Pop Up Sewer Clean Out Relief Valves

[ea56]

As some of you may know I live in a HOA and I’m the president of the board. Our complex has 20 units on a lovely property with 40 plus trees, including Sycamore’s, Liquid Ambers and Redwoods. Trees can cause sewer blockages, especially during times of drought when the roots are starved for water and the roots will seek out any source of water they can find.

About 18 years ago my next door neighbor, Barbara had a sewer backup due to these roots and it caused several thousands of dollars in water damage. Then two years later I’ll damned if it didn’t happen again! That time she and I asked the plumber if there wasn’t something that could be done to prevent this from happening again? He said yes, have Sewer Pop Up Valves installed on the sewer clean-out lines for every unit. We did this post haste. And boy was this ever the best investment our HOA ever made! Since we had these pop up valves installed they have prevented a backup in Barbara’s unit 4 times! When the backup occurs, usually when she’s doing laundry and her TL begins to drain, the backup happens outside in front of her unit instead of the downstairs toilet overflowing and flooding her house.

So far the only unit that has had a popup valve overflow has been Barbara’s next door. Well this afternoon I got a call from one of the units in the front building, where the nearest tree is at least 40 feet away. I called a plumber out to route out the sewer line and it was clogged with tree roots from the Redwood 40 feet away. This drought has caused the tree to seek water all that distance away. I’m so thankful that we had the fore thought 18 years ago to have these Pop-up valves installed.

So if any of you have a sewer clean out line without one of these Pop-up valves, do yourself a favor and spend the approx. $35.00 and buy one. You can install it yourself very easily by just removing the original cap and and screwing on the new Pop-up valve. This simple,inexpensive DYI project could save you lots of $$$ and lots of aggravation some day.

See the link below.

Eddie
https://www.homedepot.com/p/JONES-S...er-Cleanout-and-Relief-Valve-S62304/202271242

 

[steved]

Great idea

Our 60 - 65 year old development was built in the middle of a pine forest. All the homes originally had septic tanks, so the sewer lines are fairly shallow. A few years back we had water backing up out of the laundry drain. The plumber who came said "if I take that clean out cap off, you're gonna have about 80 gallons of sewer water on your basement floor". Pine tree roots had not only invaded the lines, but split some along the length. He proceeded to dig a deep hole outside, along the pipe, then cut it, leaving the sewage flowing into the hole. In addition to a new sewer line to the street, we have 2 exterior cleanouts. I should get one of these..... thanks for the idea!

 

[rp2813]

We had a chronic problem with sewer back-ups that developed at our previous home a few months after we moved in.  Because we had a clean-out near the curb, the city would come out for free to clear any clogs beyond that point.  The crew cleared the line and that was that.

 

But, the clean-out was original to the house and was 90 years old.  Part of it had cracked and broken off, I suspect when it met with the gardener's lawnmower blade.  After a second incident where the city cleared the line yet again, I decided to repair the clean-out in case the broken area was allowing mud to enter the sanitary line.  I installed a pop-up at that time (see pictures).

 

The pop-up worked when the next back-up occurred.  After that third visit, the crew supervisor arranged to send out a team with a camera to figure out what was causing the recurring problem.  They found the pipe had separated at a joint under the street and was plugging up with mud.  They repaired the compromised section on the city's side, installed a new clean-out on our side that (unlike the original) met current codes, and it was all done at no charge.  Of course my rigged up repair with the pop-up was lost in the process, but it had done its job by preventing that final back-up from impacting anything indoors.

 

[askolover]

I wish we had those here.  I've never seen one.  Every so often the city comes through and blows out the lines.  My former neighbor said before I moved here they did it....and it backed up into her house and it was a couple of days before Thanksgiving.  The city had to pay to clean everything up.  Well, a few years ago they did it and it blew out in my bathroom...just "clean" toilet water.  Tony was just finishing a whiz and it almost got him!  I made the city pay for a janitorial service to come and clean my bathroom even though it was just water.  Then last year they did it again.  We were supposed to be on a list of "do not blow here" homes (haha) but for whatever reason it wasn't on there.  Well it is now.  The supervisor said his own house had to be listed because it happened to him too once upon a time.  If we had one of those there wouldn't be any air pressure .  But my sewer cleanout is in the driveway where the cars run over it.  I don't think that plastic will hold up a car.

 

[volsboy1]

I have the same issues with my place, the sewer is really shitty(LOL) here. I had the line replaced from the street all the way to my place 3 years ago,but sense my place is on a concrete slab I am shit out of luck.

I went and bought me a Sewer-jetter and it is night and day difference. I found a   electric  1500psi Sun-Joe commercial unit with a triplex plunger  pump for marked down to 110 bucks from 550$ .

The unit spins so fast and hard it eats the build up on the pipes and keeps it flowing great.

I do it once a year and have had no problems with mine anymore . Roto-Rooter quoted me 1500 bucks to do the same thing on each unit I own... You can buy all the things you need off of Amazon best 200 bucks I have ever spent.

 

 

 

 

[rp2813]

Greg, I didn't include a picture of the finished product.  I don't think the pop-up I installed was intended to be exposed either.  The cover for the whole thing fit loosely enough to pop off -- particularly in the case of the blow-out procedure you mentioned.

 

As you can see, I pieced together this whole assembly with components that I could adapt and make backward-compatible to 1927.  The cover is actually for irrigation equipment but it's practically identical to a cover for a sewer clean-out.

 

[circlew]

That would be a good solution for situations where the ground level is lower than the lowest fixture or drain. However, it wouldn't work where the building has a basement with floor drains or fixtures, like my house. We used to have a terrible problem with the sewer backing up from the street, flooding the basement with several inches of nasty water. My dad had the plumber install a backwater valve in the basement floor where the line went outside. This worked well for a while, until we neglected to clean it as instructed. Then one day there was a heavy rain, and it backed up again. After that, we opened it up every six months, and rinsed it out with the hose. When I had all new plumbing installed a few years ago, the plumber put in a new one.

 

[ea56]

You’re so correct Tom, a Popup valve will only work of the lowest drain or toilet is above ground level, which fortunately is the case with all the Units in out complex. Also, the Sewer Jetter in reply#4 won’t work in blockages caused by roots, they need to be routed out.

Eddie

 

[tomturbomatic]

My house originally had a septic tank or cesspool in the back yard so the sewer goes out the back of the house at ground level then goes down, turns toward the edge of the house and continues to the driveway then out to the street. My basement had set tubs, but no floor drain. Every time the water utility marks where my sewer SHOULD be, they get it wrong in the street. I know where the line comes out of my house, but not exactly where it travels to get to the street so I do not know where I would install something like this.

 

[volsboy1]

You can buy a attachment for the sewer jetter , this is a Root cutting nozzle.  The plumbing guy who fixed

my sewer uses these all the time..

You would need a Gas pressure washer for this though... They do work like a buzz saw, we have had to use

them on our farm leach field for the septic tank..