Bathroom waste flow issues

[atoone1977]

Hi,

We have a problem with the waste flow from our bathroom. The bath/shower will have to fill to a couple of inches before any water goes down, when it does the flow is then very good. The sink is also very slow to empty. The toilet is normally fine but every couple of weeks it blocks and I have to plunge it.

I had builders look at the external waste whilst they were here for something else and they say the fall looks good enough, as I thought it looked quite shallow. I was therefore thinking some kind of airlock. The bath obviously requires a certain weight of water to flow properly. Also, the bath only recently replaced a shower cubicle which had the same problem and used to flow out on to the floor.
But as I'm no kind of expert that's just a wild guess.

Are there any experts who can guess better?

Thanks

Adam

 

[Newboy]

Are there any experts who can guess better?

Well I'll take a guess that you've got a partial blockage

 

[atoone1977]

But why would it flow fine one there was enough weight of water? If it's blocked it's blocked and only a certain amount of water will get through at any time right?

 

[durhamplumber]

it could be a partial blockage stuck on something.the weight of water is eventually enough to push past it but not dislodge it completely.The most common problems are caused by flexible ribbed connectors as they move around.

 

[bernardgreen]

The bath/shower will have to fill to a couple of inches before any water goes down

Best guess, the waste pipe goes up and then down with the highest point above the level of the bottom of the bath. This creates a syphon but only after the uphill section has filled with water can it flow. Probably an overlong flexible connection ( as already mentioned ) tucked neatly up the side of the bath

 

[Madrab]

To be honest we could guess all day long. Only way it's going to get sorted is have someone look at the waste setup. If the toilet blocks every now and then, then it sounds like there could be something in there.

 

[Hugh Jaleak]

Can you put up some photos of the arrangement? Does sound like there's a possible partial blockage, which is causing the water to build up, before it suddenly siphons away.