Question for the plumbers

[Alpo 3,651]

See these pieces of 4" white PVC pipe sticking up out of people's yards?

 

What is their purpose?

 

I have one at my house, but like the first picture, is right up against the house next to the outside faucet.

 

I think that it is there so that you could run a snake down into the house's main sewer drain and clean out a large clog.

 

I think.

 

I noticed a guy in a fifth wheel camper draining his black water tank into one of them. I suppose they go straight to the sewer?

 

If they are for snaking the line, why do they have them out in the middle of the yard? That last one, with the big screwdriver slot in the cap, was all the way out at the edge of the road.

 

 

 

[Alpo 3,651]

And why would that one house have two?

[Pat Riot, SASS #13748 12,836]

Yes, sewer main clean out for the house. 
 

Maybe that house has 2 because they have 2 sewer lines?

 

I have also seen people install 4” PVC for deep root watering of trees. 

Edited January 23 by Pat Riot, SASS #13748

[Crazy Gun Barney, SASS #2428 278]

1 minute ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

Yes, sewer main clean out for the house. 
 

Maybe that house has 2 because they have 2 sewer lines. 

Or they only have a short snake....

[Ace_of_Hearts 725]

https://loxahatcheeriver.org/septic-sewer-conversions/septic-systems/

 

[The Original Lumpy Gritz 5,554]

Can be a clean out or access to shut off valve.

OLG 

[Cliff Hanger #3720LR 437]

A second pipe can be as Lumpy said, a shut off valve but I have watched plumbers repair a sewer line and add another clean out pipe where the repair was made.

[Shotgun Clay 444]

So cousin Eddie doesn't have to use the storm drain.

[Forty Rod SASS 3935 3,973]

My house is 1880 sq. ft on a half acre and there's a 1900 sq. ft workshop in back.  Total of three toilets, five sinks, one tub with shower and three total showers.  There are also sewer connections for laundry and a garbage eater.  It originally had a septic system but was hooked up to public sewage about 13 years ago.  I have 9 clean out plugs in my yard.  

 

This coming summer I'm having some work done in the yard and the plumber tells me that she will check these all out and thinks I'll probably need three, maybe only two.  The others will be capped and buried where I can hide them under landscaping.

 

Mina are all black and don't show up so much.

[J.D. Daily 169]

If the plumbing is for sewer the material is WRONG!  Sewer piping is ABS (black) not PVC (white).

[Sedalia Dave 6,285]

29 minutes ago, J.D. Daily said:

If the plumbing is for sewer the material is WRONG!  Sewer piping is ABS (black) not PVC (white).

 

Not any longer. My sewer lines are white PVC.

[Sedalia Dave 6,285]

Several houses near me have a similar setup.  The pipe near the street is a second clean out. 

[Ramblin Gambler 806]

They are cleanouts. The reason for multiples is that a house can have more than 1 septic tank and most houses with a septic also have a grease trap. In addition, houses with septic also usually have Grey water lines. I've never seen a cleanout on a Grey water line but I can see where someone might do that just in case.