UPDATED (2) What's going on with my drains?

ormus

if you look at my sketch on post 18, you can see if theres a blockage downstream, then it can back up into the gulleys.
hence you can get all sorts of stuff coming back up.

if you still cant find the manhole, you really need to break into the soil pipe and rod it all out.
hence you need an access point in the drain system, somewhere.

paddy's_mum

Not that I know much about drains but could the previous subsidence you mentioned be having an effect?

If a house subsides, things - such as footings, brickwork, pathways etc - physically move, don't they?

Could small movements have partially cracked or fractured the sewer at some point perhaps allowing a build-up of earth or roots into it?

aliasojo

ormus wrote: »

sometimes all drains go into the single sewer pipe. thence to the public main sewer pipe.
other times the rainwater pipes will simply empty into the gound, via soakaways.

I'm surprised at this. Our house back home has seperate foul water and rain water drains and you weren't allowed to link the two.

Thanks for the info.

ormus

all the semis ive lived in, (inc this one) had all the drainage pipes into the one sewer pipe.
only my terraced houses had seperate drain systems.

carefullycautious

please make sure you use rubber gloves if putting hands down drains. There are some nasty bugs down there.

I know of someone who has been very ill doing just what you have done and it has affected his liver long term

Green_box

aliasojo wrote: »

I'm surprised at this. Our house back home has seperate foul water and rain water drains and you weren't allowed to link the two.

Thanks for the info.

This is usual in newer houses. There are, however, thousands of properties throughout the country that still have combined drainage.

aliasojo

Well chap has been out and like us, can't find a manhole either. He's reticent about getting someone in to rod or flush the drains because there's no obvious manhole.

We've found a broken pipe under a gutter downpipe and it's clear the mud we scooped out has come from there but we also found several wet wipes floating in the small manhole (I'm calling it a manhole but I think it's really more like a rodding point?) at the back. What is annoying is that these aren't ours (they are much thicker than the type we used, they look like Huggies ones which are twice the thickness of the cheaper versions). Needless to say chap was here at the time these things floated up and he obviously thinks those are the cause of the blockage and it's down to us.

He's hopeful the council will be able to help with pinpointing a manhole so we're in limbo until then. They said it can take 3 days before they can get back to him. _pale_

Surely Dyno Rod and other such drainage people will have come across 'no manhole' type situations before?'

mart.vader

"Stands to reason the drains flow from the back (high) to the front (low) but the only tiny drain cover we can find is the one at the high end, nowhere near the toilets."

Not necessarily, the drains obviously can only run downhill, but the slope of the land at surface level may be going the other way.

"Surely Dyno Rod and other such drainage people will have come across 'no manhole' type situations before?"

A word of caution - Someone suggested using Dy**rod previously in this thread, I have no experience of them, but others have said, they will cost you thousands, for a job worth tens or hundreds.

From what you have described, it sounds like a blocked or collapsed drain. Sorry, can't suggest anything else. Are your neighbours affected?

aliasojo

mart.vader wrote: »

"Stands to reason the drains flow from the back (high) to the front (low) but the only tiny drain cover we can find is the one at the high end, nowhere near the toilets."

Not necessarily, the drains obviously can only run downhill, but the slope of the land at surface level may be going the other way.

The house is on a hill so we're pretty certain of direction.

"Surely Dyno Rod and other such drainage people will have come across 'no manhole' type situations before?"

A word of caution - Someone suggested using Dy**rod previously in this thread, I have no experience of them, but others have said, they will cost you thousands, for a job worth tens or hundreds.

From what you have described, it sounds like a blocked or collapsed drain. Sorry, can't suggest anything else. Are your neighbours affected?

It appears the drains are separate so houses across from us are not linked. (My suspicions about the wipes were that they had been in there for some time before we moved in and that's why everything drained slowly from day 1. To be fair though, we're all a bit baffled so could be guessing wrongly.)

I called Dyno just as an exercise in curiosity and they quoted £90 + VAT or £140 + VAT depending on whether rods or jet flush was needed. Obviously would be more if the drain had collapsed and digging and replacement was involved. I just wanted a rough idea so that I was more informed during chat with LL.

Just need to wait to see what he will do now.

aliasojo

Drain chap has been out.

Bit of a mixed result tbh. What I was calling a 'small drain/cover' at the back of the house, was a rodding point. From here, he put down a jet hose thing which whooshed up loads of muddy water and a wad of (what looked like) old tatty wipes. Thinking that was it, he put down a camera and found the drain had collapsed at one point and the space left for stuff to travel through was very small. He then found more stuff clinging round the collapsed part so he jetted it again and got that out too.

He expected to see lots of running water from the flushed toilets once that was done, but although water did appear, it seemed to 'seep' up slowly rather than whoosh out as he expected.

He says the drain layout seems quite strange and suspects there is a junction at some point which means the water from the flushed toilets may be going into another pipe but he can't find where.

The toilets seem to be flushing ok for now so the immediate issue is over. Drain chap is to send LL a quote for lining the drains which apparently sorts out collapses and avoids the need to dig up and replace. We're hopeful that will sort it all out once and for all but if not then clearly there is another pipe somewhere that no-one can find.