Why would sewer outlet be capped?

loobylou

An elderly family member who lived alone has been in hospital for a while.
I've been to his house where there has been a problem with his drains. The long and short of it is a backup in the sewer from the manhole in his front yard to the house.
Upon clearing out the buildup in the manhole I found that the outlet pipe, ie from the manhole to the street had been plugged with a custom made cap.
AFAIK there is no other (higher/newer) outlet.
Anyone any ideas as to why this would be done?

sullzz

What is the custom made cap made from , are his drains plastic or clay , are you sure its not a broads trap your looking at and the cap you see is the rodding access cap. Can you put up a picture.

loobylou

Now you say it, it does look like a rodding access cap. Will try to put up a picture, but heres a description.
Looks like a plunger with the handle cut to about 3 inches.The rubber of the plunger is rigid however. At top of handle is a yellow screw on cap. (Like a bottle cap). There also appears to be a wingnut screwed down to where the "handle" meets the rubber.
Now you say it, it most probably is to allow for rodding. In which case the outlet I need to clear is somewhere lower down I presume.
BTW pipes from house to manhole are plastic, manhole to street clay.

sullzz

Thats an expanding plug , used for blanking off pipes . Are you sure there is no other pipe in the manhole going out to the street , in the manhole the pipe to the street will be on the floor of the manhole it is a continious pipe withe the top of it cut off , the expanding plug would more than likely of been in an unused pipe to elsewhere to prevent smells backing up

loobylou

Thanks for that, it was pretty dirty down there so I'll take a look again when I'm next there.
Very much appreciate your help.

Joey the lips

I wonder if someone tried to unblock the sewer in the past for your granddad and broke off the head..

loobylou

Joey the lips wrote: »

I wonder if someone tried to unblock the sewer in the past for your granddad and broke off the head..

Don't think so, the clay pipe was undamaged. Its end was flared/flanged so I now suspect what was suggested earlier, ie its for rodding access.
Next time I'm there I'll clear out more gunk and expect to find another exit point which will be blocked. If thats the case it ought to be a simple fix.

Would I get away with wedging that plug back in where it came from or should I buy a new one?

martin46585

That's a drain test plug, used for testing the air tightness of drains by putting a gauge on the threaded end,
Though in this case used to block a ridding point on an older type crockery pipe, which acted like a gully trap in the manhole, though no longer common place,
Loossen off the wing nut, which will make the rubber seal small enough to enter the pipe, and than screw the nut back tight to expand it again...
One small tip would be to tie a piece of string to the plug, just in case you lose you grip on it and it heads off down the pipe, before you can get it tighten in place......


Have a google images on manhole traps

sullzz

You really need to clear all of the s**t out of the man hole the pipe out to the street will not be in the wall of the manhole but along the bottom , put that plug back where you got it before its forgotten about , if you havent got sewer rods with the various heads ie. Plungers, scrapers and worms youd wasting your time as the blockage could be any distance down the pipe

loobylou

Problem solved, all working well again.
Many thanks for the help given here.

sullzz

What did you find the problem was

loobylou

Don't know what originally caused the blockage, looked like there wasn't enough liquid flushing through the system.
Cleaned out the buildup in the manhole, removed that cap and flushed out the pipe from house to manhole. The waste then dropped about a foot vertically, this section needed scooping out. Bought a new cap in a plumbing suppliers (€10) and replaced the one I had taken out. It was to allow rodding access to the system, as had been suggested here.
The setup was pretty much like the one shown here http://chestofbooks.com/architecture/House-Construction/images/Fig-374-Section-of-Beancliff-Intercepting-Trap-for-Manhol.jpg