Replacement drain and conservatory drainage

jozbo

Hi
We live in a 1930s semi and had a severe toilet blockage last year. We called a drain clearance company who came out and jetted the drain. It was gross and full of ‘you know what’. On looking through the drain with a camera he said a lot of the clay pipes had ‘dropped’ meaning there was a step between each one causing sewage and paper to get stuck.

he advised cleaning it out from above every few months which we have done and had no issues since. 

He also said it would need replacement soon but not urgently. The section is around 2.5m.

now we are moving the downpipe on our conservatory gutter around the same area, which currently just flows directly onto a patio and is causing a damp issue. So we need to install some drainage (also around 2.5m) to feed that towards the drain. 

It would seem to make sense to do both at the same time as the patio slabs (old concrete ones) will need lifting in the same place.

There is another bigger job we want to do involving installing water and drains to a garage conversion which will involve breaking concrete and installing around 6m of drains. 

We have had two companies to quote for this-
1 company advised doing all jobs at once and wouldn’t consider them seperately. £4k. As an aside when they were here they put the camera in the drain and it looked clean with no blockages at all. 

2 company said £1.3k for the first job, replacement drain and conservatory drainage. 

My questions are -
is it likely that a clay pipe will need replacing with dropped sections? How urgent and necessary is this work? 

Is 2nd quote fair for 2.5m
of drainage from a conservatory roof and 2.5m replacement drain from (only) bathroom? 

Costs are tight as we have other urgent and expensive maintenance jobs going on over the next few months. 

Thank you 

FreeBear

Can't comment on the price, but foul water drains are subject to Building Control oversight - You don't need planning permission, but you should get BC to sign off on the work.

Drainage for surface water (roofs, gutters, downpipes, etc) should go to a soakaway within the boundary of your property. Connecting to the foul water sewer should be a last resort. Using a soakaway means you get a reduced sewerage charge on your water rates, so there is some saving to be had there.

35har1old

FreeBear said:

Can't comment on the price, but foul water drains are subject to Building Control oversight - You don't need planning permission, but you should get BC to sign off on the work.

Drainage for surface water (roofs, gutters, downpipes, etc) should go to a soakaway within the boundary of your property. Connecting to the foul water sewer should be a last resort. Using a soakaway means you get a reduced sewerage charge on your water rates, so there is some saving to be had there.

Do you not have a separate system for rainwater?
Depending on ground conditions a soakaway might not work
Installation of a soakaway means you have to extend a solid pipe at least 5m to 15m depending on the local area rules from any building and not end up 2.5m away from any boundary after  constructing the soakaway and you also have to consider the water table as the bottom of soakaway has to be above this all year round

jozbo

I’m not sure what we need to be honest. There is a lot of paving and concrete in the vicinity. It’s a decent sized garden. The first company did mention building control but the second didn’t. 

jozbo

35har1old said:

FreeBear said:

Can't comment on the price, but foul water drains are subject to Building Control oversight - You don't need planning permission, but you should get BC to sign off on the work.

Drainage for surface water (roofs, gutters, downpipes, etc) should go to a soakaway within the boundary of your property. Connecting to the foul water sewer should be a last resort. Using a soakaway means you get a reduced sewerage charge on your water rates, so there is some saving to be had there.

Do you not have a separate system for rainwater?
Depending on ground conditions a soakaway might not work
Installation of a soakaway means you have to extend a solid pipe at least 5m to 15m depending on the local area rulesfrom any building and not end up 2.5m away from any boundary after  constructing the soakaway and you also have to consider the water table as the bottom of soakaway has to be above this all year round

The current system for rainwater coming off the conservatory is a water butt because the existing downpipe just splashes all over the wall. Clearly not much use when the water butt overflows. 

I don’t particularly want to put rainwater into the drain and thought some kind of grilled gulley or something would work, leading towards the bit that all the pipes from the kitchen drain into (sorry I don’t know all the correct vocabulary for these things). 

Thanks