How to Find a Buried Sewer Cleanout

To avoid such an ugly scenario as a homeowner, you should be aware of the critical pieces of your plumbing infrastructure to be in control when there is an emergency. A noteworthy point for homeowners is to know that it's their responsibility to install, repair, or maintain the sewer pipes within their property. Therefore, it's important that every homeowner knows the location of the sewer line cleanout access point. This knowledge can help resolve the problem of low suction in the pipe or minimal pipe clogs to restore flow in the sewer system.

In other words, it will be easier for a plumber to fix problem in your plumbing system if you can identify the sewer cleanout location. If not, before commencing your job, the expert plumber will have to locate the sewer cleanout, and that might be more expensive. Your cleanout access point might be covered by weeds, flowerbeds, and other materials in your yard.

The color of the cleanout cap

However, the first thing to know is the color of your standpipe or cleanout cap, and this depends on the age of the system or where you are located. If your plumbing system is made of PVC or similar plastic, the cleanout cap will be white, green or blue. It is rusty when your pipe is made of steel, ductile or cast iron. The color is black if it is an ABS pipe and gray for pipes made of concrete.

How to locate your buried sewer cleanout

The sewer cleanout tracking method

The cleanout cap is usually at the backyard or around the sewer pipes from the bathrooms and the kitchen. Therefore, you need to use the tracking method to identify it by following your interior main sewer pipes which comes out from the bathrooms or kitchen and rout until you find it. The cleanout is closest to the toilet sewer pipes, or in some cases, it could be between the foundation and the street

Though you might need to clear bushes outside before it is found (depending on the size of your property), this method will make it easier.

Use the engineered plot plan of the property

As a homeowner, you should have access to the engineered plot plans of your home, and this could help immensely in identifying the location of the cleanout. The plot plan has the sewer service lines, and you can quickly locate it from the document.

Then, try as much as possible to locate the cleanout access point in your yard and clear the weeds or other materials that have covered it.