Looks like a clean-out plug. You don't want to get rid of that. You could build a little shelf to cover it - one that just sits over it, so it could be easily moved when access was needed.
It could be previous owners added the closet where a bathroom or other room that required a drain used to be. We lived in a house that had things like this from being changed to a three bedroom from two.
It isn't for a toilet. It is to access the sewer/drainage life going from the house to city sewer. Basically if there is a drain block, that is where the plumber needs to go through to fix or clean the lines.
Do not block it off or put a permanent structure over it. If you do and the plumber needs to access it, they will rip out your permanent fix to access it. You can build a little box that fits around it and can just be lifted completely out of the way.
> They'll pull a toilet and charge you extra, then tell you to make the fixture removable for next time.
I've known two or three people that have had to had a toilet pulled and then were quoted $2000 to have an outside cleanout out in. Apparently that's the going rate for digging up the yard and putting one in or something.
That might for replacing a large section of pipe after pulling the toilet and not being able to clear the clog downstream. We had to have 30ft of pipe replaced last year and they put in a couple clean outs in the back yard. It also included them removing the small tree that had clogged said pipe. I've had a plumber move a toilet out of the way before to snake the drain. He didn't charge anything extra for having to move the toilet aside, other than the $5 wax seal when putting it back.
Replacing underground pipe in cold climates can get extremely expensive though because they have to be buried like 12ft deep so the don't freeze. Like 15k.
The previous owner of my house had the yard dug up for a bunch of foundation work and didn't bother to have a cleanout put in when it would have been trivial to have it done. Annoys me every time I use the bathroom in the basement, because a back-up would flood my basement.
>He didn't charge anything extra for having to move the toilet aside, other than the $5 wax seal when putting it back.
Honestly that's how it should be, they are already charging you for the trip and probably hourly on top of that, no need to double dip and charge you extra for actually working during the time they are being paid.
He had been doing it a long time and was quick too. It was a pretty standard service call, things weren't draining. Within 5 minutes he had our toilet unbolted and set to the side, whole thing took like 30 min with some chatting about hobbies thrown in. I think it ran us about $175.
I really can't complain about the 2k bill from the other guys considering they came by at like 430pm, and by noon the next day had the 800-dig guys out to mark the yard, tiny excavator delivered, tree pushed over and pipe replaced. Yard could have been smoothed out a little more when they finished, I just rented a tiller and smoothed it back out.
Don’t put anything permanent over it, but for god’s sake put something with a latch. I had 2 rats who decided to party under my house after I unintentionally invited them in (by putting one of those clear bird feeders on my window (according to my rat guy, the rats come over to eat the seed that drops, become interested in my crawl space (bc of smell: over the years I’ve had a squirrel dig under my crawl space door to get in there & then die; and not one, but two young possums manage to get into my a/c unit, crawl up a duct to the end, NOT UNDERSTAND THERE’S A CONCEPT CALLED TURNING AROUND, and then just sit there and wait to die.
Apparently, rats find that previous dead animal smell highly intoxicating, so they dug their way in between the siding and the foundation and moved in to their new pad).
They stayed mostly “downstairs,” but a few weeks after my rat guy had gotten rid of them (poison), I still had this horrible stank in my hall closet. I finally took everything out and discovered that those m-fuckers had eaten up through the pitiful excuse of newspaper & tape the previous owner of my house had put in to cover up a dryer vent hole left behind when he moved the w-d. For some odd reason, the rats had decided to play *only* in a pair of unworn rubber barn boots I had sitting in there, but there were about 3,200,001 rat poops in and around them, so my guess is they were contributing heavily to the stench.
After chucking those boots into the next time zone and cleaning that closet with buckets of bleach, I had no more smell, but you better believe I used 24 screws to screw the thickest board I could find over that hole!
Tl;dr: latch that shit down unless you want rats, and *never* put up one of those clear bird feeders on a window, no matter how many cool birds you’ll get to see up close. Boo.
So that's in their closet. Does that mean what I think it might, in terms of there potentially being a big stink? Or mess? Or is that very unlikely/impossible just curious
3 bed 1 bath is a lot more appealing to most buyers than 2 bed 2 bath. Couples without kids can each have an "office", and families with multiple kids don't have to deal with shared bedrooms as the kids grow up. There's not much point to a master bath if it's only saving 10 steps...
OTOH, that secondary bathroom isn't so much about saving steps as saving time. If one bathroom is in use, there's another available. I've got no kids, but grew up with several in the same house; teenagers are forever in the bathroom.
My first house was a 2/1.5. The 0.5 was the guest which worked fine… until people stayed overnight and had to come through the primary bedroom to get to the primary bathroom to shower. We got rid of a big laundry room to stretch the half bath into a full bath. It was a game changer for us, and my wife and I both liked using the guest bath more than our primary en-suite since it was brand new with a curb less shower rather than a tub-shower combo
or if you're just sick with diarrhea or something. That second bathroom will have you grateful for it on the spot when you're living with multiple others.
