Drain CleaningComo Fort Worth TX

Como: A 130-Year-Old Lakeside Community With Some of FW's Oldest Sewer Pipe

Como was platted in 1890 as the "Lake Como" resort west of downtown Fort Worth — an ambitious development that collapsed in the Panic of 1893 before the resort vision could be realized. What remained, and what grew over the following decades, is one of Fort Worth's oldest established Black neighborhoods, built incrementally by individual owners from the early 1900s through the 1950s, with post-war infill running into the 1960s and 1970s. The neighborhood sits in 76107, west of downtown and east of Ridglea, separated from its wealthier western neighbor for decades by the segregation-era "Ridglea Wall" along Bryant Irvin Road — partially breached only in 1970. Como Elementary (now Como Leadership Academy) at 4000 Horne Street, designed by Herman G. Cox in the International Style and built in 1954, remains the neighborhood's anchor institution alongside Lake Como Park and the annual Comofest.

What that means for plumbing: Como has some of the oldest residential sewer infrastructure in Fort Worth. Pre-1950 homes were plumbed with vitrified clay tile laterals to the city main — the standard for the era — with cast iron interior drain stacks. Post-war and infill homes from the 1950s and 1960s added cast iron laterals to the mix. The typical Como home today has either a 90-to-120-year-old original clay tile lateral, or a 60-to-75-year-old cast iron lateral, or some combination produced by past partial repairs. None of these are still in their original installed condition.

The dominant tree canopy — mature post oak, pecan, live oak, and cedar elm, characteristic of Fort Worth's Cross Timbers belt — has had the better part of a century to find every separated joint that decades of soil movement have produced. Como sits on the transition between the heavy Houston Black clay of central Tarrant County and the lighter Crosstell, Bastrop, and Silawa loamy soils that mark the western edge of the Eastern Cross Timbers. Both soil profiles move enough seasonally to crack rigid clay tile joints; the lighter Cross Timbers soils additionally produce point-load cracking where buried gravel concentrates pressure on a single pipe segment.

The right approach for Como is camera first, every time. A camera inspection identifies whether the lateral is original clay tile, post-war cast iron, or mixed, and confirms structural condition before any cleaning. On confirmed-sound pipe, hydro jetting at moderate pressure clears root mass and mineral scale together. On compromised pipe — and we see a lot of it in Como because of the age — the honest recommendation is controlled mechanical cleaning and a lining or replacement plan rather than aggressive jetting. (Mechanism in why Fort Worth's clay tile sewer lines fail after 70 years.) Adjacent neighborhoods we serve: Ridglea, Ridgmar, Tanglewood, and Parker-Essex-Boaz. 24/7 emergency dispatch reaches any Como address within the hour.