Searching for the Cleanout

December 21, 2017

A long while ago, when we got new plumbing for the house, we had a lot of exposed pipes in the basement. There was a small cleanout that we had marked (with the blue tube, in the photo above). But over time, we lost track of it. And eventually, it got forgotten and covered over, when we refilled the pit.

Fast forward to today, where that cleanout has since been covered over with about 4 inches of concrete. As part of our goal to finish the basement up, finding (and exposing) this was our task for the day.

Using old blog photos, we were able to approximate where we thought the cap might be. So we marked our spot, and got to work

We started by scoring out the area with the grinder. Something we’ve gotten some good practice doing.

After that, we tried breaking up the area with a hammer. While this chipped away a top layer of about a half inch, it really wasn’t doing all that much. After a while, Liz and I decided the best course of action would be to go and rent a demo hammer.

Hello, old friend. Breaking up concrete is also something we’ve also practiced. A surprising amount of practice.

The concrete, opened up. We were really close in our guess! But still, we had a little more demo to go, to fully expose the cap.

Liz, handling the demo hammer like the pro that she is.

Doing some detail work to clean up the edges.

The cap, exposed!

Next steps for us – find a way to refill this space with concrete, while keeping the cleanout protected (and to avoid covering it up again). We cut up a small painters bucket as an experiment, and while that worked as a kind of “guard,” it didn’t provide a lot of extra space for us to pour concrete.

When we returned the demo hammer to Home Depot, we found a 4′ Quik-Tube, designed for just this kind of thing. Fit like a glove, and gave us extra room to work.

Liz, checking to ensure that the tube fits.