Klogged Khazi..... ?

[andrewc]

One of the toilets in my parents house is blocked.    Luckily they have others......     It's possible a toilet roll has been flushed down & got stuck. 


They've tried pouring hot water down to no avail.  I had a plunger & toilet snake delivered via Amazon,  again no joy.     They say it sometimes goes back to normal & flushes OK for a bit, then fills up again.


The toilet joins to an external cast iron down pipe that is 60+  years old.    A leak has been seen at one of the joints.    The pipes then go under the ground.  I remember there being inspection hatches in the back yard,  but my father flagged that over decades ago & I can't recall where they are. 


I'll be over there at the weekend.  What are my options ?   Will nasty chemicals do the trick ?   Would I be able to get a longer set of plumbers rods past the U bend and into the outside soil pipe ?   

[andyoxon]

Sorry don't know if this helps at all, but we once had a downstairs loo blocked.  I managed to unblock it by using a set like this*, via access cover in the garden (under a ton of ivy).  The blockage was somewhere up the drain spur from the main access panel channel.

*WORKPRO 12 Piece Drain Rod Set

[Blodwyn Pig]

Presumably, its te downstairs wc that is blocked, and the upstairs are still working?  If this is the case, and they all connect to the same pipe, then probably there is a blockage underground. when an underground piipe fractures or tree roots work there way in, then 'larger objects' such as wads of toilet paper will get snagged, and other stuff will also get caught and it all backs up. Liquids/water can seep past and lower the level for a while, but eventually it will back up and fill up the manhole, and then back up the piipe, so the wc can't flush. If this i the case, then either buy some drain rods from Screwfix, or call out Dynorod or similar. If you use drain rods, with the 'swirly' bit on the ends, ONLY TURN THE RODS CLOCKWISE when in the drain, otherwise you'll unscrew the end, and it will fall off, down in the drain, and add to your problems.

So step 1, find manhole, lift lid, if full, go to plan B, if not, and there are multiple branches, get someone to flush toilets in turn to see what happens. If all but one work, then rod backward to the wc from the manhole.   

Can't be any more help, sorry.

[Ham]

One of the toilets in my parents house is blocked.    Luckily they have others......     It's possible a toilet roll has been flushed down & got stuck. 


They've tried pouring hot water down to no avail.  I had a plunger & toilet snake delivered via Amazon,  again no joy.     They say it sometimes goes back to normal & flushes OK for a bit, then fills up again.


The toilet joins to an external cast iron down pipe that is 60+  years old.    A leak has been seen at one of the joints.    The pipes then go under the ground.  I remember there being inspection hatches in the back yard,  but my father flagged that over decades ago & I can't recall where they are. 


I'll be over there at the weekend.  What are my options ?   Will nasty chemicals do the trick ?

Unlikely. They rarely do

  Would I be able to get a longer set of plumbers rods past the U bend and into the outside soil pipe ?

You won't be able to rod though the lav u bend.

A pressure washer with a drain jet is your best chance, even that is damn hard to get around the u, and if there's another 90 soon after (as is often the case) struggle is a certainty. If it "frees for a while then goes back" I would suspect some non soluble object jammed and catching loo paper, which then backs up until it washes away.

If you don't have the kit or the inclination, and a good agitation with a decent (indecent?) plunger doesn't shift it, GMI.

[Blodwyn Pig]

One of the toilets in my parents house is blocked.    Luckily they have others......     It's possible a toilet roll has been flushed down & got stuck. 


   I remember there being inspection hatches in the back yard,  but my father flagged that over decades ago & I can't recall where they are. 

You could borrow a metal detector, the manhole cover will need lifting I would have thought, if not by you, then someone else, and if its someone else, you'll have to pay for their time.

[andrewc]

Thanks chaps.   Its one of 2 upstairs loos, but the other is in an extension & would join any underground piping quite a distance away.   That & the downstairs one don't seem to be affected. 

[Mrs Pingu]

Don't use nasty chemicals, cos once they're in there, if they don't work then you're in danger of covering yourself in them...

[Kim]

There's probably a manhole full of nasty and a manhole less full of nasty with a blockage between them.  Prime GAMI stuff this (my parents house was similarly afflicted).

Also, anyone burying inspection hatches under the patio deserves burying under the patio.

[Jurek]

New to this thread.
This has the prospects of being fun.
[Sorry]
[/Not sorry.]
The squirrel strikes back.

