Are your toilets, sinks and showers all stopped up?  You might have a clog in the main drain that connects to the city’s plumbing system.  In this case, you need to find the main drain cleanout in order to clear the clog.  Read on for more info on how to find the main drain cleanout.

A main drain cleanout will look like a 3- or 4-inch wide pipe with a cap that has a square knob on the top.  It will most likely be popping up from the ground.  The first place you should look is outside your home.  Try looking in the front yard, close to the walls and behind/under bushes near your home.

If you can’t find it there, try looking on the sides of your house.  Again, stay close to the walls, and focus on the areas near the bathrooms.

If you fail to find it outside, you may need to look inside your house; try the basement and near/behind your toilets.  In some cases, the main drain cleanout may be behind or covered up by drywall.  You could choose to tear down parts of the drywall to look for it, but beware that this may get a little messy.

Once you find the cleanout, you will need a pipe wrench to loosen the cap.  Twist and remove the cap slowly, as you will likely see water flowing out as you loosen it.  After removing the cap, clear out the contents at the surface.  Wear gloves and keep a trash-bag nearby.  You might need a plumber’s snake to reach further down into the pipe to clear out the rest of the clog.

If you can’t locate the main drain cleanout, it is also possible that your house does not have one.  In this situation, you will need to contact a plumbing company for other solutions.  Use TalkLocal to connect you to multiple highly rated plumbers in your area.

This entry was updated on Wednesday, June 17th, 2015 at 3:26 pm. This entry was originally posted on Thursday, November 15th, 2012 at 4:00 pm and is filed under Plumbers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.