Building Drain Cleanouts: inspection, location, installation, use, repair
     

• Guide to building plumbing drain cleanouts used to clear clogged drain piping
  • Where should drain piping cleanouts be located?
  • Size, angles, access requirements for building drain pipe cleanouts
  • Where do we insert the plumbing snake to clear a clogged drain?
• Questions & Answers about plumbing cleanouts
• References

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Our plumbing drain cleanout photo (left) shows a sewer line cleanout under and building exit piping under construction at a New York Home. THe image illustrates a new plumbing drain cleanout access port being installed in a home. The in-building drains (not visible here) were 4-inch ABS pipe. The exterior sewer connection pipe was six-inch pipe. Photo courtesy Galow Homes.

When installing the plumbing drain cleanout the plumber continued the six-inch piping up into the building through the drain cleanout fitting, providing an easier-to-use wider drain cleanout opening.

The extra cost of continuing 6-inch piping up to this location was trivial and makes drain servicing much easier. At the left side of the photo the drain piping is adapted down to the 4-inch in-building drain size. Because of the larger diameter cleanout TEE installed in this case, the plumber installed a 90 degree cleanout tee. In most of our other plumbing cleanout port photographs you'll see that the cleanout access is installed with an angled fitting to assist the plumber in routing a plumbing snake in the direction most likely to be needed to clear a slow or blocked plumbing drain.

Because this plumbing drain exit point was located in the home's garage, local building codes required that we enclose the plastic piping in a chase covered with fire-rated drywall.

Even before the fire barrier drywall, the inspector also required that we use fire-block foam insulation to seal the pipe penetrations in walls, ceilings, and floors.

And because the fire-block foam could not itself be left exposed, where that material was used at other penetrations through the fire-rated drywall, those penetrations were sealed with fire-caulk.

Finally, the builder (Galow Homes) provided a metal plumbing access cover so that it would still be possible to access the plumbing cleanout if necessary.

Often an outdoor cleanout is provided to permit snaking and clearing the building sewer line connection (circled area in photo at left). In this home which is slab-on-grade construction, there was no indoor provision for a building drain cleanout access in this wing of the home; the builder constructed this plumbing cleanout access just outside of a bathroom wall. Photo courtesy Galow Homes.

Using the building drain cleanout to add a washing machine or sump pump drain connection is an overwhelming temptation because of the convenience (photo at left) but this installation gave no thought to the future need to inspect or clear a blocked drain line.

The result will be extra trouble and cost when drain de-clogging is needed.

When the finished building wall in this basement was removed as part of a mold remediation project we discovered that a house trap was leaky - it has been replaced in this photograph.

And because the original house trap and cleanout access had been buried behind a finished wall the cleanout was not readily accessible, nor was its location even known to the current homeowner.

At left our photo illustrates a connection of copper drain to the cast iron building drain in a basement. You will notice that the copper drain line (circled at upper left) includes a cleanout access port.

Unfortunately the copper connection in the lower right of the photograph (arrow) is improper, unreliable, and perhaps unsanitary.

• The Home Reference Book - the Encyclopedia of Homes, Carson Dunlop & Associates, Toronto, Ontario, 25th Ed., 2012, is a bound volume of more than 450 illustrated pages that assist home inspectors and home owners in the inspection and detection of problems on buildings. The text is intended as a reference guide to help building owners operate and maintain their home effectively. Field inspection worksheets are included at the back of the volume. Special Offer: For a 10% discount on any number of copies of the Home Reference Book purchased as a single order. Enter INSPECTAHRB in the order payment page "Promo/Redemption" space. InspectAPedia.com editor Daniel Friedman is a contributing author.
  
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