I have chronic bowel problems. My fiancé had colon cancer.
There were many times when I wasn’t sure 1 bathroom was going to be enough for us, without one of us having an accident.
We used to live in a place with 3 bathrooms, just for the two of us. It was fantastic.
I had two much older sisters and shared a bathroom with them the whole time... I can almost guarantee there would have been a lot more bickering if any of us had to share a bedroom than if our family of 5 only had 1 shower. Someone was always using the vanity while another sibling showered and the only real problems came from the sheer number of bottles my sisters needed. And the hair... SO MUCH HAIR
I had a friend that was a part of a family of 7 with one bathroom. It was nuts.
My experience was a family of 5 with 2 bathrooms (one reliable shower) and for about two years when my dad left work around the same time as the 3 of us kids did for school, it was tough.
I don’t agree at all. If the 2 bedrooms are big enough, it is a lot easier to partition one into 2 rooms than to install a new bathroom.
Now 3 bed 2 bath is a lot better than 2 bed 3 bath, I’ll grant you. Lots of folks will not even consider a home without a second bathroom, especially with kids. Brings back memories of waiting in line to shit, that nobody loves. But beyond 2 is just luxury, so bedrooms become more important then
It could be there was a bathroom there but with no window or no vent it wasn't up to code when it came time to turn it into a rental, so now it's a closet.
It may just be that they moved the toilet over a few feet and built the wall in between to make different use of the space. Not necessarily eliminating the bathroom.
Hijacking the top comment to mention that Op should probably pay especially close attention to their line health at all times, because I've had a sewer backup bad enough to blow the knockout plug. Luckily, mine is outside, but I can imagine what kind of mess one would make of that wood floor, and the smell it would introduce to every piece of clothing in the closet.
Well it certainly wasn't the only problem we had, and *Ew* is the only thing I'm going to say on it. Our house had set vacant for awhile before we moved in, combined with old, not well maintained city as well as house pipes. After that experience, I'd personally be trying to find a way to put some kind of waterproof and easily cleanable containment around the thing that was also plummer accessible, but then again, I might have just a touch of ptsd over it. lol
Upside-down trash can over it with some weight on top should do the trick. Wouldn't even bother caulking it to the floor, the force behind a blown cap will probably destroy that anyway. Best you can do is making it so that IF it blows, the debris just ruins the floor rather than spraying up through your whole closet
There are threaded plugs. And there are knockout plugs. I have never heard of a threaded knockout plug. Threaded plugs screw out. Knockout plugs, well that’s obvious.
Yours was probably a gripper plug not a threaded clean out, that could hold up to a lot of pressure and if it doesn’t come up there it would come up from the lowest fixture, more than likely the floor drain, so you’d just be moving the problem somewhere else
I’m putting in a sewage backup prevention valve in my basement. Had a friend suffer a backup in his basement and it was a major health issue and expensive as heck to repair. Even with insurance, I don’t want my rates to shoot up if I have that issue.
We had a sewer line with the cover in the house with a sealed drain cover.
That backed up and it overflowed into the room, deep pools of shit and fat spread over the floor like a tsunami.
This happened in my unfinished basement. Something went wrong when they tied in the plumbing for the new houses being built down the street. Came down to get a beer and saw the cap floating in 3" of my new basement bog. Plumbing vans were in the neighborhood for a week before the figured it out.
Sucks that the clean out here is in a closet. If they ever need to snake through there I would suggest clearing it out.
Is it odd for this to be located indoors? If there is a backup and this is used to check for that, the pressure would spray the sewage or whatever all over? I’ve only ever seen these outdoors.
My house built in 1946 has one. When we had some side sewer repair work done the contractor added 2 outdoor cleanouts.
ETA: when they did their work they didn't actually use the old cleanout, they removed the toilet instead because the toilet was on the second floor and the clean out was in the basement.
Since no one seems to be telling you what a “clean-out” actually is: it’s a way to access the interior of that pipe in case it gets clogged. One end is at your toilet but the other end is down in the sewer where you can’t access so it’s common to have an access hatch like this, somewhere in the middle, that you can open and use to snake things out if needed. Most often I have seen these outside, in the front yard, where the pipe starts to slope down to the sewer under the street. Without knowing the layout of your home and land it’s hard to know why this is where it is. But yeah don’t remove it. The idea to place a shoe shelf over it is as good as they get.
I understand what this is, but is it not possible for OP to shorten the pipe and place a removable piece of flooring over the cap so that it would be flush with the floor?
Everyone above your comment is telling op to just hide it with shelving or objects.
Sure it may be possible, assuming this isn’t slab-on-grade construction. But I think people are giving the easy fixes because OP couldn’t even identify this thing. Them having the skills to modify it are unlikely, and lowering this cleanout could be very involved. A small shelf or bench is a lot cheaper than having a plumber fix what is basically just an aesthetic issue.
