Manhole/Shallow Inspection Point

[paulcurt]

Hi there,

My toilet has become blocked up, and after much pumping and whatnot, it won't clear. So I had a look at the shallow inspection point in the garden. First off, it looks like rats have been around underneath the paving slabs of the patio (found a dead rat under one of the paving slabs), specifically around the shallow inspection point, and it looks like they have burrowed underneath the house too.

Looking into the inspection point, there are stones and gravel, which is what is around the outside of the house, so I'm thinking that possibly the area where the rats have burrowed through, has sunk down there, and that is what I'm seeing in the shallow inspection point.

My questions are:

1) What should I do about the rats burrowing under the house, do I need to call a professional, or can I just use some cement mix to fill the gaps up?

2) Should the manhole have the possibility of getting any gravel in there? It seems the pipe going downwards into the ground (about 1m depth) isn't attached to any other pipe, it looks like if you clear the stones in there, more fall in from the surrounds. I'd have thought this was not normal? How should it be remedied (I wouldn't even attempt it, but I'd still be interested to know what should be done so I know if a "professional" really knows what he is doing)? Is this the likely reason for a blockage?

Cheers.

[Tim S]

Call the council - you might get rats dealt with for free.

Fill the gaps too, being careful that you aren't blocking up any intended ventilation holes. I've had rats in a previous house - they were getting in through a rusted vent. A dose of rat poison under the floor fixed the rats and a bar cemented in over the vent hole stopped more getting in whilst allowing air in. Despite that, a few years later, we had another, bigger infestation - never found out where they were getting in.

On the latter occasion, I caught a fair few of them in a humane trap - on one occasion 2 babies (still big buggers) and one field mouse squidged in amongst them. At this point, catching 3 rodents in one trap, I realised there must be loads of them down there, so poison seemed necessary to me, as must as I don't like wholesale slaughter of furry things...

How you describe your manhole is not normal and rocks down the pipes are going to cause problems... Sounds like it needs repairing or rebuilding. Has the chamber sunk due to rats undermining it - if so, it would explain a lot and your pipes may be damaged too.

Photo would help (of teh inside and immediate surrounds of the manhole) , but I wouldn't have though it would cost the earth to get a builder to fix and it can be a DIY job if you can get over the grossness factor and can arrange not to use the drains for the duration of the work.

If you do tackle it yourself, flushing a boat load of bleach down the toilet and another bucket's worth down the hole (after a good hose down) will make it seem less bad.

Cheers

Tim

[paulcurt]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.

Tim S wrote:

Round my way the council provide assistance but it costs and they take ages getting back to you with a reply. Will try again, but might just resort to using rentokill or someone similar.

I've filled the gaps in now, but just waiting on them to burrow back in, will get some rat traps and attach a few more ultrasonic plug ins.

Yeh I think the rats have been undermining and have caused the pipe to "drop" if that makes sense? The pipe going downwards is not linked to anything anymore, so I think the waste is going straight into the soil? Woohoo that needs to be fixed asap!

I'll get some pics tomorrow morning. I'm not sure its something I can do, I asume I have to dig up the ground around the pipe to repair/replace the old one and put it all back again? I think that's best left to the pro's given my abilities! lol.

Thanks for the advice

Will get those pics up tomorrow for more help!

Cheers!

[Dave Fawthrop]

|paulcurt wrote: | |> |> My questions are: |> |> 1) What should I do about the rats burrowing under the house, do I need |> to call a professional, or can I just use some cement mix to fill the |> gaps up? | |Call the council - you might get rats dealt with for free. | |Fill the gaps too, being careful that you aren't blocking up any intended |ventilation holes.

Remember that rats are not the only vermin, you should also ensure that mice can not get in. A mouse can pass through a pencil sized gap (some here would say a two pencil sized gap).