Outside the back of the kitchen, there's a deepish gulley into which various drains empty.
It's about a foot deep right now. Soddit.
The bottom of the gulley opens onto the top of a drainpipe - which clearly isn't flowing anything like properly.
I've borrowed some drain rods off a neighbour, but just can't get 'em into the drain. I can't reach down enough to guide it manually.
Any thoughts?
When you say "opens onto the top of a drainpipe " I assume you mean an underground pipe that leads to the sewer? In which case, is there a manhole downstream, from which you can rod back up towards the house?
Cheers Richard
Any chance of getting a hose down it with a nozzle on it and then blast the blockage clear. OK I can get rods down my drains but they are so bad - about to be replaced - that my only solution has been to attach the hose to the rods with cable ties and push that down.
Rob
forget rods, use 20mm blue mains water pipe and connect it to a tap so it washes gunge away in front as it goes. No joints to come apart if you twist it wrong way
When you say gulley, do you mean a trap? - is there water in it all the time? - if so, you can't rod it, you need to get your arm in there and lift out the offending blockage, which could be anything, so wear gloves.
A tip: pour a kettle of boiling water down there before you insert your hand, don't worry, the water will be only warm by the time it mixes with the ice cold stuff already there. If you can't reach the bend at the bottom of the trap, you'll need a wire coathanger, or similar, once its running free, put a dose of caustic soda down there, preferably before you go to bed then it's got all night to do it's magic without being diluted
geraldthehamster gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:
Yup. Just - I think - "grey" water.
Yes, there is. I've just been to get some manhole keys...
...and promptly wished I hadn't...
It's not grey water. Definitely not. And it's about three inches below ground level, and it's Really Not Very Nice In There.
The water board have been phoned.
I feel vaguely unwell.
It would be quicker to get a set of rods down there and have a poke around - the water board will probably only come out on Monday, maybe later. The chances are it will go with one good push.
"Phil L" gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:
Fuck. That.
It's at least 2' deep, and - worse - it ain't even ours - that's upstream.
You're welcome to pop round and have a go, if you like. Oh, and they say they'll be round this evening...
That's gonna make one big gurgling / burping sound when it goes
if you lived nearby I would
Are they going to bill you for it?
"Phil L" gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:
Indeed. And a brown miasma...
I wouldn't ask it.
If it's their pipework, no, and they reckon it is.
In the unlikely event it is ours, yes. But I don't reckon £65 inc VAT - to turn up AND to clear it - is excessive AT ALL, especially since they promise faithfully they'll be here by 8.30...
I've had them out a number of times in recent years (their problem fortunately, so no cost to me) and they've always turned up very quickly (even at 11 at night on a Sunday).
SteveW
Steve Walker gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:
He came. He went.
There's another manhole cover in the front garden somewhere, under a layer of earth. And snow.
That's my morning sorted, then he'll come back.
Turns out some neighbours (asked 'em when they dropped an Xmas card in) "upstream" have also had all sorts of gurgling and overflowing, too.
Deep, deep joy.
A bit poor. With ours they couldn't find the problem straight away (turned out to be two collapses under the road), so they brought in a tanker; sucked it dry, leaving somewhere for our sewerage to go; then returned to do the same every day until the problem was solved.
SteveW
Indeed - blockages will always be felt upstream.
The trick is to find the first point *downstream* which *isn't* blocked, and then rod in an upstream direction from that point. If you try to rod from one that's full, you can't see where the outlets are - particularly if it's deep (mine are all 2 metres or more!)
Have you any idea of the force behind all this sewage? - surely standing downstream of what could be 2 tonnes of untreated sewage and water is not a good idea, as I found out when I was much younger - you want to push it away from you, not pull it towards you, cos when it goes, whatever manhole you are working on will fill up with such ferocity that it's likely to continue in an upwards motion for at least 8 feet, and then come back down again
Yes, I have! Two 6" public sewers meet in a manhole at the bottom of my garden - and one or other of them has blocked quite a few times in the 30+ years that we have been living here.
- surely
Whenever Severn Trent have come to unblock them, they have *always* jetted upstream from the manhole where the sewers meet. Needless to say, they don't actually climb into the chamber - they do it all from ground level - because it does come down with some force, and starts to fill the chamber, once the blockage has been shifted. But nothing has ever overflowed in the process - or even splashed over the top. The chamber is over 2 metres deep - and quite large in diameter so it has quite a large capacity to buffer transient flows.
Heh, try a blocked 24" drain down a 300ft hill, the hydrostatic pressure starts lifting tarmac like a rubber carpet... until... eventually... the blockage gives way. The triangular cast iron manhole cover began jetting until it was suddenly blasted several metres away with a fountaining column of water - that brick chamber was very deep.
The cause was allegedly... a rubber duck...
A few years ago they created a "swirl pot" the size of a house in the ground - massive digger, massive round chamber, several weeks. I guess to act as a buffer and mute kinetic energy from sudden storm surge.
And hope you can get out of the way in time!
I always try first from upstream, usually you can find the outlet if you've seen the manhole empty previously. I've seen someone covered in s**t having rodded a large blockage on a hill from downstream. Not a pretty sight!
gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:
SEP...
I'm about to go out and try to find the manhole cover that's somewhere under the front garden which is somewhere under Friday's snow which is somewhere under last night's snow.
Indeed. I feel vaguely queasy just reading some of these war stories...
Adrian gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:
Found it, under about 6" of snow-covered soil. It's not been lifted in the 12yrs we've lived here, and that "flower bed" was hugely overgrown when we moved in. I'll let you imagine how easy that cover's going to be to move...
Oh, and it's now steaming gently.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.