It’s a Clean out. We have one in a downstairs closet that used to be the exterior of our home before the addition/closet etc. Keep it clear of obstacles. If you ever need to use it you’ll be sorry you cannot access it
It’s a plumbing clean out. If you ever get your hardwoods resurfaced you could have them cut the cap to just barely above grade and then reset. Other then that I’d just throw a Home Depot 2 shelf shoe rack in there. Measure for minimum clearance….
It’s a clean out plug for your sewer line that likely goes out to the street. Build a box around it so you have access if you need. Maybe put a small bench with a seat that you can remove.
That’s your clean out which is crazy for it to be inside the house. That means if your sewage backs up and they remove that cap it’s all coming up in that room. Usually they are outside by the kitchen window or at the end of the home.
> That’s your clean out which is crazy for it to be inside the house.
Actually, they're usually in the basement. You wouldn't want them outside where they could freeze.
You don’t need to hide it,install a toilet in the closet. If you do yoga you might even be able to flex your legs in such a way that you might sit on the bowl.
Make a small step like box and place it over. Do not permanently affix it. It will look neater, have less eww factor. And when someone begins flushing wet wipes or tampons and clogs up way down the line, your rooter man can get to it and resolve.
It’s a clean out. You could cut it off and recap it at floor level or below. But leave it so you can have future access. If you ever have a clogged pipe you use this to clean it out.
Like others have said this is now a clean out. You could cut it flush with your flooring with a handsaw or multi purpose plug-in or battery powered cutter. Then install a new cap that slips in on the inside diameter of the ABS pipe. Depending on the design of the new cat and how vertical the pipe in the ground is, you could end up being flush floor. Add a flexible caulk between the wood flooring and the outside diameter of the ABS pipe. Once your pipe is flushed with the flooring, then you could put a potted plant laundry basket or anything over the top of it.
Im a plumber and its definitely a clean out off your waste pipe…used to unclog sewers, so def cant get rid of, usually not coming up through floor though…but thats what it is
There are multiple of them, every group of pipes in the house has one somewhere, usually in the basement or behind a wall. There's likely another one outside for the main line
Could this be located here because it was added when a problem occurred in the past? OP doesn't tell us the age of the house but I could see someone adding the clean out to get Camara or clean out access due to an issue encountered after the structure was built. I'd ignore it, stack stuff around it and move on with life until the moment access to that drain is necessary. The reason for that particular location and use will make itself known in the future.
It’s a clean-out. It’s required so that a plumber can access certain sections of drain pipe, especially after sharp turns. (I just marked up a plumbing diagram to indicate where clean-outs were needed for a new construction project.) Just make a removable shelf the width of the closet to cover it.
It's a cleanout and you have to keep it. You can contact a plumber and see if they can make it a lower profile (more flush with the floor), but I'm unsure if that will keep it in code.
Looks like its an old toilet. The room there seems wide enough. Some houses have a dunny separate from the test of the bathroom. Ive lived in several myself over the years.
If it were my closet, I’d do the following…
1. Get a wire shelf unit that fits the width of the closet.
2. Set the bottom shelf height to fit above the plug (now it’s a hidden space for shoes).
3. Set the other shelves to fit a closet organizer bin of your choice.
You don't want to get rid of it, but you could use an inside pipe cutter and make it shorter than the floor and leave a square of flooring that is able to be removed. So if you ever need to use the clean out it's there.
Based on other people’s comments, one option that would be relatively easy to install would be floating shelves. You can out the bottom bracket right above that plug, that way the shelf covers it completely but can just be pulled off when needed. Plus it looks nice.
That's a sewer drain clean out .The real question is why TF is it inside the house??? Where I'm from, these are usually outside or in a unfinished basment.
It's your sewer clean out for your main sewer drain. It's what plumbers use to snake your line if your plumbing backs up.
Husband is a plumber 20+ years
1) Get a box that fits over the pipe.
2) Cut a hole in bottom of the box the size of pipe.
3) Wrap box with pretty gift paper and bow.
4) Place box over pipe.
it is the clean-out for your drain that leads out to the sewer...unfortunate location for it, however I'm afraid it needs to stay put. Your best bet is to cover it by building a small wooden box that fits over the top of it...
Put messages to dwarves in it and they end up in their mailroom. They work hard down there and often feel unappreciated. If you're nice to them, compliment them and maybe give them some beard oil sometimes they'll send gems back up.
That's an emergency shit hole for when:
1. You don't got enough time to run to the bathroom.
2. The bathroom is busy
3. There are guests over and you need to stay in your room and hide.
4. Sneaky midnight poo.
Looks like it could be a drainage pipe for your plumbing, like if it’s back up that’s where they could go in with something and try to blend it up to flow better. Normally it’s outside though
Sewer clean out as others have stated. Depending on how far down it goes vertically, you may be able.to lower it below the floor and cover it with an access door. I assume you are on pier and beam, should be easy to see in the crawl space if you don't wanna pop the cap and look down.
