[bstn75]

I'm guessing this isn't a common problem since I can't find an answer on the interwebs.

I'm wondering how to seal off a sewer pipe completely. Is there a pipe-filler that expands and blocks it off rendering it useless?

Reason being... My house has two sewer lines coming up from the foundation. The previous owner had a support wall installed in the basement. Unfortunately, they blocked off the one of the sewer lines in the process. The only good thing was that the line only supported the kitchen sink drain. So we had that rerouted to the main line out.

Not knowing what's going on behind a wall, I'm afraid that we'll get some dirty-water backflow. It'd make me feel better to know that the line is sealed off completely.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[massplumber2008]

Are there any threads so you screw in a cap? If not, exactly how does the pipe end as it is now... just a bald end?

Otherwise, a pic. Will definitely allow us to give you a parts list to cap off properly.

Let us know more...

Mark

[bstn75]

Well, here's where it gets weird. And I apologize for the lengthy response.

The previous owner had their sum pump running into this secondary main. When they hired contractors to build the sistering wall, the contractors decided it wise to leave the sum pump hose attached to the main and just brick the whole thing in. So now I have a plastic accordion hose sticking out of a cinderblock wall.

First time I had flooding in my basement, the sum pump turned on and kicked a bunch of dirt into the main clogging it. I was able to unclog it, but decided it wise to just abandon the main and reroute the kitchen drain into the primary. I capped the old cut copper pipe under the kitchen sink with a rubber bung.

Now with all of the rain we've been getting in the Northeast, city sewer has been backing up. I have the flex tubing from the old sum pump clogged up with rags and plastic bags. During one real bad storm, dirty water was leaking from the flex tubing.

This makes me worried that the contractors didn't seal things properly. I'm afraid that this 2" flex tubing leads into an open 4" cleanout behind this wall. In which case anything can happen with backflow, and I wouldn't be able to do anything about it.

[bstn75]

Here's a picture of the situation. The main is behind this wall. The wall was put in before the sale of the house, but after our initial walk-through, so I've seen it.



Thank you for your quick response. I appreciate it.

[massplumber2008]

If you can't cap the line coming out of the wall then I figure you'll need to open the wall to get to the pipe and see exactly how things were left... maybe? Any chance you could chat with the guys that built the wall?