help with sewer line ...

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TWS

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greetings plumbers,


over the years i've made you guys very rich and i don't regret it nor am i here to complain about your prices...


but i thought before i call another plumber i might get some clarification about my sewer/pipe/thingy.


half way between my small single story house and the street, just above the existing sewer line. (i know this because i spent $300 dollars for a plumbing service to poke a camera on a roto thingy and i saw the abs plastic sewer pipe go all the way to the street) are a set of covered iron pipes.


anyway there is this green box thing that covers three old iron pipes with caps... two of the pipes are just a Y that connects and goes to the sewer line i'm pretty sure... the other a smaller capped pipe is just full of dirt... the iron Y pipes are covered with what looks like tire inner tube rubber and sealed tight with ssteel strap. i poked a long slender bamboo stick down the Y and it got wet... plus i flushed my toliet and could hear some gurgling... i have attached pictures to further illustrate this state of affairs...


i'm going to dig to a depth of 8" - removing all the crabgrass for a space of 16' by 13' and this sewer pipe contraption lies within this area. next i'm going to cover the entire area with some heavy duty poly spun road cloth and then bury the lot with 3/4” minus gravel and pound the piss out it with one of those bumping/thumping things.


my question is what are these pipes and can i use them in the future, for example a drain or outhouse...(if these things are just clean-outs then I already have a couple in my dwelling/laundry room) i plan, if the grade permits, to just leave them alone, keep them covered and hope they wont' be above my finished gravel grade. i'm doing all of this to get rid of the crabgrass and put a 8'x8' greenhouse on top of a level gravel area – bordered by drift-pinned railroad ties...


here are several pictures. i hope you plumbers can enlighten me as to what these pipes are and how careful I have to be of them.

Thanks for an excellent forum.


tws
 
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TWS

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here are the pictures
 

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Themp

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You need to dig this up more. Why not dig down to the main sewer line and see what is there? Everyone would be guessing at this point.

Usually it is good to have a clean out, that is out side the house. I had roots in my sewer line with no clean out available and to scope and snake this from the house was a real pain and costly. To save money I dug down and added one outside near the house. This let the plumber run his camera and snake to find the problem. I actually now have two clean outs now as where the pipe broke to let the roots in, is a second clean out.

Things I learned on this was to use a T connection that allows the snake to go both directions. This allowed the plumber to go backwards to the house to look with his camera. Maybe this is why you have two here for both directions. I also found out to not glue the PVC cap with screw fitting to the pipe. The snake eats the cap threads and destroys it. So when snaking now I can take the whole cap section off to just use the 4 inch PVC pipe.
 

TWS

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thanks themp, good advise...

i'm a bit anxious to go further but i think digging it out would reveal some kind of plumbing truth... i fear the line might be iron from this point to the street. however i could swear i saw the inside white lettering of abs plastic pipe all the way out to the street... when i had a plumber scope the sewer line because i was replacing old iron water pipe winter before last... BOY WAS THAT EXPENSIVE! - replaced it with 1 1/2" pec bored underground.

so when i know the weather isn't going to dump buckets of rain i'll dig down to the juncture and see what i've got... i would like to condense and refit this mess if it doesn't call for calling in a plumber and i could do it myself... if i find that somehow this old iron got attached to newer abs pipe i think i should replace it. once i've exposed it i'll know better and hopefully i will get some professional feedback here.

thanks again for your input.

tws
 

hj

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quote; Things I learned on this was to use a T connection that allows the snake to go both directions.

In that case you didn't learn much. A "T" connection not only "allows" the snake to go both directions, but lets IT decide which way to go and if the riser is full of water YOU CANNOT tell which way it is going. That is why the requirement is for TWO "Y"s going in opposite directions for the mandated cleanout. Seeing just the tops of the pipes tells us NOTHING about what their purpose is and therefore cannot tell you if it is wise to cover them over.
 
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