How to find an waste pipe in a wall or drain outside from old Utility Room

[MrZod]

The house I have bought originally had a utility room, previous owners changed the layout and there is no longer a utility room. I am making the assumption (possibly incorrectly) that therefore there was once a drain outside the utility room or some kind of waste plumbing along the external wall that feeds into a nearby sewer (the manhole is in my garden and about 2 metres away from the external wall of the former utility room). I'm going on the basis that its the same as the Kitchen which has drain outside near where the sink is.

What is the best and least intrusive way to establish whether and where that waste pipe/drain might be?

Note: The drain for the kitchen is some distance away so its unlikely they shared it. There is no obvious sign outside of either a blocked up whole in the brick that may have had a pipe there dropping into a drain, nor any sign of the drain itself.

 

[Jackrae]

start digging !
Have a look in your manhole and see in which direction and at what depth the branches are connected. That should give you a clue as to where to dig and how deep you might need to go

 

[Hugh Jaleak]

Has there definitely been a sanitary appliance in the utility room at some point in the past? If there is no obvious repair to the brickwork where a waste came through the wall, then there are 2 possibilities in my view, either the waste discharged to the drain internally, i.e. under the floor and the drain has been capped off and buried, or there was never a drain there in the first place!

If you are confident there was something there, then is there any sign of pipework heading in that direction from the manhole? Also, are the neighbouring houses of a similar design, which could give a clue to the likelihood and location of any pipework. CCTV and sonar drain tracing are other options that can be used to locate drains.