Urgent help please regarding sewer

liss90

Hello all,
I wonder if any kind souls could give me some advice regarding our sewer / drains.
I noticed a foul smell in our front room after all the rain on Sunday just gone. We are in south east kent and we had some of the heaviest rain I have ever seen.
Anyway thought something had died under our floor boards and we have been pulling the floor boards up to no avail.
My partner checked the manhole / drain in the garden tonight and it is about four feet deep in pooh!
Our house was built in 1902 and when we bought it last year the solicitor sent a letter to us telling us the drain was under our house and was shared with other properties.
I have phoned the water board tonight and they have said that the neighbours need to check their drains and if they don't have any problems then it is not their responsibilty but ours.
Where do we go from here. We really don't have the money to be paying out huge sums of money. Does anyone know if this possible to repair ourselves, however unpleasant.
I would be sooooooooooo grateful for any help!

silvercar

Check your household insurance policy to see if it includes drains. Failing that do you have homecare or something similar?

I guess you could try using rods to see if there is a simple blockage. Remeber to stand upstream rather than downstream!

rsvtoddy

If I recall correctly houses with shared drains, built before 1930 (ish), the drains remain the responsibility of the water company. Although of course they will try to argue that it's not true!

Someone will come along with the correct details/legislation!

mrs_baggins

the above is right. If your house was built before october 1937 its the local water authoritys problem.

'Public Sewer: a sewer which has been adopted as a public sewer or was built before the 1st October 1937 and is therefore the responsibility of the STATUTORY UNDERTAKER '

you may have to remind them of this as a lot of them just dont know. I think its section 24 of some act but have been racking my brains trying to think. may be the public health act 1936 or something. try and have a google.

ps- your neighbours may not be affected yet as you may be first/last on the run but if you leave it long enough it will start to back up and theirs will be blocked too

jimmmyc

Hi, I had a blockage in my drains once due to someone putting cleaning wipes in the loo! I managed to rod the manhole with some bamboo poles we had in the garden, it took a few goes and wasn't the nicest of diy jobs but it worked.
I hosed down the manhole with a jet wash after, it has been fine since.
It may not have been the rain, just a coincidence.

djn576

when you lift the manhole you should be able to see the drain at the bottom. I suggest that you follow the drain to the next manhole & lift, if there's sewage there then follow to the next, keep on going until you get to a clear drain. The blockage will be between the clear drain and the one before (ie with sewage in). It may mean that the blockage is not on your property & not your cost!!

mrs_baggins

thats not exactly true .it depends on where the blockage is as to who's problem it is despite the fact that they may not be affected. imagine a row of 6 houses with number 1 on the left and the drain starts at number 1 and finishes at number 6. if number 3 finds his toilet whatever is blocked then it could have been caused by either property number 1, 2 or 3 so the people responsible would be those 3 properties. Seems unfair i know but I worked with env health for a long time and had to go out to many a blocked drain and deal with the disputes. in the above scenaria for example it could be that number 1 puts nappies down the toilet and went through their pipes but got stuck later. usually the cause is never found and most times its caused by a pipe being fractured by tree roots or something.drainage problems are always difficult to rectify

liss90

Hi there,
Thanks for all the replies and help. In the end we checked our home insurance and we were covered. They arrived at 8am yesterday. He said we may have a cracked pipe somewhere and unblocked the drain.
But the house still smells, does anyone have any idea what we do about this?
Will the smell go by its self , if so how long will this take? Its so vile!
Is there anything we can do? I have washing the floors, drains etc with everything going to no avail!
Help please!

Debt_Free_Chick

liss90 wrote:

He said we may have a cracked pipe somewhere

You need to get this checked out, as water/sewage may be seeping out underneath the house. If it is, it could destabilise the foundations and underpinning might be required.

Is your insurer going to investigate the possibility of a cracked pipe?