Drywall – Drain plug or nut in basement hidden in drywall

access-panelbasementdraindrywall

I have two houses that have different drain plug / nut design in the basement.

House 1 has the plug all the way inside drywall like this:

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  1. Do I suppose to drywall over and hide it?

  2. Or do I install an access panel there?

House 2 has the plug showing out like this:

enter image description here

When I put my hand there, it's blowing cold air from the outside. So I need to seal or cover it.

  1. What is the best way to cover this when the nut is extruding out the drywall?

Best Answer

Were those two situations in my house, I'd do this, respectively:

  1. Repair the drywall and finish it. Install a chrome cleanout cover at the appropriate location as a marker using a scrap of wood spanning a small hole as the anchor for the cover screw. If you ever need to actually use the cleanout, you can cut in an access panel. No need for such a large eyesore if not needed.

  2. Invert the cleanout plug, then install a chrome cleanout cover. You can drill right into the plug lug for the cover screw.

I wouldn't bother with spray foam or other drastic solutions to the airflow problem. The cleanout covers will seal fairly well, and if there's that much airflow, one foam plug in one wall cavity doesn't solve anything anyway.