I would like some advice regarding how to best protect sewer cleanouts from lawn mowers and cars from breaking them.

Mine tends to stick out a bit higher, may be 2-3 inches above grade, so that it's visible and easily accessible. But occasionally the lawn service riding mower hits it and breaks it. One time the plug cracked and broke, another time the female adapter fitting cracked.

I understand one way to deal with it is to lower the actual cleanout below grade. Cut the pipe a few inches lower, and use a recessed plug, cover the CO with a few inches of dirt and it will never be in the way of the mower or a car. The problem with this is in the event the CO needs to be accessed, you have to find out where it is by digging around it to expose it, and by the time the plug is exposed, the recessed slot is packed with dirt you have to clean it out to fit the CO key into the slot. Once it's opened, the first thing that happens is a pile of dirt around the CO drops into it, adding to the problem.

I have seen some concrete product that looks like a big donut to be placed around an existing CO. Do these work? Do they really protect the CO if a mower bumps the concrete donut wouldn't the concrete donut bumps the plastic PVC CO adapter and cause damages too?

Another option I am thinking about is to dig a hole around it and cover it with one of these electrical or irrigation valve box.



Any other options?



Edited 1 times.

I use the box you show, if it's not in a driveway.

I would also use the valve box shown. In fact I have a cleanout in a six-inch round valve box and a couple in the larger rectangular boxes. Another advantage to those is that if allowed by code, you could use a cap over a plain spigot end, and skip the threaded fitting altogether.

I cut landscaping fabric around the pipe and put bank run gravel on top of the fabric. The landscaping fabric should be large enough diameter to set the valve box on the gravel, fold and secure the fabric around the box, backfill outside the fabric, and then trim the fabric, or just tuck it under the lid. Around here soil is clay that mostly stays put, but I am sure sandy Florida soil is harder to deal with.

I suspect using the gravel foundation helps mitigate frost heaving and also keeps top-side pressure such as from mowers and cars, from pushing them down too much.

My pipes are 4" SDR35 and corrugated HDPE for storm water, so not quite the same as your application, but caps fit pretty well inside the 6". I placed the boxes in 2004. The one in the lawn is still pretty much flush with the grass, I just weed whack to expose it every so often. The rectangular ones are set in sand & flagstone along the driveway, and now sit maybe 1/2" above the flagstone, but still reasonably level.

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Links to the State of Wisconsin Plumbing Code:
[docs.legis.wisconsin.gov]
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I am not a plumber.
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