Sewers

How to find the main sewer line?

I have a house that was built in the '60s and would like to have a new sewer line tied into the main for my washing machine. There is a cap on the carport wall for access into the line but I can't find one in the yard. Will there be a map in the county records or something? As an aside, it took the water guy 3 hours to find the water main b/c it was around the corner and down the street (once the original property but not anymore). If it makes a difference, the house is on a slab. The plumbers have not been able to find it either.

Public Comments

1. Go to your county planners office. There they will have all the blue prints for your property, i.e. plumbing, electrical. It will cost you some $ for copies. Give them to your plumber and he will find it for you. You can tap into your toilet or tub waste lines fot your washer drain.
2. I find the best way to find your sewer line is to try and dig something up in the front yard with a backhoe. You get even more spectacular results when looking for the water main,... XO!
3. most water mains run down hill, follow where you toilet drain into , and the drain wont be far way
4. The city will just tell or mark where your line should connect to the city main (+/- 5 ft). They don't keep track of private lines. Get an idea of where the city main is at. If you don't have a clean out cap in the yard, look at a neighbor and see if they have one. Then look on the roof. There should be some pipes sticking out the top. Most states require that at least one of them be a three inch pipe. It should be above one of the toilets in the home, but not all of them. Try digging around that area out side. If your three inch pipe is somewhere in the middle of the home, find the closest plumbing fixture and try there. If all else fails, hire a plumber to run a snake through your roof vent until it gets in your main line, and listen for it in the pipe out in the yard. You should hear it in the pipe.
5. Call a plumber!! This may be difficult for the average homeowner to do on their own. The city will only have records of where their main lines run. They will not be able to tell you where your sewer exits your house. A plumber on the other hand can either pull a toilet or go up on the roof to your vents and put a camera down the line. Once the camera is in the line then he can locate it with a locator that will find the camera head. This may cost you a few bucks but will save you alot of time and trouble......good luck
6. i have a slab house with a crawl space under bathroom. i also had the same problem no washer hook-up. what i did was put the washer in a convenient area close to a bath tub. tapped into bath tub drain piping for waste and in the wall i tapped the hot and cold. trying to hook -up in the yard will be a lot more work and money. i considered that option but in the end just decided to go by bath tub. my washing machine ended up in bathroom closet. i lost some storage but the project cost next to nothing. at the same time i also upgraded shower controls, well back side of wall was open. good luck
7. A house built in the 60's will have a 4" vent, protruding through the roof. Use it's location to narrow your search in the yard. Any "good" plumber knows where to look, so maybe call another plumber. The camera suggestion is good, and will cost about $300, but the plumber will tell you right where the line is, and how deep, and the direction it goes. It is the fastest way to locate a buried line. FYI: There are no county records, showing where plumbing lines are located, on private property. Once you find the lines, measure and mark the location down, for future reference, or mark up a set of your blueprints. Good luck!
8. If you have a wall cleanout for the main sewer, the trick to do is to 'sound' out the sewer. A plumber or rooter guy can indeed hear the cable turning in the sewer in most cases. Try that. Cameras are not necessary most of the time. Experience usually is a lot cheaper.