Foul and Rainwater Drains - Confused!

A_Guy_In_London

Hello all,

So i'm trying to find out whether I have a combined foul and rainwater drain system in our area. My drainage search documents we obtained only shows a dashed 'red line' indicating a foul sewer (according to the map key), but there is no light blue line indication of any surface water sewer pipes. If it was a combined sewer then the map is supposed to have a solid red line so I am somewhat confused.

Reason I ask is that we have a washing machine draining into the rainwater drain. So far, one builder told me it was a combined system and another said it would be separate. House was built in 1955 if that has any bearing??

The Thames Water searches documents also says "Records indicate that foul water AND surface water from the property drains to a public sewer" - does this mean all water is going down the one main pipe??

Any pointers on how I can find out for sure exactly whats going on underneath??

Thank you!!

headpin

Lifting manhole/inspection chamber covers and seeing what branches coming from where go into them. Run taps, flush toilet, etc. Also try and get some water down a rainwater pipe.

You can normally tell as well by the number of inspection chambers and the number of branches entering them and trying to work back as to what they serve. Put some food dye in the different outlets if you are not sure where they are coming from.

AdrianC

A_Guy_In_London wrote: »

The Thames Water searches documents also says "Records indicate that foul water AND surface water from the property drains to a public sewer" - does this mean all water is going down the one main pipe??

Yes.
Are there really any areas where there are two different sewers? I can understand rainwater going to soakaways, but...

Doozergirl

AdrianC wrote: »

Are there really any areas where there are two different sewers? I can understand rainwater going to soakaways, but...

Yes, there are definitely areas where there are two different sewers. And it's a massive problem when people connect any type of their own waste to the rainwater one.

I've forgotten the regular poster who got banned years ago (probably a decade!) but he had poop running through a culvert in his garden and was trying to trace it.

I need to remember his name. He was a plasterer and I was gutted when he got banned as he was hilarious and not that offensive, I didn't think. More than one person's gone that way though

Doozergirl

:cool2:Nelly.

There we go. Over a decade since he logged in. God, I'm old.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/859059/the-plop-age-chronicles-oh-bums-ill-have-no-internerd-connection-for-a-bit&page=13

This place was fun too . So many old faces
And here we are with dodgy, 15 year old emojis not worth using anymore.

Edit: nellly probably was that offensive. I can't believe this is the same board!

konark

1955- combined

1975- seperate

00ec25

Doozergirl wrote: »

:cool2:Nelly.

There we go. Over a decade since he logged in. God, I'm old.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/859059/the-plop-age-chronicles-oh-bums-ill-have-no-internerd-connection-for-a-bit&page=13

This place was fun too . So many old faces
And here we are with dodgy, 15 year old emojis not worth using anymore.

Edit: nellly probably was that offensive. I can't believe this is the same board!

yikes. So long ago I had totally forgotten what it was like then, plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose