Drain Rod Stuck - Any Ideas?

[velodocuk]

I've got a sewage pipe blockage - opening a manhole cover in the back garden showed a 50cm depth of sewage water. The drain direction heads out under the pavement to the middle of the road -so I borrowed a friend's drain rods. They went through no problem until they met an obstruction which felt solid - somewhere under the middle of the road. I asume this is some sort of junction in the sewage pipes.

So I thought I'd stick the (100mm) plunger on and see if I got set up a water wave to dislodge any obstruction. The plunger went in no bother (to about 6 rod lengths), but when it hit the solid wall I found I couldn't retract it more than about 10-15cm.

I assume here that the edge of the rubber plunger had gone over a lip in the piping but no amount of pulling on the rods will get them to back out - there is only 10-15cm of to and fro movement.

Anyone have any ideas? I'll probably have to see if the water company will sort out the blockage which seems to be in the public drain but what I'm worried about is getting my stuck plunger and rods out. Brute force? Possibly but I've given it all I can.

(The spectre of franchised drain companies and their legendary bills looms large....)

Cheers, Paul

[:::Jerry::::]

More like the bill from your local water authority for having to dig the road up !

Do you have a friendly bank manager ?... :~(

[John Stumbles]

bit late to say it now but that's a very good reason to use lockfast rods

[Dave Liquorice]

Or you've come out of your 4" pipe into a 9 or 12" under the street. Is there another manhole vaugely in the same direction and approximately the right distance away?

With out digging a hole and breaking the pipe open all you can do is pull and twist (the right way!) at the same time and hope that the disc will find it's way back into the pipe.

[Jeff]

The local council would be first port of call, they charge a fixed fee about £35 iirc and have camera gear

Regards Jeff

[Timothy Murphy]

I think you will find some of the large drain clearage companies will have cameras they can put down to see exactly what has happened, for a relatively small fee.

We had a complete drain stoppage a year or so ago, and a local company put down their camera system. They found there had been a collapse about 10 metres from the opening. We were given a video of the inside of the drain as a memento, after they had repaired the damage.

[Tony Williams]

Try pulling a constant tension and slowly rotate the rod clockwise. That might make the plunger 'climb' the far edge of the 4" pipe.

[Huge]

Or do what the drain clearance bloke I saw once did; fasten the free end to the back of his Transit van and pull them out by brute force.

[[news]]

hahaha, like it :-)

RT

[velodocuk]

Thanks for all the ideas folks. The initial update is that a small pumping station had failed, causing a sewage build up on the whole of our estate.

So, as it turned out, it wasn't my branch at all. Having just had an extension built, we jumped to the conclusion that it must have been a localised blockage on our branch.

The sewage on the estate is now draining freely. My drain rods and plunger are still stuck in there, without causing a block...yet. I'll update you on progress to extract it ...if I'm brave enough - the simple things have failed so far! Cheers, Paul

[Mary Fisher]

I'm glad for your sake that it isn't your branch but the stuck plunger could be a problem. Keep us posted. I hope you free it or that it doesn't cost you money.

Mary

[andrewpreece]

Aside from brute force and the rotate-and-pull method, I was wondering what else might work. I reckon if you're really stuck ( ha-ha! ) as a last resort you could manufacture a hollow cone out of something suitable ( wood, foam ? ), and slide it flat end first down the rods. The problem is getting it down to the flate plate, though a torrent of water might push it along. Once at the flate plate ( which you push against the far wall of the main branch whilst doing his ) you are then free to pull the assembly back. The cone should allow the flate plate to ride up over the lip of the domestic/main sewer intersection.

Just a crackpot idea if you get desperate, cheers,

Andy.

[Dave Liquorice]

Not that crackpot, it may just work. If you can get it down there it'll certainly assist in aligning the disc within the pipe a lot better than the "pull 'n twist, hope it climbs" method.

What ever it is made of needs to be pretty tough though, so a lump of hard wood rather than soft.

[Rob Morley]

It doesn't need to be a cone - just a cylinder long enough not to fall into the pipe that the plunger is stuck in.

[markzoom]

Nice idea, I would suggest two cones end to end though, about 2/3 the diameter of the plunger. Mark K.

[Dave Liquorice]

True but how long is that? And it's only a guess that the plunger has entered another pipe and not just gone past a badly aligned join.

[Rob Morley]

If he pulls the plunger back as far as it will go then stops it moving forward again, then not very long at all - but it would probably need to be a bit longer to discourage it from twisting sideways and jamming, as the rod pushing it would be substantially off-centre. The longest it would need to be is the amount that the stuck rods can be moved backwards and forwards, plus a bit.

Same difference really - the plunger needs to be aligned centrally in the pipe, the cylinder will do that.

[bof]

In message , andrewpreece writes

Another crackpot idea has just sprung to mind here . . how about an inflated swimmer's arm band? Slip it over the rod and it should wash down fairly easily with a bucket or two of water, if it does endup going past the end of the narrow pipe it should be reasonably easy to pull back in or even burst.

[Andrew Mawson]

company

Don't just pull, rotate it as you pull. Any bend in the end rod will tend to lift it over the lip. Make sure to rotate in the direction that TIGHTENS the couplers though !

AWEM

[velodocuk]

Update....

The drains department of the Council were incredibly helpful. They tried to remove the rod with all sorts of manipulations - including, in the end, the pull of an attached LandRover winch. After an almighty pull, the drain rod sticking out broke in two - worth a try though I thought.

In the end the CCTV crew came - he had a lot of experience of this (apparently stuck drain rods are not rare). He decided to try one last manipulation before putting the camera down. He put as much pull as he could on the rods (to fix the plunger against the presumed lip in the pipes) and then twisted them the WRONG way - anticlockwise. Lo and behold he pulls out all the rods, minus the plunger.

He then goes to the main drain manhole and uses the CCTV camera to nudge the plunger along slowly and carefully to the next manhole. Opens manhole cover and retrieves plunger. I'm mighty grateful the whole thing didn't end in an excavation of the road.

Beware the plunger on drain rods especially when the plunger disc is new and quite stiff!

I hope that's helpful Paul