soil coming up bath plughole

wolfehouse

when it has been very very rainy and windy i find soil has come
up the plughole of my bath.

i know there is a gravel soak away for the drainpipe in my backyard,
so i don't know where the bath water goes
or how soil could come up the pipes????

should i be looking for a plumber
and what are they likely to do about it?
(will it be a horrifically big job?)

thanks in advance for any guidance

maninthestreet

Does the water drain away reasonably quickly if you fill the bath and then pull out the plug?

malc_b

Sounds like you have a blockage, or perhaps it's a flooding issue? Is the bathroom ground floor? Only rain water will go to a soak away. Waste water, WC outlets, etc will all go to mains drains or a septic tank if you are not on main drains. By soil I assume you mean WC output so could use another 4 letter s word, or do you think it really is earth?

If bathroom is upstairs then it must be WC backing up the bath. That would suggest a blockage below where bath and WC outlet merge.

If bathroom downstairs then it could be same thing, or if bathroom discharges to an outside gulley (for a bath that would be into the back of a gulley, below ground level) then the gulley could be full of leaves and blocked up. That could then be backing up the bathroom during heavy rain perhaps. Another possibility if it is earth in the bath backup is roots coming through outside pipes.

wolfehouse

forgot to mention- ground floor
earth- not the other
water drains away fine if i fill up the tub and let it out.

problem is i don't know where it drains after
ad would love to know if i should call a plumber
or would they just get here,l charge a huge fee, and say there is nothing they can do.

HappyMJ

I'd call the water company out. Or sewerage company if that company is different to your water supply company and report a broken sewer pipe. They'll fix it for free*. At the very least they'll tell you if it's an internal break in a drain for which you are responsible for or an external break in a sewer which they are responsible for.

*terms and conditions apply.

macman

Why can't you just follow the route of the bath waste out of the house to the drain?

Stooby2

It may be a partially blocked or broken/collapsed sewer pipe - which fills during heavy rain and backs up into your bath.

And that might not be soil.

cyclonebri1

The good news is it's soil, but the bad news, and it's !!!!!!, is that it's !hit!!!

wolfehouse

macman wrote: »

Why can't you just follow the route of the bath waste out of the house to the drain?

i have No experience, knowledge or common sense when in comes to plumbing- and i don't have any handy friends or family around.

i did once take a month to change the membrane in the toilet fflush mechanism. i was determined to do it alone but the rest of the family were not most pleased.

malc_b

wolfehouse wrote: »

forgot to mention- ground floor
earth- not the other
water drains away fine if i fill up the tub and let it out.

problem is i don't know where it drains after.

So houses have a soil stack. This is a 4in dia pipe (110mm in new money). It old houses this was on the outside, do you have one? It will run into the ground (sealed) and to above roof level (usually). Is this on the wall outside the bathroom? And is there a pipe going into it from the bathroom?

Or, you could have an internal soil stack as most modern houses do. In which case there is likely to be a boxed in corner in the bathroom, about 6-8in square.

Or your bath could discharge into a gulley, do you have one outside the bathroom?

If you google house soil stack images you'll see lots of diagrams showing how stacks look.