Where to Find Your Sewer Cleanout
Clogs and sewage – certainly not the stuff everyday conversations are made of.
Still, it pays to know what you need to do in case your household ever, quite, unfortunately, gets plagued by a stoppage in the main drain line.
This is not just about a drain clog in the toilet, tub or sink. The main drain line delivers all the wastewater coming from your house to the city or municipal sewer system, or to a septic tank and leach field system.
Hence, a blockage in your main drain line means raw sewage backing up into your house resulting in an unimaginable stench, and waste-laden water spilling over to your floors – the stuff of nightmares, and a certain health hazard unless addressed ASAP.
This is why it is so important for you to know exactly where to find your sewer cleanout. If it’s your first time getting to know about this feature of your plumbing system, read on.
For every house, there’s usually only one sewer cleanout
Ideally, all houses should have a main sewer cleanout. But a few don’t, while some larger houses can have as many as three.
Whenever there is a blockage in your main drain line, this is the plumbing fitting to look for.
But how do you find it?
To locate your main sewer cleanout, you need to do a bit of sleuthing to determine where it is highly likely to be found.
Its location is usually dependent on geography and the house design. However, there are three spots you can try checking first where you might just find it:
Outdoor Clean-Outs
Residences located in regions with a warm climate tend to have their main cleanout located outside. Try looking behind thickets or bushes, or see if you can find a plastic or metal box in a recess in the soil.
Basement
If you have a basement, the main cleanout would most probably be located there.
Bathroom
If you live in a house with a slab foundation, you may want to go looking for the main cleanout in the bathroom. If it’s not there, your garage where it’s likely to be found near a floor drain.
Get professional plumbing help
A main sewer line blockage is something you most likely can’t fix on your own. A stoppage in the main line is something which definitely requires the expertise and skills of experienced plumbers. You’ll need tools such as a drain snake or a motorized drain auger to fix the problem. You also need to protect yourself from the unsanitary conditions of dealing with sewage. Therefore, give your trusted plumber a call, and get your plumbing issue fixed right away.