[hubner]

I once had a blocked toilet, caused by a large amount of both toilet paper* and the other stuff that goes down with it.

I unblocked it with the bag on a mop trick. And that was after trying hot water, endless flushing, chemicals etc.

*Not kitchen roll, although I think one time I did accidently put some down the toilet.

[Blodwyn Pig]

Thanks chaps.   Its one of 2 upstairs loos, but the other is in an extension & would join any underground piping quite a distance away.   That & the downstairs one don't seem to be affected.

In that case, if it is this wc downpipe that is leaking, then that's probably because it's full up.

[Canardly]

Blocked drain Andrew you need to get that inspection cover up or see if you can find another one. A call out for a jetter will be around the £100 mark a set of good quality rods around the £40 mark (dont forget the long rubber gloves hose pipe and disinfectant). Will probably take only a few mins to clear once access is available.

[T42]

Don't use nasty chemicals, cos once they're in there, if they don't work then you're in danger of covering yourself in them...

And worse.  I had my mouth open at the time.

[Polar Bear]

Aren't drains still the premise of the water authorities?  I know that water supply becomes the homeowner's responsibility once they cross the border but I seem to recall that drains remain the responsibility of the water company.

I'm only speculating based upon recent experiences of one of our neighbours.

[Davef]

Aren't drains still the premise of the water authorities?  I know that water supply becomes the homeowner's responsibility once they cross the border but I seem to recall that drains remain the responsibility of the water company.

I'm only speculating based upon recent experiences of one of our neighbours.

No, that is incorrect. Generally you are responsible until it leaves your property. There are special rules for shared services, but generally until your poop crosses the boundary it is yours to deal with.


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[Polar Bear]

I have just been reading this.

It seems that sewers and some drains are in general the responsibility of the water company.  Might be worth giving them a call to see.  Nothing to lose.

[Davef]

I have just been reading this.

It seems that sewers and some drains are in general the responsibility of the water company.  Might be worth giving them a call to see.  Nothing to lose.

If you follow the link you attached it says ...

Repairs to drains

You are responsible for maintaining or repairing any drains inside the boundaries of your property - these are your private drains. You don't have to maintain or repair lateral drains that you share with your neighbour - your water company is responsible for these


As in this case the blockage does not affect all of the toilets it must be before any lateral drain or sewer.


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[Jaded]

Nothing to lose though...

[Canardly]

There are main and sometimes shared 'domestic sewers' as stated above, which the water company will maintain. Otherwise it is down to the householder. Incidentally Andrew, a proprietary mahole cover for paving will be readily available, although the chamber opening may require reducing to a smaller metric size using appropriate brickwork. Any experienced paver will be able to do this for you.

[Beardy]

A friend of mine, an ex bomb disposal officer, while deployed in Germany cleared a a backed up barracks toilet block with explosives when the local plumber was slow to respond to a call out.  Being an explosives expert, he carefully calculated the charge size to remove The blockage. He admits, that in hindsight, he should have remembered that decomposing effluents produce gas and he should have allowed for this during his calculations. It was just an unfortunate coincidence of timing that the local plumber had arrived on site and had begun his investigations at an inspection chamber not in direct line of site Of the inspection chamber in which the charge was deployed.

[Davef]

Nothing to lose though...

Check with the water company first though. I had this a couple of years ago and they said they would come and inspect but if it turned out to be on my property they would charge me for the inspection. I think the fee was £70 do the inspection. In the end I worked out the blockage was on the property using drain roads and a tape measure.


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[slowfen]

Blaster Bates

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB0_nwkQjIw&list=PL5sFrgRLdPBXQassq066rDkQIJBrk0ENJ&index=15

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

Our kitchen sink used to block frequently. There were some pellets I got from the local ironmonger that I tipped into the drain and made a hasty retreat. It was like watching a witches cauldron, a lot of hubble-bubbling and nasty fumes, then suddenly the floodwaters subsided and the drain was clear. I think they stopped selling it. But anyway I dug up the patio beneath which the pipe ran and discovered the ceramic trap had been badly cracked, impeding the smooth flow and causing an accumulation of crud. Replacing the pipework with modern plastic stuff was simple but hard graft with all the digging.

[hellymedic]

Those pellets were probably caustic soda (NaOH) which is pretty dangerous stuff unless precautions are well observed.

The pellets get HOT when dissolved in water and can spit and fizz. A pH of 14 does the eyes no favours.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

Yes that sounds about right, it was a drastic measure. Very glad I don't need to use it now.