It's definitely not normal in my neck of the woods. I'd be very upset!

This is not normal in Texas. Is the plumber anticipating so many issues that he's put them all over? I bet the guys who did the sheet rock scratched their heads too. I have clean outs on the back side of the tub drains, accessible through a panel in a closet and a linen closet, but not like this. ODD! It it were cut a few inches shorter, then you can also access then through a panel that, when painted, is hard noticeable. THIS IS NOT RIGHT (in my opinion). I would think that sink pipes would have a quick disconnect U-joint that is used as a clean out! I'd question it big time...but still stay excited because I think it should be an easy fix!
Kristi

I would expect something like that under a sink cabinet. In the hallway? Absolutely not.

That can't possibly be normal!!!

(I agree!)

I've never seen anything like this.

No, it's not.

I have seen access provided at tubs but always behind an access panel/door. Instead of talking to the plumber, you need to have a meeting with your GC to find out how something this ridiculous was allowed to happen. Rough plumbing should never be visible in a finished space. Ask him why he didn't catch it before the drywall was installed. then ask him how he is going to fix it at no cost to you.

This is simply poorly thought out plumbing design. You need a clean out when the cumulative total of turns in the drain lines reaches 135 degrees, but good planning would place the clean outs inside cabinets, or in utility areas, and keep the number to a minimum.

Needless to say this should have been addressed well before the drywall went up.

At this point if you want to be code compliant you'd have to place small access doors to make things less ugly (and rotate the clean out so it doesn't stick out of the wall). If I were you though I'd just rotate the ugliest cleanouts into the wall and drywall over the whole thing. You'd have to cut the wall open in the off chance you'd need to clean out that section of pipe. If it comes to that, you can always install an access door then, but at least you won't have to walk by a wart in your wall till then.

This is very normal - on another planet. There is no way that I would accept it.

Nope, not acceptable. I have only had to deal with this once on a weird garage-to-bedroom set up and it was unavoidable in the reno and was also explained to me in great detail. In all honesty, its goes unnoticed as its painted the wall color. In a new custom build, I would be very upset.

not normal, ugly and not acceptable.......and crazy

Have never seen anything like this either. Ugh, sorry you are dealing with this, hope they can make it right for you.

I have never seen anything like this. I would be so mad. I hope you can get this fixed.

Absolutely unacceptable. Falls in the category of "what were they thinking !?!?"

ditto what reno said!

Personally I would have serious concerns:

a) about the balance of this "plumbers" work and ability, and
b) the GC who thought that this was acceptable.

After living in my current house for 10 years I've never noticed one of those cleanouts on the inside. I know where one is on the outside and always assumed it was the only one since the one time a plumber needed it he spent a bit of time searching for it.

I designed and built our house my self, and I've never plumbed a house before. Even at that, the only clean-out really visible (and there are a lot of them) is behind a panel- in our laundry room. The lid snaps on, and the whole thing is paintable, if desired. In your case, the pipe is too close to the drywall for a cover like mine. Unacceptable.

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Thank you everyone for your opinions. It always feels good when other people agree with you and that you aren't just making something out of nothing.

MushCreek - Thank you so much for the photos. You're plumbing definitely looks a lot better than mine.

(Also, FYI, We are our own GC, which makes this a little harder since we don't have a GC to mitigate things between us and the plumber.)

So here's what's happened so far. First, after our plumber said this was perfectly normal, we called another plumbing company in our city and they said that there is no way that type of plumbing is acceptable. They even said that they don't think it will pass the state plumbing inspection since the pipes are sticking out into actual living areas. We tried to contact out state inspector to get his take, but he's actually out of town for a week and the guy that is filling in for him was no help at all and wouldn't give his opinion one way or another without driving out to our place, which is out in the country. I was surprised by this since I assumed there would be some sort of code regarding these clean outs and he would be able to just tell us over the phone. He said we should just wait to talk to our state inspector when he gets back into town next week. So, we went back to our plumber and confronted him about everything and he still wouldn't admit he did anything wrong. He did, however, tell us that we could purchase a flat cover for the sewer clean out in the hallway and then just mud over it if it wasn't sticking out too far. Luckily, we were able to do this with at least the one in our hallway. We looked at the other ones in our house, though, and they definitely stick way too far out from the sheetrock for us to be able to cover and mud over. As they are right now, we won't even be able to put and access panel over them. Our plumber says there is some sort of dome cover that will go over them. Does anyone know what those are? The other ones in our house are located in: the pantry (Doesn't really bug me), Our master bathroom toilet closet (Bugs me because it's across from the toilet so I'll be starring at it every time I go in there), My daughters and guest bedroom closets (Doesn't bug me), and there are 2 in my son's bedroom (Definitely bugs me).

