Do You Know Where Your Clean Out Is?

At one point today I had three different plumbers from two different companies working at my house today. That meant I was learning more about plumbing than I ever thought I would want to know.
After our clogged sewer pipe on Saturday we had a drain expert out today with a plumbing camera to take a closer look at our pipes. When the young man asked me if we had an outdoor clean out trap I just looked at him with that blank stare of, “what is a clean out?” Our seventy year old house does not have one of these convenient access traps to our drain pipe. This meant that the guy had to remove a toilet and run the camera down the hole in the floor.
With all the excitement of Geraldo Rivera opening Al Capone’s secret vaults on TV I watched as the camera was forced through the pipes. The picture on the screen made the old cast iron pipes look like a subway car could drive through them. I was shocked to learn they were just four inch pipes. No wonder they get clogged. Sadly the configuration of our pipes was a twisty complicated mess that the camera could not get through.
As one plumber was “cameraing” my friendly neighborhood plumbers, John and Chuck Whaley showed up to fix the chirping that was coming from my master toilet. Apparently plumbers all know each other so John and Chuck got involved in the hunt for away to get the camera down the pipe.  
Despite the hundred years of plumbing expertise I had at my house there was no way to get a good look at the whole length of pipe. Now to plan B, the creation of an outdoor clean out trap. This meant the three world class plumbers had to find where the pipe came out of the house. Into the hole in the bathroom floor went the clean out snake and it was pushed as hard as it could, while two guys and I stood outside and listened. I was skeptical that we would be able to hear a noise underground, but I was wrong. Not only could you hear it , but you could feel the earth move. Hooray, I am going to get an out door clean out trap, but not until tomorrow. The impending rain storm stopped all work for today and the great plumbing excitement will continue tomorrow.
The drain guy said once he digs a hole in the ground, locates the pipe, cuts a hole in it and fits a door on the hole he will be able to run the camera again. I was assured that I did not need to be home because he will take a video of the the pipe cameras adventure through my sewage pipe and leave me a flash drive. Oh I am so excited for tomorrow night’s viewing.