair up to its first $2,500. The owner covers the rest. That $2,500 can go to excavation, the repair itself, backfill, pavement, seed and straw. Landscaping isn't put back, nothing in or beneath the house qualifies, and payments stop when the fund runs out.

An application needs a video of the lateral and a sketch that marks the defect. One rule in the city's Q&A sheet is worth knowing: when a shed, a garage or another structure sits over the damaged part, the city may reroute the lateral around it. If rerouting isn't practical, the city meets with the owner and makes the final call.

The rules describe excavation and say nothing about lining. Lining the run in place is the other way past a garage, and it leaves the slab alone. Ask the city before the work whether its $2,500 can be applied to a lining job.

The public side

MSD is replacing about 7,920 feet of undersized public sewers in Ladue, Clayton and University City, in the Black Creek and Haddington Court relief project, to cut basement backups and overflows. That work is on MSD's mains. Your own lateral, up to and including its connection, remains your responsibility.

Who to call

• A backup from the public sewer: MSD, 314-768-6260.
• The lateral program: University City Public Works, 314-505-8570.

How lining works, step by step