Bad plumbing in new-ish house?

renatekriegler

I bought a house 3 years ago. It is about 8 years old now.
The plumbing is giving so much hassle. The toilets are forever blocked. (No we don't flush wipes, pads, etc.) A year ago, the p**p water rose and flooded our rear patio. The en suite bathroom has been no use for months, because every time we flush the toilet - or even run the basin tap - gross water gurgles up and stands in the shower.
Is this something I can make someone else responsible for?
And I heard rumors that the developers went bust (as per usual eh?).
It's a small estate. Nobody else seems to have trouble.
I simply cannot afford calling out plumbers all the time - leave alone redoing plumbing.
Pulling my hair out.
TIA x

danrv

Could be that the soil stack pipe is blocked at the top (on the roof) or at the lower end. 

marcia_

 We had trouble with our toilet blocking and united utilities came to unblock. They said someone had been flushing wipes down the shared pipes further down the street 

WIAWSNB

renatekriegler said:

I bought a house 3 years ago. It is about 8 years old now.
The plumbing is giving so much hassle. The toilets are forever blocked. (No we don't flush wipes, pads, etc.) A year ago, the p**p water rose and flooded our rear patio. The en suite bathroom has been no use for months, because every time we flush the toilet - or even run the basin tap - gross water gurgles up and stands in the shower.
Is this something I can make someone else responsible for?
And I heard rumors that the developers went bust (as per usual eh?).
It's a small estate. Nobody else seems to have trouble.
I simply cannot afford calling out plumbers all the time - leave alone redoing plumbing.
Pulling my hair out.
TIA x

To answer your Q, I think you'd need to answer - what is the cause?
You indicate you have called out plumbers, so what did they say?

I have no idea if, say, an NHBC warranty is insurance-backed?

ButterCheese

We had a similar (bad) experience with our downstairs shower.  Every time it rained, the water would come up through the shower.  It flooded the bedroom twice which meant new carpet.  We were under british gas homecare, who were useless.  They sent plumbers out 3 times who had no idea what was causing it.  Eventually we paid for dyno-rod to come and they put a camera down the water pipe that comes off the flat roof.  There was a huge blockage, so they blasted it with high pressure water and the problem was fixed instantly.

I have nothing against plumbers but perhaps dyno-rod would be a better shout, as they have all the tools and equipment to deal with this sort of thing.  Plumbers (as we were told) fix plumbing problems, not drainage problems! Make of that what you will

DiamondLil

marcia_ said:

 We had trouble with our toilet blocking and united utilities came to unblock. They said someone had been flushing wipes down the shared pipes further down the street 

Here too; our downstairs loo was blocked and full to the brim. Thames Water came and found all the neighbours back up the line were also blocked. He called at my neighbour, next down the line. lifted the manhole cover and the sewer was full to the top with rubble that neighbour had shovelled down there when replacing his patio....

WIAWSNB

OP, based on the replies above, do you know where the main sewer runs? Any neighbours similarly affected? 

daveyjp

You don't need plumbers 'all the time'.  You need one plumber who has the kit, instruction and experience to find out where in the system there is a problem.  

Someone who knows what they are doing will chase the problem.  They will start at your property inspection chamber, if that is blocked move to the next one and eventually one of them will be clear.  From there they will be able to pinpoint where there may be an issue and sort it out.

To save some money in the first instance lift the lid of the chamber which serves your property, flush toilets, run showers and see if it is empty and flowing.  If the flow looks slow or the toilet shower drain backs up the problem is upstream, if it flows well and then starts filling the chamber the issue is downstream.

Silvertabby

marcia_ said:

 We had trouble with our toilet blocking and united utilities came to unblock. They said someone had been flushing wipes down the shared pipes further down the street 

Thankfully, we didn't have any flood-backs, but there was clearly a problem with the drains affecting a block of about 6 houses.  

Neighbour's dad tried to at least identify the source by checking under the main man-hole covers, and found a huge wad of nappies....   seems his daughter-in-law assumed that 'disposable nappies' meant 'flushable'.