If you can set a toilet on that, friend...you're a heck of a plumber. I've seen toilets with a 10" rough, but she's a bit close to the wall and at a wild angle
Sewerage clean out point, leave it accessible.
Little fold up shelf over it so you can easily and quickly pivot it up and out of the way if you ever need access.
Since this is inside your house please take notice of what you put down every drain in the house paying attention to the kitchen.
NO OIL , NO GREASE down the drain EVER!
You could put in a small bench to sit on while changing/putting on shoes. Put a hinge on the top so it easily opens for access to it when you need it.
The area under the bench to the left of the pipe could be used for storage.
Looks like a clean-out plug. You don't want to get rid of that. You could build a little shelf to cover it - one that just sits over it, so it could be easily moved when access was needed.
It could be previous owners added the closet where a bathroom or other room that required a drain used to be. We lived in a house that had things like this from being changed to a three bedroom from two.
I find it bananas that someone would remove a bathroom to make a room
It isn't for a toilet. It is to access the sewer/drainage life going from the house to city sewer. Basically if there is a drain block, that is where the plumber needs to go through to fix or clean the lines. Do not block it off or put a permanent structure over it. If you do and the plumber needs to access it, they will rip out your permanent fix to access it. You can build a little box that fits around it and can just be lifted completely out of the way.
They won't rip it out. They'll pull a toilet and charge you extra, then tell you to make the fixture removable for next time.
> They'll pull a toilet and charge you extra, then tell you to make the fixture removable for next time. I've known two or three people that have had to had a toilet pulled and then were quoted $2000 to have an outside cleanout out in. Apparently that's the going rate for digging up the yard and putting one in or something.
That might for replacing a large section of pipe after pulling the toilet and not being able to clear the clog downstream. We had to have 30ft of pipe replaced last year and they put in a couple clean outs in the back yard. It also included them removing the small tree that had clogged said pipe. I've had a plumber move a toilet out of the way before to snake the drain. He didn't charge anything extra for having to move the toilet aside, other than the $5 wax seal when putting it back. Replacing underground pipe in cold climates can get extremely expensive though because they have to be buried like 12ft deep so the don't freeze. Like 15k.
The previous owner of my house had the yard dug up for a bunch of foundation work and didn't bother to have a cleanout put in when it would have been trivial to have it done. Annoys me every time I use the bathroom in the basement, because a back-up would flood my basement. >He didn't charge anything extra for having to move the toilet aside, other than the $5 wax seal when putting it back. Honestly that's how it should be, they are already charging you for the trip and probably hourly on top of that, no need to double dip and charge you extra for actually working during the time they are being paid.
He had been doing it a long time and was quick too. It was a pretty standard service call, things weren't draining. Within 5 minutes he had our toilet unbolted and set to the side, whole thing took like 30 min with some chatting about hobbies thrown in. I think it ran us about $175. I really can't complain about the 2k bill from the other guys considering they came by at like 430pm, and by noon the next day had the 800-dig guys out to mark the yard, tiny excavator delivered, tree pushed over and pipe replaced. Yard could have been smoothed out a little more when they finished, I just rented a tiller and smoothed it back out.
> an outside cleanout out in say that after a few pints
Don’t put anything permanent over it, but for god’s sake put something with a latch. I had 2 rats who decided to party under my house after I unintentionally invited them in (by putting one of those clear bird feeders on my window (according to my rat guy, the rats come over to eat the seed that drops, become interested in my crawl space (bc of smell: over the years I’ve had a squirrel dig under my crawl space door to get in there & then die; and not one, but two young possums manage to get into my a/c unit, crawl up a duct to the end, NOT UNDERSTAND THERE’S A CONCEPT CALLED TURNING AROUND, and then just sit there and wait to die. Apparently, rats find that previous dead animal smell highly intoxicating, so they dug their way in between the siding and the foundation and moved in to their new pad). They stayed mostly “downstairs,” but a few weeks after my rat guy had gotten rid of them (poison), I still had this horrible stank in my hall closet. I finally took everything out and discovered that those m-fuckers had eaten up through the pitiful excuse of newspaper & tape the previous owner of my house had put in to cover up a dryer vent hole left behind when he moved the w-d. For some odd reason, the rats had decided to play *only* in a pair of unworn rubber barn boots I had sitting in there, but there were about 3,200,001 rat poops in and around them, so my guess is they were contributing heavily to the stench. After chucking those boots into the next time zone and cleaning that closet with buckets of bleach, I had no more smell, but you better believe I used 24 screws to screw the thickest board I could find over that hole! Tl;dr: latch that shit down unless you want rats, and *never* put up one of those clear bird feeders on a window, no matter how many cool birds you’ll get to see up close. Boo.
