Drainpipe slime --- do I need to care?

[Adam Funk]

About a week or two ago, I noticed some slime on a drain grate, which I removed. Then I noticed some more two days ago --- photo here:

white pipe: combined drain for kitchen sink, washer-dryer, dishwasher; not very long.

blue pipe with short outlet: from a hopper higher up the wall, fed by separate pipes from the bathroom sink, shower/bath (it's a shower over a bath, but we only use the shower), & boiler condensate pipe.

blue pipe with long outlet: rain from the bathroom roof, through a water-butt diverter.

Nothing seems to be plugged up or draining slowly, & I cleared out the traps for the kitchen (which was clean), bathroom sink (some gunk), & bath (some hair & gunk) about a month or two ago.

Do I need to care or do anything about the slime other than throw it away when it comes out?

Thanks.

[Tricky Dicky]

Have you checked the guttering above the bathroom? If you have any trees nearby then leaves can gather in the gutter and recent heavy rains may have dislodged it, though saying that leaf mould tends to go black that looks rather pale. Domestic management hasn?t been emptying the chip pan down the sink? To eliminate the dishwasher and washing machine, run them separately and see what comes down the pipe.

[Jeff Layman]

What happens if you pour boiling water on it? I wondered if it was a mess of semi-congealed soap and other stuff. If it's that, the boiling water will dissolve the soap and break up the slime. If it does, although it is wasteful, quarter-fill the bath with water from the hot tap then pull the plug. Any residual slime in the pipes should get washed through. Repeat for the kitchen sink.

[Adam Funk]

No trees near the house are tall enough to get in the gutter, & I agree that leaf mould is darker. We don't deep-fry, but any other excess oil goes in the compost caddy, not the sink. From the position of the slime, I think it's very unlikely that it came from the kitchen pipe. I think the "soap gunge theory" is more likely, but thanks for replying.

[The Natural Philosopher]

dead lichen and decayed moss?

[Clive Arthur]

<snipped>

Dunno about the slime, but is that white pipe UV resistant? If not it'll crumble eventually, probably just before you want to sell the house.

[Adam Funk]

I have occasionally (not recently) seen bits of moss from the rain pipe, but this stuff definitely isn't lichen or moss.

[John]

The best advice I have ever followed was to ditch bar soap and only use liguid soap.

[Andy Burns]

The 9x9" gulley surround at the bottom of my downpipe is packed full of the stuff at the moment ...

[Andrew]

Then you are adding to the global problem of single use plastic :-(

Surely the problem is people running washing machines at low temp ?. In the 'good old days', washes were done at ~60 C so the drains got a regular hot flush of water and detergent.

If all else fails and you have an external hopper or gulley then sodium hydroxide is quite effective (with eye protction and old clothes).

[Andrew]

Local Sainsburys is selling off their garden stuff cheap at the moment. Lots of readymix sprays for killing moss and weeds.

[alan_m]

Here in Essex where it has only rained for a couple of days in the past few months my gutters are full of dead moss that has dried off and parted from the roof tilrs. A recent quick downpour has routed a lot down the drainpipe.

[Adam Funk]

A kettle full (1.7 L, I think) of boiling water didn't dissolve it all but broke it up so it was easy to wash through the grate with a garden hose. The slime certainly stank. I'll try your idea later. (I'll also get the ladder out & look in the hopper.)

What I really want to know is whether there is any reason to care that this stuff is forming. It's must be happening in the hopper or the pipee down from there, because nothing is draining slowly inside.

[Andy Burns]

I doubt the sprayer is powerful enough to reach the roof, I suspect the dry spell followed by a couple of downpours loosened it (with assistance from the jackdaws).

[Andrew]

There was a program on BBC4 last night about the M25 and the presenter was fascinated by the lichen on the Ove Arup flyover near Runnymede next to Lutyens original bridge.

She visited an expert at the Science Museum? who showed how quickly 'dead' moss recovered when water was added, and pointed out that samples over 50 years old in display cabinets came back to live just as quickly !.

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

It happens that Adam Funk formulated :

That looks like the detritus from your kitchen sink...

Are you sure it is acceptable in your area, to put grey waste (sink) down what is a rain water drain? Many places have one system for sewage/grey water and another for rain water, the latter needing no treatment and is discharged straight into rivers. It is illegal to mix the two.

If it is acceptable, cut a suitable notch in the iron grid and pipe the sink waste through the notch so it discharges under the grid.

[alan_m]

Yellow coloured litchen is still on my roof but large clumps of once dark gree moss are not. Water may revive it but it's now in the gutter and I need to get the ladders out to clear it. I'm waiting for for the family of sparrows that hatched in a small space between my neighbours gutter and roof to disappear. Currently the young are bouncing along my and my neighbours gutter waiting for their parents to feed them (minus one that ended up in my water but after a recent 2 minute downpour)

[Jeff Layman]

If it stank it means it's been there for quite a time. At least you've got rid of it, if only temporarily.

I always believe these things are a bit like clots inside blood vessels. While everything is flowing well there is no problem, but once the clot starts to form, watch out! It's similar with the slime thing - there is no problem until the first bit of whatever it is gets stuck in the gutter, pipe, hopper, etc. After that, there is a substrate for further formation, and it builds up until the flow of water breaks some of it off, and that gets stuck on the drain grid. But the stuck bit is still there, ready for more slime to form. That's why I suggested a /lot/ of hot water.

[John]

Andrew [e-mail] wrote in news:rdi6g1$lff$1 @gioia.aioe.org:

I buy Sanex and decant it onto old Hand Wash pumps

[newshound]

Do you mean the white stuff? It doesn't look particularly slimy to me, more granulated. It looks to me more like fat than anything else. You do eat bacon, don't you?

I would examine a sample much more closely.