There is a clog in our sewer line. How do we find the sewer line?

Is there a craw space, a basement, is the house on a slab?

If you are on city sewer, the city should have a plot map showing where your sewer line runs.

If you are looking for a clean out port, how old is your home, many older homes don't have one, but often the auger is ran though the vent pipe on the roof, or the toilet is taken out and it is ran there.

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Originally Posted by Fr_Chuck

Is there a craw space, a basement, is the house on a slab??

If you are on city sewer, the city should have a plot map showing where your sewer line runs.

If you are looking for a clean out port, how old is your home, many older homes don't have one, but often the auger is ran though the vent pipe on the roof, or the toliet is taken out and it is ran there.

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There is no craw space, the house is on a slab. We are with the city of Houston. The house was built in 1952. We have been living here since 1999 and we have never had a problem with water backing up through the toilet. The plumber can't find the line.

A plumber should have various ways, by running a snake and seeing what way it seems to go from the roof vent, or by using a metal detector after a metal snake is in the line. Next they should be able to check with the city and find where the sewer hook up is suppose to be from the city.
There should even be blue prints on file with the building inspector showing the layout of all of your plumbing.

Just a few thoughts.

Most building departments don't keep a set of as-built prints on every building that goes up, however, if you can locate the plumbing company that did the house they might have saved a set for the warranty and future work. I know my company does. How deep do you have to diig the water and sewer in your area to get bellow the frost line? Any plumber worth his pay can walk into a house looki at the fixture lay out and figure where he would rough it in if he were the plumber that did it and come pretty close to the position of the sewer house main and branches. Especially if he knows where the city raiser's located out at the curb. What's hiis problem? I live in a area where all the buildings are on slabs. If your man can't figure it out then attach a drawing showing us where the walls and fixtures are located along with the location of the city raiser, (you can get that from your local building department) and one of will lay the job out. This will at least give you a spot to start looking. As Chuck pointed out he can always pull a toilet or go down a vent. Back to ypu. Tom

I will have to agree with speedball, if you have a plumber that does not know how to find it, how experienced are they. I had a home in the county I bought, that had a septic, the plumber came looked at where my toliets where, where the vent was, had a long rod, he poked it in the ground a dozen times and hit it.

Consider Roto-Router.

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Originally Posted by Fr_Chuck

I will have to agree with speedball, if you have a plumber that does not know how to find it, how experienced are they. I had a home in the county I bought, that had a septic, the plumber came looked at where my toliets where, where the vent was, had a long rod, he poked it in the ground a dozen times and hit it.

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Here they charge 70 dollars a square yard to find the line. Some companys will not even dig them up in the winter here. The lines can be buried 12 inches to 18 inches. But I am in the North.