Drains Blocked

moggins

We share a sewage drain with our next door neighbour who is the most unpleasant character I've ever met.

It appears that he (and the constant stream of people in and out of his house have blocked the drain with fat and grease. The drain system was built in 1820 and rather odd and the drain rods keep hitting blockages.

I've tried a sulphuric acid drain ublocker but it's not touched it. Is there anything else I can do from my side?

If I go to the neighbour I will just get abuse and threats of violence and I'm pretty unwilling to call out Dynorod (or similar) when he is the one to have blocked it up Obviously I will if I have to but I know he will just cause this problem again and again and I don't have the money to keep throwing it down the drain (literally)

_gav_

You should be able to call out your local Water company to clear it for free :-) If you house was built before 1937 (ish) and you're sharing your sewage drain with another property it falls within the Public Health Act 1936, s.20 as it is seen as a public sewer and therefore their responsibility :beer:

I had the same issue, except we had 5 propertys connected to the single sewer run, our was the last house, and when it blocked we had to deal with the cr*p! We called Dyno-rod who cleared it, I then reclaimed the money from the neighbours. However after a bit of googling, found out about the above Act and duly contacted the Water Sewage co in my area, Southern Water, who after a bit of winging, agreed that we did fall within this Act and then fully refunded our Dyno-rod fee. The drains have blocked again since then, this time I contacted Southern Water and they came out straight away, no questions (and no fees) asked!! :-)

IHTH

Gavin

moggins

Thanks Gav, FIL mentioned something about this but wasn't quite sure of his facts just that he had been told by a friend of a friend sort of thing

safesound

Anyone know how I can tell if I share a drain?

Nile

Hello _gav_


Welcome to the MSE site.:wave:

black-saturn

I didnt know you could call the water board to do it. My house was built in 1896 and the pipes outside were almost fully blocked up when I moved in. I paid dinorod (cant remember how much) to come round and sort it out. I'll call the water board first if it happens again.

_gav_

black-saturn wrote:

I didnt know you could call the water board to do it. My house was built in 1896 and the pipes outside were almost fully blocked up when I moved in. I paid dinorod (cant remember how much) to come round and sort it out. I'll call the water board first if it happens again.

The key thing is your drains have to be shared with another house for it to fall under this Act. It's not just an age thing

[Deleted User]

My neighbours had blocked drains a couple of months ago, we share a sewer so my basement got flooded as a result. I called the water company (my house was built approx 1937-38 so I was hoping it would fall under the Act) and of course they told me it was nothing to do with them and had to pay someone to unblock it (my neighbour should have done that but is elderly and skint).

I rang the Council to find out the exact age of my property but they don't have a record of it grrr!

moggins

Severn Trent were brilliant! We rang and told them there was a blockage in the sewer pipe between my house and my neighbours, they asked when the house was built. We told them 1820 and they said they would call us back with a time they could get to us.

They phoned back within 30 minutes, arranged to be with us the next morning, unfortunately they couldn't fix it immediately as there was a bend in the pipe that they couldn't get round from our side and the neighbour was out, they came back again at 6pm, just catching the neighbour arriving home, cured the blockage and came back round to tell me that it was fixed. Not a mention of money anywhere

JimArnold

the points about shared drains is spot on - while it only carries your gunk its your repeponsibilty.

General points
fat blockages only usually occur near the house Hot water + melted fat goes into drain cools within a few feet and fat solidifies. mine usually blocks 6 inches from kitchen - arm down drain fixes it - messy but simple
for any blockage rods are 10 times more effective if you can rod back from a clear point. 99% of blockages can be cleared with rods - no expensive machines needed
All bends/ junctions should have an inspection chamber make sure there not one buried somewhere