What Is A Sewer Tap?

If you are planning to have a new home or even a new business establishment and there’s a municipal sewer district then you also need to have a municipal sewer line located near the property. Where is it located?

The sewer stub installed in the main sewer line has its stub line run at the property line. If there is no line or stub at the property, you need to have the municipal sewer main line.

For those who intend to build a new house or a business, one may ask, what is a sewer stub? This is basically a sewer lateral stub. It varies in sizes but the average size is about 4 inches in diameter. What is the purpose of this sewer stub? It connects to the main pipe of the municipal sewer line alongside a short lateral that runs to your property.

Photo Credit: SW Missouri Plumbing on flickr

Keep in mind that municipal sewer main lines in general make use of gravity flow type of system which means that they could run very deep and that the stub line is about 5’ deep.

What works best if you want to tap the main sewer line? It is best to have a tapping saddle sleeve. This always works well if you want to tap a live sewer line. Basically, the main sewer line continuously flows and you cannot turn it off just to have a sewer tap. That is why it is called a hot or live tap because of its continuous flow. For live tap, there is a specifically designed tool that is used together with the tapping sleeve. This machine will cut into the main line pipe to have a new connection for the lateral line.

The tapping saddle enables the machine to cut through a seal between the current sewer pipe and the saddle which will seal any kind of leakage.

When it comes to sewer main tapping, safety will always be one of the most important things. Keep in mind that when working with deep sewer lines, workers have to be protected. They need to wear the right protective gear like gloves, glasses and safety requirements.