Today, I’m going to answer a question many people have, which is why do you need a sewer line cleanout? Being a plumber, believe me, it’s great. If someone’s sewer line backs up and they have a set of cleanouts at the front of the house or on the side of their house, it is so much easier to solve the problem than if there are no cleanouts.
If you don’t have cleanouts, we have to use alternate methods of fixing the problem when your main sewer line backs up. They’re not ideal, as you’ll see.
Reason #1: Sometimes we have to get up on the roof, taking our big sewer machines up there. It’s not easy to do. It’s not good for your roof. But sometimes that’s what we have to do. If your roof has a very steep pitch, then that’s not even an option.
Reason #2: The other possibility is pulling up a toilet inside the house. Then we bring our big sewer machine in the house and clean out the line from there. Again, this is not the optimum way of doing it.
More Reasons to Have Sewer Line Cleanouts
Whenever I go do a job on a house that doesn’t have cleanouts, I always recommend that the owners have one installed.
Reason #3: We can get some important information by running a camera down the sewer line. If you have a set of cleanouts, it’s very easy to run the camera. If your sewer line backs up fairly often, like once or twice a year, you want to run a camera down your sewer line to see what the problem is, where the problem is, and get an estimate to fix it so it doesn’t keep happening to you.
Pinpointing the Location of a Sewer Line Problem
Reason #4: If you have a set of cleanouts, we can measure the exact distance from the cleanouts to where the problem is. Then we have a line locator that spots exactly where your sewer line is and how deep it is. Using the camera and the locator, we can provide a very accurate estimate of the cost to fix a problem.
Let’s say you have roots in one section of your sewer line, or you might have roots or partial collapses through the whole thing. Lots of times you’ll get an estimate from a company to replace the whole sewer line, when, in truth, it was all fine except for one spot. By being able to see and locate the problem, we can give you an accurate estimate to fix just the spot where the problem is.
If you’d like an estimate to have cleanouts installed at your home, please call Rocketman Plumbing in Albuquerque. We’ll come out and give you a free estimate.