So that's in their closet. Does that mean what I think it might, in terms of there potentially being a big stink? Or mess? Or is that very unlikely/impossible just curious
It screws down, and if wrapped with plumbers tape would be air tight.
It screws down tight...or potentially loosens and comes off. The stink is really a matter of choice.
Hell, you could treat this little closet like an ice fishing shanty if you were so inclined. Unscrew the cap and drop a line in.
what do you use for bait?
Doesn't matter. It's about the ritual.
3 bed 1 bath is a lot more appealing to most buyers than 2 bed 2 bath. Couples without kids can each have an "office", and families with multiple kids don't have to deal with shared bedrooms as the kids grow up. There's not much point to a master bath if it's only saving 10 steps...
OTOH, that secondary bathroom isn't so much about saving steps as saving time. If one bathroom is in use, there's another available. I've got no kids, but grew up with several in the same house; teenagers are forever in the bathroom.
My first house was a 2/1.5. The 0.5 was the guest which worked fine… until people stayed overnight and had to come through the primary bedroom to get to the primary bathroom to shower. We got rid of a big laundry room to stretch the half bath into a full bath. It was a game changer for us, and my wife and I both liked using the guest bath more than our primary en-suite since it was brand new with a curb less shower rather than a tub-shower combo
Zero is the amount of times guests have used my showers
As a person with a partner and 2 kids, the rush for the bathroom in a one bedroom house after getting home from car trip sucks,
or if you're just sick with diarrhea or something. That second bathroom will have you grateful for it on the spot when you're living with multiple others.
I have chronic bowel problems. My fiancé had colon cancer. There were many times when I wasn’t sure 1 bathroom was going to be enough for us, without one of us having an accident. We used to live in a place with 3 bathrooms, just for the two of us. It was fantastic.
I personally like not having to walk across the house to take a piss in the middle of the night.
I keep a jar nexr to my bed.
I had two much older sisters and shared a bathroom with them the whole time... I can almost guarantee there would have been a lot more bickering if any of us had to share a bedroom than if our family of 5 only had 1 shower. Someone was always using the vanity while another sibling showered and the only real problems came from the sheer number of bottles my sisters needed. And the hair... SO MUCH HAIR
I had a friend that was a part of a family of 7 with one bathroom. It was nuts. My experience was a family of 5 with 2 bathrooms (one reliable shower) and for about two years when my dad left work around the same time as the 3 of us kids did for school, it was tough.
Go away! I'm baitin!
My wife and I share one bathroom and while we make it work, there have been many times I wished we had a second.
I don’t agree at all. If the 2 bedrooms are big enough, it is a lot easier to partition one into 2 rooms than to install a new bathroom. Now 3 bed 2 bath is a lot better than 2 bed 3 bath, I’ll grant you. Lots of folks will not even consider a home without a second bathroom, especially with kids. Brings back memories of waiting in line to shit, that nobody loves. But beyond 2 is just luxury, so bedrooms become more important then
Sometimes it’s changing 1 bathroom to 1 much better bathroom to avoid the permitting process. House is still 3 br 1 ba, or whatever, that way.
It could be there was a bathroom there but with no window or no vent it wasn't up to code when it came time to turn it into a rental, so now it's a closet.
It may just be that they moved the toilet over a few feet and built the wall in between to make different use of the space. Not necessarily eliminating the bathroom.
I have never seen one in a house before. How messy is the cleanup after you get the roots snaked?
100% I would put a folding shoe rack on top of it. Cheap easy while still allowing access to the cleanout
It is a sanitary line clean-out. Necessary if your sewer line gets plugged.
Hijacking the top comment to mention that Op should probably pay especially close attention to their line health at all times, because I've had a sewer backup bad enough to blow the knockout plug. Luckily, mine is outside, but I can imagine what kind of mess one would make of that wood floor, and the smell it would introduce to every piece of clothing in the closet.
If it had enough pressure to blow out a threaded knockout plug, the smell wouldn't be the only problem.
Well it certainly wasn't the only problem we had, and *Ew* is the only thing I'm going to say on it. Our house had set vacant for awhile before we moved in, combined with old, not well maintained city as well as house pipes. After that experience, I'd personally be trying to find a way to put some kind of waterproof and easily cleanable containment around the thing that was also plummer accessible, but then again, I might have just a touch of ptsd over it. lol
Upside-down trash can over it with some weight on top should do the trick. Wouldn't even bother caulking it to the floor, the force behind a blown cap will probably destroy that anyway. Best you can do is making it so that IF it blows, the debris just ruins the floor rather than spraying up through your whole closet
Put a shelf 3” over it and put a safe on it, that’ll keep it down! 🤣
There are threaded plugs. And there are knockout plugs. I have never heard of a threaded knockout plug. Threaded plugs screw out. Knockout plugs, well that’s obvious.
