Howdy,
I have a clean out that I want to remove, but its been in place for 60
years or so:
Here's a picture:
http://www.maracing.com/misc/cleanout.JPG
It looks to me like the cleanout plug is threaded into a fitting that's
then perhaps leaded into the Y fitting. If that's right, I'm afraid to
heat up the fitting with a torch to get it to loosen up.
But I'm the typical DIY person with no real experience.
Anyone know what I should do to get the cleanout plug out?
If you're curious, here's the whole story...
Our hose has a septic system. We've got two 1k gallon tanks, then a pump
that pumps the liquid that comes out of the second tank to a leech field
out behind the house.
Today, my wife noticed that the toilets were bubbling in the bowl which
the washing machine drained, and then the washing machine drain overflowed
a bit before she got it shut off. The drain pipe has the washing machine
at the end, then a bathroom (toilet/show/sink drains), then a bit of a run
to another bathroom (toilet/sink/shower), then a run out of the house
where it meets another drain pipe coming off the kitchen (under a concrete
slab, which I desperately hope won't matter), then a run to the first
1k gallon septic tank, then a short run to the 2nd 1k gallon septic tank,
then a short run to the pump which pumps all the way around the house to
the leech field.
We had the septic tanks pumped this summer (after about five years of use
since they were last cleaned) and the guy said they looked great.
The pump has an alarm on it and its showing green. When it was first
installed (five years ago, the alarm worked. I also went out and pulled
open the top cover on the pump and I could hear water trickling in, but
couldn't see anything beyond that (presumably the pump and well itself is
under another cover at the bottom of that hole).
In playing around, I initially thought I had a partial / mostly blockage
on the main line that has the two bathrooms and the washer, after the
second bathroom described above (the one closest to the final Y under the
concrete patio). The shower in that bathroom had water/crap in it, and
when I flushed the toilet, the water bubbled in the shower. However, when
I ran the kitchen sink, I didn't get anything happening. If I waited a
good while (1/2 hour or more), the water level in the tub would drop to
nothing.
There's a cleanout on the small pipe that gets the 2nd bathroom's sinks,
so I took that out and then ran a sewer rod (flat 1/2" or so steel tape
with an arrowhead on the end) in there a good ways. My guess is that it
went all the way to the Y under the concrete. It fought me a little near
the toilet drain, so I thought maybe that was the breakage. Put the
cleanout back in and ran the shower for a long while and it was good for
quite a while, but then the toilet started bubbling. Additionally, this
time I ran the kitchen sink (on the other side of the Y under the concrete
patio) with the bathroom cleanout out and after a long while (10 minutes?)
water came out of the bathroom cleanout.
So now I'm thinking that the blockage is after the Y under the concrete
(or I moved it there). And I want to remove the cleanout plug above
because that's a straight shot all the way to the septic tank.
Which led me to the question above.
Of course, I'm no particular expert here, so if I'm missing something, I'd
surely appreciate the help!
Mark
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