Help! Blocked drains.

Kaz2904

Hi there, I'm hoping one of you lovely chaps can help me . My drains are blocked. I have two manhole covers on my property, one at the back and one at the front. I haven't looked at the back one, as the front is blocked and it is the one that connects to the sewer.
I have rodded to my hearts content and cannot clear the blasted thing. I am getting in about 2 feet towards the sewer and then hitting a blockage. I have emptied out the drain as much as I can and pured it down next doors manhole cover (bless them, I lurve my neighbours!). As I've been clearing, I've found lots of stuff that looks like baby wipes and facial wipes which I've removed and bagged up seperately (not mine, I don't buy them anymore and never flushed them anyway). I also found a fudge wrapper :rotfl: along with a LOT of fudge (not the edible kind).
The next point of access to the drain is the manhole cover out in the road. I think that if I can get the rods in towards my house from here, I could probably clear the blockage into my drain and empty it out with a bucket. It's one of those round mahole covers which has the key to get in there. Am I even allowed to do this or does the water board have to do this? I don't mind doing it really, it's not my favourite job in the world but it's gotta be done.
I'm cross that my drain is full up of stuff that we don't even use and can't figure out how it's got there, unless of course, the main sewer is blocked. I regularly clean my washing machine, toilets, bath and sinks with vinegar to clear the limescale as I know that our drains have a tendency to block.
Our house was built in 1905 so I know that the water board have to fix it for me but wonder what kind of time frame I'm going to be looking at? I'll get some really heavy duty chemicals this afternoon but am a bit wary of them mixing in the sludge and creating an explosion which will shower me with !!!!!!!
I've been trying with the screw attacment on the rods and it's no beef so have been using the plunger doing the old push, pull to try and create enough suction to free it all up. Not happening.


Arrrrrrgh! Hope someone can help me

Ooh, on my water boards website, they say that there is new government legislation coming out to make the water boards responsible for drain clearing rather than the private householder too. Not relevant here but thought it might be interesting to anyone who reads this after October 2011 when searching blocked drains and blocked sewers .
TIA, Kaz.

phill99

It may well be blocked in the street. It may be worth a call to the water board.

If it badly blocked, iit may well need jetting.

ormus

if its so badly blocked, then no amount of rodding nor jetting will clear it.
you may need a camera down there to discover what is going on.

have you tried the corkscrew fitting on the rods and turned them?

Kaz2904

I've tried that, it just gets stuck on something but doesn't seem to go down as far as the plunger bit IYSWIM.
It's such a pain, I've even got down into the drain myself but can't get my arm down into it to have a rummage. Typically, it's left handed and I'm right handed which worried me but it turns out, that's a moot point as I can't get my arms past my knees to get it in there. I haven't even got space when I'm in there to scoop more out into a bucket so I can completely empty it.
Much as the job doesn't bother me too badly, I really draw the line at kneeling in all the foul water sloshing around in the bottom, it was bad enough when the bucket splashed down my leg!

ormus

i meant to say badly blocked, as in a drain collapse.

Kaz2904

I hope they wouldn't try to find me liable for that?

ormus

generally,, you are responsible for the drains, up to your boundary line.

Kaz2904

Ah that's fine then. It's after my boundary line that the blockage is, hence the original question about whether or not I was allowed to lift up the manhole cover in the road.

Kaz2904

So, I'm back (AGAIN). I called the water board first thing on the Monday morning after I had poured 5L of brick acid down at 4pm on Saturday. It was still blocked on Sunday so I just called them. I then went to work as I had an unavoidable lecture (which turned out to be the next day!). Got home and the man hole cover was up and the drain was clear. So I decided they must have been already. Pulled the plug on the bath which had been sitting there since Saturday and watched the water flow away quite happily. So I got on with my housework. An hour later the water board man comes round. It wasn't him who had cleared it, he was as confused as I was but my drain was clear and the one in the road was too.
Moving swiftly on.......
Yesterday I noticed that the neighbours below me on the drain had their rods out. This evening MiL comes back from the loo and says it's blocked. Checked the rear manhole and it's full to bursting. Checked the front and so is it. It's too dark to rod so I'll try in the morning. Checked with next door and they said they had just cleared their because their DD had had a cold and been chucking loads of tissues down the loo but theirs is now clear. So it can't be the reason why mine's blocked.
So why on earth has my drain blocked AGAIN in less than a month? No wipes, fat, chunks, building materials, rubble paint, tissues, cotton wool or kitchen roll have been put down their. No sanitary items either as none used in that time and nobody in nappies. If I DO manage to clear it miraculously, I'm still going to try and get my rods down further this time just so that I can see how far they will go. I have a horrible feeling that where the road is crumbling in front of my house may have caused the drains to squish. Who's fault would that be? It's on the main highway but before the manhole cover in the road.
Lastly, GAHHHHHHHHHHH! What a nice mothers day present for me

Plumberman

Forget fitting the corkscrew to the drain rods, it's a waste of time and you won't get it round any bends. Use the wheel attachment every time. You are not trying to get through the blockage, just get behind it to push it away.
Don't bother emptying the manhole either, the weight of water helps to push the blockage away. A full manhole can however make it more difficult to get the rods into the drain, just try to 'feel' with the end of the rods to get them down the drain.

Signs of the ground sinking in the vicinity are a tell tale sign of a colapsed drain. Large trees near by can cause problems with tree roots breaking the drains.

Hope this helps.

Kaz2904

Very helpful, thanks . I tend to not bother with the screw bit cause it's pants. The road 'could' look like it's sinking but it could equally be due to the top of it being washed away down the hill.
I have stayed up late to check the state of the loos as the downstairs one at the back of the house had a very high water level this evening (that's what prompted me to check under the manhole covers). The water level went down very low so I flushed it and it returned to normal level.
There are no trees close to the drain, there are some trees by higher up drains but not between my front manhole cover and the road one about 10 feet away.
The only other thing that I could think it might be is that we have a new style double flush on our upstairs loo. Perhaps this is not strong enough to get rid of everything in one go? Although, it's been there for 5 years so would think it would have blocked more than 4 times in 5 years *insert shrugging smiley here*