At this point, our sheet rock is up and they are mudding. Do you think it's worth it to insist our plumber fix the clean outs that are bugging me or should I just let it ride. Obviously if we make him fix them, he will probably have to dig into the sheet rock and it will probably hold up the mudding process, which pushes our move in date even farther back. And what if our plumber refuses to fix them or insists on charging us to fix them? What do we do then?

I would not accept it and would not pay him another dime until they are all fixed to your satisfaction. I would not accept, domes, plates, panels, nothing but the proper installation, period!

I would tell him he needs to move all the clean-outs to behind the wall (your choice if you want to exclude those in closets/pantry), and that if he's not done by the time the drywallers are, you'll backcharge him for the extra drywall cost to repairing around his goofs.

If he insists on charging you to fix them, you say "no" and make sure you don't pay him another dime until he has completed the job to your satisfaction. He who has the gold makes the rules.

That sounds like way too many clean outs - so you are saying that there is essentially one for each bath?

Hiding them inside a wall, behind 'mud' defeats the purpose of having them. There is no letting it ride for the ones that bother you.

Why wasn't the plumbing inspected before the drywall went up?

"Why wasn't the plumbing inspected before the drywall went up?"
That cleanout is not a code violation. Quite possibly a cleanout is required at that location. Functionally, the one in the photo is quite alright. But as already illustrated, it is possible to do so with better visual results.

No way in hell I would accept that. Looks like crap!!

No FREAKING way, but HOW in the world did this not get seen before drywall went up????

I'm guessing an inexperienced GC and a plumber that's taking advantage of that to do a sub par job.
Hopefully you haven't paid him fully yet.

It's so frustrating to me to hear everyone telling me that this was done wrong (both GWers, local plumbers, and builders), and yet my plumber still insists that things were done correctly. What is his problem? Luckily we haven't paid him in full yet. I'm pretty sure he's just trying to pull one over on us since we are being our own GCs. I do know however, that my husband had a very heated discussion with our plumber last night and my husband insisted that this problem be fixed. However, I haven't dared asked my husband what the plumber said yet because the problem has been causing my anxiety to go through the roof, so I've been trying to ignore it today and let my husband deal with it. (I know, I feel bad making him deal with it, but he handles things a lot better than I do.) I'm sure I'll ask him what's going to happen with the plumber this weekend though and I'll keep you guys updated.

Oh, and one last thing, I'm curious, has any one switched plumbers during a new build? If so, do you know what problems can arise by doing this?

Thank you again for everyone's support in this.

Was the plumbing inspected by a city/county inspector?

The plumbing was inspected before drywall went up and it did pass. However, I've been told by another plumber that once the inspector comes through and sees how it looks now that the drywall is up, it won't pass. Anyone else care to comment on that? Either way, aesthetically, it's unacceptable.

"However, I've been told by another plumber that once the inspector comes through and sees how it looks now that the drywall is up, it won't pass"

Not true according to any code I have seen. Obviously you would like very much for that to be true-- and that is easily understandable. But the new plumber may be angling for an opportunity to do some billable labor at your new house.
As for the code section to be stated.
Your present plumber and the GC should promptly rectify this without additional cost to you.

This post was edited by bus_driver on Fri, Jan 23, 15 at 19:58

It won't look like that when it done. I saw the same thing in the middle of my living room before the drywall. They finish it off with a cap that gets painted the same color of the room. Look for them now in you house, you have it just haven't noticed it. What I had my plumber do, which was a very easy fix was to turn the actual pipe the opposite way so the cap would be on the other side of the wall, which happens to be our 5th bedroom.
Good luck!