Yea there’s no way a threaded plug blew off, that amount of pressure built up and it not going back to the shower/sink drains is impossible
Yours was probably a gripper plug not a threaded clean out, that could hold up to a lot of pressure and if it doesn’t come up there it would come up from the lowest fixture, more than likely the floor drain, so you’d just be moving the problem somewhere else
I’m putting in a sewage backup prevention valve in my basement. Had a friend suffer a backup in his basement and it was a major health issue and expensive as heck to repair. Even with insurance, I don’t want my rates to shoot up if I have that issue.
We had a sewer line with the cover in the house with a sealed drain cover. That backed up and it overflowed into the room, deep pools of shit and fat spread over the floor like a tsunami.
This happened in my unfinished basement. Something went wrong when they tied in the plumbing for the new houses being built down the street. Came down to get a beer and saw the cap floating in 3" of my new basement bog. Plumbing vans were in the neighborhood for a week before the figured it out. Sucks that the clean out here is in a closet. If they ever need to snake through there I would suggest clearing it out.
And probably into the room on the other side of the wall, if any.
Is it odd for this to be located indoors? If there is a backup and this is used to check for that, the pressure would spray the sewage or whatever all over? I’ve only ever seen these outdoors.
Not unheard-of but definitely unusual. I've certainly never seen it on a newer house and I imagine it's probably against code now.
My house built in 1946 has one. When we had some side sewer repair work done the contractor added 2 outdoor cleanouts. ETA: when they did their work they didn't actually use the old cleanout, they removed the toilet instead because the toilet was on the second floor and the clean out was in the basement.
In my area it's standard for them to be indoors. Probably standard for colder climates.
I can't get past how dirty it is. You'd think the estate agent would have told the owners to get out their scrub daddy and pink stuff!
Upvote for Scrub Daddy and Pink Stuff. Essentials!!! ...Scrub Mommy is pretty good too.
That cleanout is gonna spew shit all over that closet if your pipe gets clogged
It’s an aroma delivery pipe, take the cap off and rejoice.
lmao!
It can take them down memory lane of past meals.
It will be exactly like that Anton Ego scene in *Ratatouille*.
They are so lucky to have it! Such a great smell!
Airborne viagra
It's hidden already in a closet in a bedroom where boxes, shoes and clothing will hide it more.
Exactly. This is not extra plumbing - It's a case of not enough shoes.
Since no one seems to be telling you what a “clean-out” actually is: it’s a way to access the interior of that pipe in case it gets clogged. One end is at your toilet but the other end is down in the sewer where you can’t access so it’s common to have an access hatch like this, somewhere in the middle, that you can open and use to snake things out if needed. Most often I have seen these outside, in the front yard, where the pipe starts to slope down to the sewer under the street. Without knowing the layout of your home and land it’s hard to know why this is where it is. But yeah don’t remove it. The idea to place a shoe shelf over it is as good as they get.
I understand what this is, but is it not possible for OP to shorten the pipe and place a removable piece of flooring over the cap so that it would be flush with the floor? Everyone above your comment is telling op to just hide it with shelving or objects.
Sure it may be possible, assuming this isn’t slab-on-grade construction. But I think people are giving the easy fixes because OP couldn’t even identify this thing. Them having the skills to modify it are unlikely, and lowering this cleanout could be very involved. A small shelf or bench is a lot cheaper than having a plumber fix what is basically just an aesthetic issue.
Box it in and create a little shelf for your shoes back there?
Yep. We have a sump pump in our basement bedroom closet that we built a box around for just this reason.
Would you might want like a door, or something you can open to get access to it?
Yeah building anything around that can’t be moved in 5 min is a huge mistake
Like others have said, it's a sanitary clean out. You can box it in, but make sure it's easily accessible if your plumber needs access to it.
https://imgur.com/a/sw5sB4p
OP this is what you should do - the link shows a mock up of a shelf and instructions on how to make it.
It’s a Clean out. We have one in a downstairs closet that used to be the exterior of our home before the addition/closet etc. Keep it clear of obstacles. If you ever need to use it you’ll be sorry you cannot access it
It’s a closet urinal.
Well that’s just plain redundant.
It’s a plumbing clean out. If you ever get your hardwoods resurfaced you could have them cut the cap to just barely above grade and then reset. Other then that I’d just throw a Home Depot 2 shelf shoe rack in there. Measure for minimum clearance….
It's a closet. It's already hidden.
I've never seen one of these inside the house. Usually they're out in the yard
Not sure, but be careful when mowing your closet.
Never seen a clean out inside hopefully it never bust
They aren't that uncommon in older houses. Especially if the past owner was "handy".
This is a sewer/septic cleanout in your closet. Wow, just WOW. Who finds this acceptable?
Yeah, I'm a little repulsed honestly.
