it appears I have a broken trap on the final exit from my inspection chamber at the mouth of my drive
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am assuming it should look like this
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this trap needed nowadays, or would it be OK to (try!) and remove it from inside the pit, replace it with a straight piece of pipe, and then fill the void with concrete?
If I can avoid digging up the drive, all the better, as it is shared with next door (but the drain is all mine, unfortunately!)
I was tempted to go the patch it up with cement, but wondered how long that would be likely to last, and as the drain is currently clear and not backed up with 100 litres of shit, it is a good time to make sure it is going to stay clear!
Toby ( snipped-for-privacy@altppantshuk.co.uk) wibbled on Tuesday 08 March 2011 23:58:
Hmm - looks a bit knackered. But working...
If you don't share the drain with any other houses (as I do, what a PITA that is!) it would be worth investigating your household insurance citing "root damage". You could get the pit remade (which is what it really needs[1] IMHO ) for the cost of the excess, if any.
Be sure to claim it's roots (which looks like a fair assessment), not "old age" as the former is often covered but the latter seldom is.
They will order an inspection anyway (if they do cover the drains) so not much to lose.
I suppose you could patch it up and if it is working it's not a very urgent problem but there seem to be several points of failure in the rendering as well as the half-pipe at the bottom.
If it is shared wait until October, when the water company takes over responsiblility. From the look of it it is older than 1937 so if shared it already is the water companies responsibility.
It is passing water, but I am not sure about solids at the moment, as the bathroom is not installed at the moment, so it is not being used for that at the moment, just washing paint brushes and rain water from the gutters on part of the house.
I am pretty sure it is pretty restricted down there - I will have a fish about and see.
I had thought about the insurance, however, if I can fix it for minimal cost myself, then it saves claiming and paying the £250 excess, if it is even covered, I can see them arguing it is wear and tear...
Well if it's collapsed then you don't really know where any foul water going down it is actually going. I suspect the EA will take a dim view of foul water ending up directly in the ground...
The rest of the pit does looks in poor condition, bite the bullet and do a full refurb on it. Don't know if you still need the trap in the outlet. As has already been pointed out it's full of roots so check with your insurers, even with a =A3250 excess.
Yes. Looking at the condition of the driveway there, I'd say its time to dig the whole thing out, clenching buttocks for the duration and sort it properly. And re-lay a better drive.
That may mean excavating quite a bit to get good pipe to connect to, but its almost certainly worth it.
Unless you are selling, in which case new cover on and walk away..
I don't think they're used nowadays. However, you might need a different arrangement of sewer vent pipes if you remove it (although since the rodding plug is open, that probably applies now anyway).
By the way, they are very heavy. About 20 years ago someone down the road had theirs removed, and it required a block and tackle to lift it to ground level, and a couple of heavy weight builders just to drag it on the ground. It was a pretty solid lump of cast iron, more filled in that your picture above shows and with a much larger flat base, although our sewer pipes are all 6" for some reason unknown to me. (I presume it must have been reused or they would have just smashed it up to get it out, but I didn't see where it went afterwards.) These ones would be dated about
1900-1910 in my case. Maybe they got more economical with iron in them later on.
I guess someone might be able to smash through it with a powered hammer of some type, to get a new pipe to connect up, but it's probably going to be much easier to go in from the top through the driveway.
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