Cleanout access

What it is, and what it is worth

A cleanout is a branch off the drain line that comes up to the surface and is capped. It exists so that a cable, a jet or a camera can get into the line without anything being taken apart. A two-way cleanout is fitted so that a machine can be run either toward the house or toward the street from the same opening, which is why it is the one worth having.

If a house has one, a main line call is a man, a machine and a cap. If it has not, the same call starts with a toilet being unbolted and lifted — more time, a new wax seal, a bathroom out of use — or with a ladder and a roof vent, which is slower, works against the fall of the line the whole way, and puts a cable through the smallest pipe in the system. Every future call carries that same premium, for as long as you own the house.

Where it goes

• At the foundation, on the side the building drain leaves — the standard position, and the one that covers the most.
• At the property line, near the connection to the city main — useful on a long run, and sometimes the utility's own requirement.
• Wherever the line already turns, because a bend is where a cable would rather not start.

It is set flush to grade with a proper lid, not left as a pipe sticking out of a lawn for a mower to find, and not buried two inches under sod where nobody will locate it in five years' time. If you already have one and nobody can find it, we can locate it and bring it up.

How we decide where

If the line has been read on camera we already know its route, its depth and where it changes material, so the cleanout goes in at a point that is useful rather than a point that is convenient to dig. If it has not, the line gets located first. Digging for a cleanout without knowing where the pipe is is how a pipe gets broken by the person being paid to help it.

The honest caveat

A cleanout does not make your drains work better. It does not clear anything, it does not fix roots, and on a line that has never given trouble it is not urgent. What it does is make every future visit shorter and cheaper, and on a house with a history it usually pays for itself the first time it is used.