Hi all
Apologies if this is not the right place to ask, but I'm hoping you can help me with the problem I have. We have hired a gardener for some landscaping work. Yesterday while he was using his kango to remove some concrete on the floor where we want a gravel path instead he damaged a drainage pipe. I am not sure what pipe it is exactly, but it looks like a major one, being around 4.5" diameter. The hole, which you can see below (the grey stone on the left is the bottom of our outside kitchen/utlity room/bathroom wall), is about 1.5" long and .7" at its widest.
I have 2 questions:
1. The gardener himself claims that the hole was already there. This seems extremely unlikely to me, since there was a layer of concrete right on top of it, and we haven't had any problems with the drainage in the 2 years we've lived here. Also, the standard of his work in general has generally left a few things to be desired, so I am just not sure he really knows what he's doing. Is there any way that a qualified plumber would be able to assess whether the damage is recent or has been there for a long time? The reason I am asking this is that if a repair is costly, I will try to get some compensation from the gardener if an expert can tell me that the damage is recent.
2. What sort of repair is likely to be needed? Can this sort of thing be patched up or will we need a new pipe?
Thanks very much in advance for your advice!
Apologies if this is not the right place to ask, but I'm hoping you can help me with the problem I have. We have hired a gardener for some landscaping work. Yesterday while he was using his kango to remove some concrete on the floor where we want a gravel path instead he damaged a drainage pipe. I am not sure what pipe it is exactly, but it looks like a major one, being around 4.5" diameter. The hole, which you can see below (the grey stone on the left is the bottom of our outside kitchen/utlity room/bathroom wall), is about 1.5" long and .7" at its widest.
I have 2 questions:
1. The gardener himself claims that the hole was already there. This seems extremely unlikely to me, since there was a layer of concrete right on top of it, and we haven't had any problems with the drainage in the 2 years we've lived here. Also, the standard of his work in general has generally left a few things to be desired, so I am just not sure he really knows what he's doing. Is there any way that a qualified plumber would be able to assess whether the damage is recent or has been there for a long time? The reason I am asking this is that if a repair is costly, I will try to get some compensation from the gardener if an expert can tell me that the damage is recent.
2. What sort of repair is likely to be needed? Can this sort of thing be patched up or will we need a new pipe?
Thanks very much in advance for your advice!
