Klogged Khazi..... ?

[Blodwyn Pig]

You can also get (depending on where you are, and local authority regs) combined sewers, where by they take waste water and rain water, helps keep them clean, but if you have a blockage, and it rains hard.......you need to be able to swim.

[Davef]

You can also get (depending on where you are, and local authority regs) combined sewers, where by they take waste water and rain water, helps keep them clean, but if you have a blockage, and it rains hard.......you need to be able to swim.

Not generally allowed for any new buildings. It can be nasty when it goes wrong. In very heavy rains 3 or 4 years ago the excrement started coming up through the drains on the road at the lowest point in the village and the turdnado swept into someone’s cellar to a depth of about 2 feet. The man from the the water authority rather usefully said “that isn’t meant to happen”.


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[Kim]

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.

I'm generally of the opinion that you should only treat drain problems with chemistry if you already know the composition of the blockage.

If you know it's a trap full of hair or fat (or the oil + calcium stearate slime you get from mixing ineffective vegan soap with Canterbury Carbonate), the NaOH may be effective.  Otherwise you now have two problems.

[rafletcher]

You can also get (depending on where you are, and local authority regs) combined sewers, where by they take waste water and rain water, helps keep them clean, but if you have a blockage, and it rains hard.......you need to be able to swim.

Not generally allowed for any new buildings. It can be nasty when it goes wrong. In very heavy rains 3 or 4 years ago the excrement started coming up through the drains on the road at the lowest point in the village and the turdnado swept into someone’s cellar to a depth of about 2 feet. The man from the the water authority rather usefully said “that isn’t meant to happen”.


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Indeed, not been legal for years, but living, as we do, in a "modernised" (in the 1970's) 1840's end terrace, that's what we have. We're also at the "head" of the sewer for the terrace, and all the length of the drain runs under the '70's/'80'  extensions out the back of the 8 properties....

Thankfully we've only had an issue with the water main (it got crushed under a foundation), and once with the drains. But since we have only the one toilet and the outfall from the house was blocked (we know not what by) it was a bit traumatic. The "Lanes for Drains" man sent by Thames Water  - it being on our property but a shared drain, so their responsibility, a fact I learned from the Dynorod guy who told me I had to call Thames as they (Dynorod) weren't allowed to do it  - rodded it in 5 minutes. And it was free, which given it was 10pm on a Sunday was a bonus.

[Davef]

You can also get (depending on where you are, and local authority regs) combined sewers, where by they take waste water and rain water, helps keep them clean, but if you have a blockage, and it rains hard.......you need to be able to swim.

Not generally allowed for any new buildings. It can be nasty when it goes wrong. In very heavy rains 3 or 4 years ago the excrement started coming up through the drains on the road at the lowest point in the village and the turdnado swept into someone’s cellar to a depth of about 2 feet. The man from the the water authority rather usefully said “that isn’t meant to happen”.


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Indeed, not been legal for years, but living, as we do, in a "modernised" (in the 1970's) 1840's end terrace, that's what we have. We're also at the "head" of the sewer for the terrace, and all the length of the drain runs under the '70's/'80'  extensions out the back of the 8 properties....

Thankfully we've only had an issue with the water main (it got crushed under a foundation), and once with the drains. But since we have only the one toilet and the outfall from the house was blocked (we know not what by) it was a bit traumatic. The "Lanes for Drains" man sent by Thames Water  - it being on our property but a shared drain, so their responsibility, a fact I learned from the Dynorod guy who told me I had to call Thames as they (Dynorod) weren't allowed to do it  - rodded it in 5 minutes. And it was free, which given it was 10pm on a Sunday was a bonus.

It is relatively recently that water authorities became responsible shared lateral drains on private land. It used to be the source of bickering between neighbours. Our house is from 1717 and when I talked to our water authority they had no record of where it was connected to the mains sewers. Clearly it is, but they are not sure where and oddly it is not to the one that runs down the road we are on.


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[SteveC]

Our house is from 1717 and when I talked to our water authority they had no record of where it was connected to the mains sewers. Clearly it is, but they are not sure where and oddly it is not to the one that runs down the road we are on.

This does not surprise. For most of my three years as a student in Manchester the top of Oxford Road, the main road through the university to the city centre, was blocked off as a large hole had appeared when the Victorian sewer had collapsed. Apparently there were no proper plans of where these sewers went so preventative work was not straightforward.

[Wowbagger]

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.

They would then be interred...

