Estimate the Direction of the Drainage Line The drain cleanout is usually located close to the home, in line with the septic tank or municipal system. Septic systems: Walk back from the tank towards the home, looking for a plastic pipe vertically sticking up from the lawn or garden.
Main drains are located in the walls and floors of your home, while sewer line drains are located outside underground. Each drain pipe in your home is connected to a different household fixture on one end, including toilets, sinks and bathtubs, and the other end is connected to the main sewer line.
Today, the best tool for the job is ground penetrating radar (GPR) as it accurately maps metal and PVC pipes. Traditional pipe locators use electricity and magnets to locate underground pipes.
Finding an Outdoor Drain Cleanout
If you use a septic system, walk back towards your home and look for a protruding plastic pipe in your lawn or garden. If the cleanout is on the municipal sewer line, you won't see the drainage line. But follow a path through the yard to find the cleanout pipe.
Exterior wall: If your home is in a warmer part of the country, the main water line is likely not buried below the frost line. Check outside on an exterior wall, perhaps near the outdoor faucet. The yard: The valve may be installed underground in the yard. Look for an access panel buried in the ground near the street.
The standard depth for water lines in the U.S. is around 36 inches, but this can vary from location to location.
While the amount of time your lawn remains wet after rain or watering sessions will vary, generally, a healthy lawn with good drainage should not stay wet or soggy for more than 24 to 48 hours after a moderate rain or watering session. If your soil is consistently wet, you likely have underlying drainage problems.
For instance, residential sewer line depth ranges from 18 to 30 inches. However, city sewer line depths are different. Your city's sewer lines must always be deeper than the deepest residential pipe to allow waste to flow downhill. As such, these lines can go as deep as needed.
Most of the time, the sewer line will be sticking out of the ground and easy to spot; however, overgrown landscaping or objects close to the house could hide the cap. Or, you could have a buried sewer cleanout. Try searching on the side of the home that is closest to the main floor bathroom.
Use your septic tank to point the way.
It will point in the general direction of an area large enough to house your drainfield. Once you have a general sense of where your drainfield might be, look for an open area clear of trees and buildings. This is likely the location of your septic drainfield.
The Cost of Landscape Drainage
You can generally expect to pay between USD $30 and $1,000 per linear foot of channel drain. However, more complex situations may cost up to $150 per linear foot.
Pipe locators and detectors are great for finding pipes. They work by finding signals from the pipes. Tools like the pipe locator, utility locator, and water pipe locator are very good at this. These tools can find pipes at different depths.
Septic systems: Walk back from the tank towards the home, looking for a plastic pipe vertically sticking up from the lawn or garden. Municipal system: The actual drainage line is usually not visible, so trace a broad path through the yard to find the drain cleanout pipe. The pipe is typically black or white.
In most situations, this is a very easy find, as all you need to do is inspect the outside of your property for a drain cover. If you easily find the drain cover, this is the main drain that connects all of the wastewater from your home to the public drainage system.
You can usually find it in your yard, often positioned vertically and protruding slightly from the ground a few feet away from the foundation. You can also check your basement or crawl space if the cleanout pipe isn't visible in the yard.
Your sanitation district will be able to tell you the approximate depth by going off the plats of how that sewer system was laid out, along with all the laterals, manholes, turns of direction. Everything in Plumbing can be repaired or replaced.
Sewer lines come in a variety of depths. They can range in depth from 12″ to 30″ and can be as deep as 6+ ft. Often, it's only a matter of the environment and climate.
Your water line must be buried at least 12 inches below the frost line to meet local code requirements. However, a minimum depth of 6 inches below the frost line is often recommended for extra security against freezing.
Well, it depends on a few factors, such as the slope of your lawn, soil type, average rainfall, and the specific needs of the drain system. Typically, French drains are 18 to 24 inches deep, but they can be as shallow as 8 inches deep.
Who is Responsible for the Water Line From the Street to Your House? Water service lines within the bounds of your property are considered your personal responsibility to maintain, while public water pipes outside of private property lines are the city's responsibility.
Go to the city office directly or call them to see if they can tell you where the sewer line is located. Usually, they can show you where the line goes from your home to the city's main line. If you are unable to reach the city, see if there is an interactive underground utility map of your area online.