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

tigeress289

Word of caution, why would someone line a drain that they admit does not go into the main sewer. Are you in a terrace or detached?
Is there any kind of vent pipe coming up from the ground at the front of the house.? If you looked out of your top windows front and back of your home, could you see any kind of manhole covers in gardens either side?

aliasojo

He didn't say the collapsed drain didn't go into the main sewer. It does. I was out with him whilst he was doing all this and saw the camera pictures etc.

But he thinks there may also be a second drain he can't see. All water discharge pipes from the house seem to be connected somewhere along the line, it's just not clear where as they don't seem to follow the path you would expect. I'll see if I can draw a pic in a mo'.

We're a detached house in a rural location. There are 2 other houses a bit over from us. There is apparently one large central drain pipe that leads from the middle of the houses, our drains (including the collapsed one) join to this from the back of the house. The toilets are at the front of the house but when you flush the toilet, only a small stream of water appears in the drain at the back so we're not sure where the rest of it goes.

The house was apparently built by one local country chap for the Church many years ago on a piece of ground that was gifted to them so it may be that the drains don't follow standard layouts and have some individual input shall we say.

Drain chap says the next step (if sorting the collapsed drain doesn't sort it out completely) would be to take out the toilet to put the camera down that way to see where the drain goes. Hopefully it wont come to that though.


Edit: Rough pic....the toilet drains must be joined to the drains at the back somewhere, because the kitchen drain, the drain for the gutter downpipe and the rodding point, all back up and overflowed when the bath plug was pulled or the toilets were flushed. The drains with the ticks are what we know for sure, the drains with the dotted lines and question marks are what we are wondering about.

Since the drain from the rodding point to the main sewer pipe has been cleared, you would expect to see a lot of water gushing down when the toilets were flushed if there was only one route through to the main sewer pipe.

We had the downstairs basin tap on, the upstairs bath taps on and we flushed both upstair and downstairs toilets simultaneously, yet there was no gush of water, just some water kinda seeping up into the rodding point pipe near where the collapse was. That suggests that the bulk of the water goes elsewhere and there is a junction in the pipe at some point. But then, if that is the case, why was there so much toilet roll and wipes blocking the pipe near the collapsed part? :undecided

tigeress289

Good Pic, the re lining sounds a waste of time as a collapse should be dug out and repaired. From your pic ,I would say there is a chance the toilet flows towards the (P) to the right and joins the sewer there. However, as rural the original toilet position could have changed over the years(outside chance). The sensible suggestion was that the toilet could be removed and a camera check, This I agree with totally and the LL should foot that bill. It is in his interest to sort this out. You sound sensible and I dont think you have been ripped off with whats been done. The removal of the toilet should be the answer as the pipe can be jetted and then a camera inspection. But you must get the LL to sort this out.

Green_box

Not keen on the lining idea, it is usually only usefull in cracked pipes that have a reasonably good shape. If any cross sectional area has been lost in the collapse, the lining will only mould to that shape, so you would still have a narrowed area prone to blockages. In addition it is not usually cost effective to line short lengths as the start up costs are usually high.

I would agree with tigeress above, that the collapse should be excavated and removed.

A job for your LL I think. if they are difficult you could approach your Environmental Health Dept, they have the powers to force the works.

aliasojo

If this were my own house I would definitely dig out and replace.

We've had a number of serious issues all at once here, including a badly leaking roof which still hasn't been fixed. It's a Church owned property which really needs some serious money spent on upgrading and refurbing but the purse strings are held tightly and things are just really kept ticking over and no more.

According to the drain company that came out, the re-lining option is supposedly much cheaper than digging out which is obviously why it's been suggested and whilst I personally may feel in this instance that cheaper is not always better, I have no say in how things are repaired.

The rent we pay here is less than the average for this area so we're wary of rocking the boat too much tbh. If repair costs for all the issues were to escalate, I suspect our rent may follow suit shortly thereafter.

As long as the drains stay 'useable' then that's all that matters to me tbh. If they block again in the future, then they will just have to deal with that again if/when it happens. I'm satisfied in so much that it's now clear it was nothing we did as tenants that caused the problems.

It's a shame though. If money was spent on the place once and for all, it could be a really lovely property. It's spacious with a good sized garden, wide (albeit very noisy) staircase etc. It just needs some money spent (wisely) on it now to bring it up to scratch.

Anyway, thanks everyone for all the help and advice. Really appreciated, as always.