Yes, that's mine, the hazmat suit

[Wowbagger]

I have had cause to Play With Drains a few times. I have the chimney/drain rods with a different end-piece, depending which set of tubes you are exploring.

I am quite fortunate in that our drains are very straightforward and are not connected to anyone else's until we are out in the road. I know where the man-holes are and know how to lift them. Luckily, once the main drains leave the house for the last time, there's only about 3' to the outside wall and then they are someone else's problem financially.

We had a blockage a few years ago and I analysed it thoroughly. It turned out to be a collapsed brick-build sewer out in the road. You could actually see where the road surface had dipped. The two people who came to look at it actually disappeared into a hole in the ground and walked along the sewer until they found the blockage - a roof-fall of bricks, effectively. The patch where they fixed the problem is still clearly visible, and quite large:

https://goo.gl/maps/T6Jv2pEVYn8eKDUB6

Good luck with your problem. One thing I will say about clearing drains - if you are successful the sense of job satisfaction is greater than any other job I have ever undertaken.

[Jaded]

My most recent self-clearing of a blockage involved two sets of rods and a hugely satisfying pipe shaped goo of cooking fat and stuff that the previous owners had put together. It went happily  off down the main sewer and I pulled the rods back. Which, despite me being really, really careful turning then the right way, were nearly disconnected 🙀

[andrewc]

I took a look yesterday.  When I got there everything looked normal. Some probing with a 1.6M flexible wire snake yielded no results.   Repeated flushing filled it nearly to the brim & vigorous plunging had no effect, so it looks like it's time to call a professional. 


The bottom of the cast iron downpipe was built into the kitchen step at the same time as the back yard was flagged over.  Some of the flags near the pipe are showing significant "heave" probably caused by the roots of a tree on the other side of their boundary wall, on a grass verge maintained by the local council.   


Does housing insurance cover this type of stuff ?

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

You could always try. 

We claimed successfully once but that was last century and things have changed a little since then.

[andrewc]

Well a plumber has been & hopefully the problem has been fixed.   He couldn't do anything from the toilet itself, so rather than take flags up looking for the inspection hatch he cut a hole in the metal drainpipe & went in that way with an inspection camera & then the cleaning rods.   


£75............       He's done work for them before & must feel sorry for them  !



Cut hole in metal pipe flus it / camera down / long screw pole down , clean out other drain / going repair hole - he normally charge more but he reduce it for us

[Mrs Pingu]

That was nice. Was it just a blockage rather than tree roots/mangling then?

[Wowbagger]

My daughter seems to have had her multiple drainage problems fixed, as a result of senior insurance and building types coming in, taking a sharp intake of breath and saying “Excuse me, Lindy, do you mind if we swear a lot?”

The “old” bathroom floor has been dug up for a third time and the strong impression given was that the sub-contractors concerned are noe ex-sub-contractors.

Annoyingly, the company from whom she purchased a lot of bathroom furniture has gone into liquidation so it appears that she will now have to shell out on another set.

It seems quite possible that the previous owner may have been aware of some plumbing and drainage related issues as when they bought the house in 2006 it seemed to be rather less than equivalent houses. 1860-built Terraced house in Maidstone.

[andrewc]

That was nice. Was it just a blockage rather than tree roots/mangling then?

I'm told he thought it was a blockage, but did use a tool to clear some roots from the pipe.    They were also told not to flush kitchen roll, so that may be a pointer to the problem...

[Kim]

They were also told not to flush kitchen roll, so that may be a pointer to the problem...

 

That's also a burying-under-the-patio offence.

[Canardly]

You did well there. How has he sealed the Soil pipe?

[andrewc]

I've not seen it, but some type of bitumen patch.  He said if it doesn't hold then the bottom portion of the pipe would need to be replaced.   

[fuzzy]

A nice result Andrew.

I shall just remind the gathered throng of the 'joys' of being informed of blocked drains/ sinks/ toilets at my previous employment at the special needs school.

If we were fortunate, it was just some oik putting blue paper roll down the loo and it could be cleared quickly. If not, it would transpire that the accumulation of blue roll and other non feacal crap had crusted on top of the 25000 litre (or bigger- about 6 meters accross by at least 12 meters deep) sewage sump and the float valves were floating flat and not activating the pumps.........

Once the sump was cleared we then had to work our way back, shifting all the secondary blockages caused by the lack of sewage flow.

As WB says above though- that gurgle and rushing sound of a succesfuly shifted plug is very satisfying.