Kitchen Sink Problem

frogglet

They may have just pushed the fat further along the pipe

ac198179

goldfinches said:

You may already have done this but did they suck and blow from both ends or just from one if you see what I mean. Years ago I had a blockage and had to have the Dyn*rod chap out to rod it.
He explained that he would have to go into the road and rod from that end as well and that this was worth doing because coming at it from the other end and a different angle often did the trick because of odd corners and bends and so on.
Anyway the upshot was that he recovered a pair of underpants which had snagged on something and were then causing everything else to drain very slowly so that was that.
Where the underpants came from I've no idea, they weren't mine so must have come from further up the road and then got washed into the opening to my drains.
So if you can afford it it might be worth having them back to have another go but obviously there are no guarantees.

That's the problem - there's no access to the other end, it all appears to have been built over by the extension. There's a manhole at the side of our house and 2 gullies along the rear external wall but the kitchen sink doesn't appear to go into either of them.

FreeBear

Just wondering if there is a manhole cover in the kitchen - May well be hidden under tiles.. Any hollow sounding spots when walking (jumping) around the kitchen ?

If there is a manhole in the kitchen, it will be very heavy & thick. Quite likely, well stuck in place, in part due to the double seals..

ac198179

FreeBear said:

Just wondering if there is a manhole cover in the kitchen - May well be hidden under tiles.. Any hollow sounding spots when walking (jumping) around the kitchen ?

If there is a manhole in the kitchen, it will be very heavy & thick. Quite likely, well stuck in place, in part due to the double seals..

No, there's nothing obvious. Oh well, think we'll have to resign ourselves to having to lift the wooden flooring.

twopenny

Is there no chance of re routing the waste pipe?

It would seem to be easier than all the hassle of taking up flooring and repairing with no guarantee of sucess.

ac198179

twopenny said:

Is there no chance of re routing the waste pipe?

It would seem to be easier than all the hassle of taking up flooring and repairing with no guarantee of sucess.

Because of the location of the kitchen sink and the general layout, it would still mean lifting the floor to route it into a different gully/drain.

ac198179

I spent some more investigation time on this over the weekend. I've spoken to the previous owner of the house and he pointed me in the direction of where there might be a rodding point, but I couldn't find anything. I've also looked again at the one and only manhole/inspection chamber we have outside and every sink/bath/shower in the house goes into it APART FROM the kitchen sink!! And to make matters worse re: lifting the flood, the previous owner has told me the floor is glued down so there'd be no chance of lifting and re-laying it.

Jeepers_Creepers

As 2'penny says, the quick re-blockage was likely just the lumps of loosened fat regrouping at a bend or narrow section.

Are you absolutely CERTAIN that the sink isn't slowly draining into one of these inspection holes? Is there any possibility that the test flush you sent down there isn't being held back and trickling through so slowly that you didn't register it? Perhaps time to add some dye?

Worth, I think, working through it all again from scratch - with a cuppa and a piece of paper. Sketch a plan of the house and the location of all the drains and gulleys and whatsits that you are know of. Do all of these ultimately serve one single sewer wot runs out of your boundary? Now the kitchen and sink - is that in the same place it was before the extension was built? If yes, then which obvious route would the waste have taken out what was the exterior wall? And what obvious route would the underground drain have taken from there to get to the main sewer on your property? Is there a sensible reply to this? Is it "It must shooorley have gone from here to that manhole"?

And did the CCTV company work back from that manhole towards the kitchen?

What do you have on the ground immediately outside the extension wall - is it a concrete path, gravel, lawn? Ie - could it be easy dug up? If all else fails - if a drain inspection still draws a blank - I think I'd rather dig up a path than a floor.

Where is this 'rodding point' the previous owner mentioned? Outside (hopefully..) or in the kitchen floor? Does its 'location' fit in with a sensible straight run between the kitchen sink and a manhole?

Finally, can you claim for this work on your insurance?!

Apodemus

Lots of sensible advice already on here.  I would wonder if it was worth sucking out the 12 Litres as before and then add caustic soda, otherwise you have a huge dilution factor and unlikely to achieve much.  I'd also be thinking about whether there is an option for a test trench outside so that you can find and access the pipe without lifting the floor, then install  a rodding eye at that point for future use.

GDB2222

One other option is to install a macerator under the sink and then run a new waste through the house and into the drain somewhere convenient. Horrible things, so a last resort really, but they will pump the waste a long way horizontally, or even upwards if needed.