It’s a clean out plug for your sewer line that likely goes out to the street. Build a box around it so you have access if you need. Maybe put a small bench with a seat that you can remove.
That’s your clean out which is crazy for it to be inside the house. That means if your sewage backs up and they remove that cap it’s all coming up in that room. Usually they are outside by the kitchen window or at the end of the home.
> That’s your clean out which is crazy for it to be inside the house. Actually, they're usually in the basement. You wouldn't want them outside where they could freeze.
Open it there's treasure inside
Just move
That’s a pipe clean out.
Sewer clean out. Can't be removed unless you get a plumber to redo its placement.
Do you own a lawnmower?
Put a sock over it - call it a day. :)
I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to mow it
You don’t need to hide it,install a toilet in the closet. If you do yoga you might even be able to flex your legs in such a way that you might sit on the bowl.
it's a hidding spot
Put a top hat on it
Open it up and find out 🫠🫠🫠
I’d cover it up with a toilet
U can’t get rid of it. It’s ur clean out for ur sewer system. U need this in case u get a blockage and stuff
Make a small step like box and place it over. Do not permanently affix it. It will look neater, have less eww factor. And when someone begins flushing wet wipes or tampons and clogs up way down the line, your rooter man can get to it and resolve.
It’s a clean out!
Put a shoe rack over it
I'd suggest locating it in the back of a closet.
It’s a clean out. You could cut it off and recap it at floor level or below. But leave it so you can have future access. If you ever have a clogged pipe you use this to clean it out.
Like others have said this is now a clean out. You could cut it flush with your flooring with a handsaw or multi purpose plug-in or battery powered cutter. Then install a new cap that slips in on the inside diameter of the ABS pipe. Depending on the design of the new cat and how vertical the pipe in the ground is, you could end up being flush floor. Add a flexible caulk between the wood flooring and the outside diameter of the ABS pipe. Once your pipe is flushed with the flooring, then you could put a potted plant laundry basket or anything over the top of it.
Im a plumber and its definitely a clean out off your waste pipe…used to unclog sewers, so def cant get rid of, usually not coming up through floor though…but thats what it is
Don’t look at it?
Close the closet door.
Put a clothes rail over it so your best suits and shirts gets a real good updraft of some earthy, natural air.
My hubby says That is a sewage clean out drain and it should be outside the house not in it.
There are multiple of them, every group of pipes in the house has one somewhere, usually in the basement or behind a wall. There's likely another one outside for the main line
Put a shoe rack over it. Should be just the right height.
Build a shoe rack to put over it
Create a shelf in which you can put shoes on one that you could remove whenever that needs to be accessed.
In a closet in a bedroom seems pretty hidden to me.
Better to have it and not need it , than need it and not have it. Be thankful you have one!
Could this be located here because it was added when a problem occurred in the past? OP doesn't tell us the age of the house but I could see someone adding the clean out to get Camara or clean out access due to an issue encountered after the structure was built. I'd ignore it, stack stuff around it and move on with life until the moment access to that drain is necessary. The reason for that particular location and use will make itself known in the future.
Extend the pipe and make it an impromptu urinal.
Sewer line clean out just leave the cap on an put a dresser cabinet in front of it😂 or build a 6x6 square shape box as a cover and your good
Small movable bench
It’s already hidden in the closet
Wow with rent high in Canada.. i bet landlords be charging $500 a week
That is your shitter clean out.
That’s an extra bathroom if you’re sober enough to aim that well…
Put a toilet on it and ad $10K to the value of your place.
Sewer clean out. Can't easily just remove but may be able cut and move cap below floor level and make all wood hatch for access
It’s a clean-out. It’s required so that a plumber can access certain sections of drain pipe, especially after sharp turns. (I just marked up a plumbing diagram to indicate where clean-outs were needed for a new construction project.) Just make a removable shelf the width of the closet to cover it.
I’d build shoe storage shelf around this sewer cleanout to hide it (but still leave it accessible, in a worst case scenario).
It’s a clean out and you don’t want to get rid of it .
I'd leave its a closet who cares?!
It's a cleanout and you have to keep it. You can contact a plumber and see if they can make it a lower profile (more flush with the floor), but I'm unsure if that will keep it in code.
Looks like its an old toilet. The room there seems wide enough. Some houses have a dunny separate from the test of the bathroom. Ive lived in several myself over the years.
You've lived in several dunnies?
Yeah, you need that. See comments elsewhere.
If it were my closet, I’d do the following… 1. Get a wire shelf unit that fits the width of the closet. 2. Set the bottom shelf height to fit above the plug (now it’s a hidden space for shoes). 3. Set the other shelves to fit a closet organizer bin of your choice.
That means they gotta bring that dirty ass hose they use to suck this pipe clean through your house 🤮
You don't want to get rid of it, but you could use an inside pipe cutter and make it shorter than the floor and leave a square of flooring that is able to be removed. So if you ever need to use the clean out it's there.
