Blocked Drain....Help!

paddypaws101

Outside drain is blocked, it's the stretch leading away from where my kitchen sink/dishwasher/washing machine empties into. Another branch nearby which takes bath water away seems to be flowing ok and downstairs loo is also flushing ok so I think it is just this one branch leading to the manhole area outside.
Got my hands in and lifted out quite a lot of silt and greasy gunk, cant reach any more.
A regular plunger did nothing.
Super plunger wont get a grip as the inlet to drain is sloped so there is no seal for it to grip on.
I used a 3m snake hose which seems to go all the way without hitting any blockages, or removing any gunk.....(but the main drain is about 3m away so dont really understand that )
I am reluctant to use caustic soda or similar as I have inquisitive cats all over the place and am terrified they will dip their toes in the poison and/or I will end up splashing it on myself.
Any ideas???

tigeress289

Are we talking about an outside gulley here, square plastic or metal cover ? Normally these block through build up of grease from sink. The flexi snake will just go through it and reseal as you pull it out. The first way of doing this, is to buy a 1 metre drain rod and a 4" and 6" plungers. The 6" you may not use but good as backup. Worth asking friends first, you wil be amazed what some people have in their sheds. Fill the gulley and plunge quite rapidly. You are trying to drawback rather than push. The idea is to break any seal the block has. It might pay to see where your manhole cover is first to check if any blocks in there. If you cannot shift it. Please PM and I wil tell you how to use chemicals safely. When plunging, keep a tap running to give a head of pressure on the gulley. If you do this right ,you will be an expert.

ormus

try attacking it from the opposite end, ie the manhole.
every house should have a set of drain rods.

Edwardia

We have a set of drain rods in our shed and OH just did his annual degunk of the drains. It's certainly orth doing saves money on Dynorod !

poppellerant

Caustic soda for about 10 minutes, followed through with some warm water. Leave for another 10 minutes, and flush with cold water.

Perfectly safe, unless you're planning to scatter the caustic soda everywhere but the drain.

sjoh0961

Probably too late, but we had the same problem, and just phoned Thames Water to sort it out. They came and jetted it from our end and from the man-hole end. Problem solved.

I think that the water company has responsibility for shared drains/sewers.

Anyway, I may well be wrong, but they sorted our problem with little fuss and no charge.

SailorSam

Did you see Watchdog last night, they had some cowboys on there who charged over £575 to clear a drain, they said it should have been a 20min job.
As others have said it's probably been caused by grease when washing dishes. You should always wipe pots and pans with paper towels before washing, messy but cheaper in the long run.

27col

I don't know what some folk put down their drains, I have never had a blockage of any sort in 50 years of house owning.

savemoney

I always use soda crystals routinely to keep grease down now cheap way and also use it in washing machine hottest wash as they can bunged up on low temps after a while