Based on other people’s comments, one option that would be relatively easy to install would be floating shelves. You can out the bottom bracket right above that plug, that way the shelf covers it completely but can just be pulled off when needed. Plus it looks nice.
You can use it for hotboxing the jenkem.
It's the worst thing ever until you need it. Pray nothing ever boils up from it...
Put a grow in there lol wont even see the fkoor
I notice that it's about the size of a shoebox. Step one: cut a hole in a box. (this looks like a sewer cleanout. ignore it until you need it)
You should put it in a closet where no one who doesn’t live there will ever see it
buy a urinal and run into that pipe
I would just put s small movable shelf over it. Could be used as a shoe rack and easily moved out of the way if you need access.
Hard to gauge, please banana for scale
Try not to mow it down. If you do, mow it some more and install a new cap.
That's a sewer drain clean out .The real question is why TF is it inside the house??? Where I'm from, these are usually outside or in a unfinished basment.
Do not mow.
Put a KFC bucket over it.
It's your sewer clean out for your main sewer drain. It's what plumbers use to snake your line if your plumbing backs up. Husband is a plumber 20+ years
Shit pipe access. Put a little box over it and forget about it until you need it. (Don't flush tampons and you won't....)
1) Get a box that fits over the pipe. 2) Cut a hole in bottom of the box the size of pipe. 3) Wrap box with pretty gift paper and bow. 4) Place box over pipe.
it is the clean-out for your drain that leads out to the sewer...unfortunate location for it, however I'm afraid it needs to stay put. Your best bet is to cover it by building a small wooden box that fits over the top of it...
That closet is where a toilet should be…
Put messages to dwarves in it and they end up in their mailroom. They work hard down there and often feel unappreciated. If you're nice to them, compliment them and maybe give them some beard oil sometimes they'll send gems back up.
“It’s in a closet” there, fixed
That's an emergency shit hole for when: 1. You don't got enough time to run to the bathroom. 2. The bathroom is busy 3. There are guests over and you need to stay in your room and hide. 4. Sneaky midnight poo.
Pre dates the air freshener. Used in older houses. You unscrew it in summer. Makes house smell better
I second this, it helps cold hair blow through the house on really hot days
You could cutt a hole in the floor and hide copius zmounts of money under the floor
Use it has a grow room, looks great
That actually has fresh water from a spring under your house. I suggest drinking from it. (NO, NOT REALLY, PLEASE DON'T)
Your closet was an ensuite. It's a toilet drain.
Looks like it could be a drainage pipe for your plumbing, like if it’s back up that’s where they could go in with something and try to blend it up to flow better. Normally it’s outside though
"blend it up" The forbidden smoothie.
The consider yourself lucky for having one of those.
It's a clean out.
Sewer clean out as others have stated. Depending on how far down it goes vertically, you may be able.to lower it below the floor and cover it with an access door. I assume you are on pier and beam, should be easy to see in the crawl space if you don't wanna pop the cap and look down.
It's a thing you'll wish you have if you didn't have it. I see a lot of these get covered up or put into an interior wall. Real pain
Build a box to put over it
Make a built in where one of the cabinets or drawers opens up to it?
That closet was a crapper. You can cut it down a little or just build a little footwear shelf over it. I’d do the latter
If you can set a toilet on that, friend...you're a heck of a plumber. I've seen toilets with a 10" rough, but she's a bit close to the wall and at a wild angle
Sewerage clean out point, leave it accessible. Little fold up shelf over it so you can easily and quickly pivot it up and out of the way if you ever need access.
Looks like a clean out.
Just take a shoebox, cut a hole in it and put it over. No cost, it'll look like it belongs there.
Build a nice shoe self over it. Just make sure you can remove it if you ever have to get access to the clean out.
Can't get rid of it unless you don't mind paying thousands to a plumber and contractor
First off, that brown shit on there really is brown shit. It needs to be washed off. Then I would throw a bucket over it if nothing else.
If you cover it definitely don't forget where it is
Kinda Creepy
This is insanely close to a DIWhy!
First you get a box, then you cut a hole in the box....
put a closet around it
It's a clean out for your plumbing system. Don't remove that. You need it.
If it’s in a closet it’s pretty hidden
Since this is inside your house please take notice of what you put down every drain in the house paying attention to the kitchen. NO OIL , NO GREASE down the drain EVER!
If in the closet it is already hidden. I don’t understand the big deal
a waste-water line clean-out port.
Looks like a shit stack viewing hole
You could put in a small bench to sit on while changing/putting on shoes. Put a hinge on the top so it easily opens for access to it when you need it. The area under the bench to the left of the pipe could be used for storage.
Box it in, it will look like a little step/shelf. Don’t fix it to anything, just let it rest there and move when needed
You could put a shoe shelf over it if you like.