Hi guys my first time here so forgive me if i ask what has already been asked or belongs in a different place.
Lived in my property 20yrs mid terrace (ex local authority built mid 40's)and have never had any issues with drains blocking until the last 6 weeks and its happened 3 times! This property has a manhole cover half on my side half on neighbours under the bloody fence! 5 properties share the main line which runs somewhere off the manhole underneath my garden up under neighbouring gardens.And flows out of the property underneath a shared alley between me and my neighbours, my gully and pipe obviously join into this main one at some part in my garden.
the gully below kitchen window was backed up even had poo floating around in it,I called a guy out he came straight away £89 high pressure jetting and the cuplrit was caught in the main manhole in his worm rod attachment, antibacterial wipes!
my 13 year old son admitted he had flushed by accident after wiping the toilet.Thought the problem was solved,then lo and behold 16 days later i look out to see gully overflowing again,and again poop in it.I was going nuts blaming my son for flushing wipes again lol, I got my big heavy duty elbow length glove and started bailing out and tipping into main sewer and then plunging down the gully with an old mop,and also drain rods with the rubber plunger attachment,this did nothing except bring up more poo lol yuk .
Call the drain guy again, and he said to get severn trent out as if its a fault on the main line they will be responsible and do repairs.
they came out did a bit of plunging in the gulley and then said its definitely your private drain that is the issue you will have to get someone in.
call drain guy back ,again high pressure jetted it,he said he felt some resistance upon putting down the jet hose and tried to gauge how much hose had gone down before it snagged,which was around a metre away from my gully,10 mins of jetting and an eruption up the manhole,a tesco bag for life!!
Now how the hell this could have even got into the system is beyond me as my gully has a grate over and also i made a felted sloping cover to hide the drain so it couldnt have blown in and ended up in the pipes.
He was decent not to charge that time as he said it may have been there the first time and hadnt come through.He jetted again threw buckets of water down all was fine.
Now 10 days on the dam thing is backed up again! Seriously im now beyond frustrated how can this keep happening?
Call the plumber again and he advised me it may be best to get a camera in to check once and for all but unfortunately he dont have the kit,he could come and unblock again but may be cheaper to get someone with camera to do both.
In meantime i have called buildings insurance who say that until i have a camera survey and a report given to them they wont know if I am covered for whatever is causing the problem,if its tree roots (i have no trees in my property) then it will be accidental damage and my excess is £100,anything else and the excess is £500 (escape of water)
So i arrange a camera survey,they came last night at a cost of £165 all they did was put the camera down into the main sewer line from the manhole and feed it up to where my pipe obviously joins,they said they couldnt go up into my pipe that way and you cant get into it via the gully so basically the whole thing was pointless as it proved nothing and i am none the wiser as to what the problem is,so that is gonna be completely pointless if I want to use their report for insurance as it was inconclusive,needless to say I may as well have threw £165 down the drain as Im still blocked!
They used rod and plunger down gulley a few times while camera sat in the sewer,at part where my pipe joins,you seen it suddenly start flowing,was told to let kitchen tap run so they could see if it was getting into main drain, again now nothing was coming through,maybe a slight trickle at best
Am now told the only way to find out the problem is to excavate down from the gully to the area where my plumber felt a restriction,
problem being money now i have none left lol , my dad who worked in the building trade said,he cant believe that there is no access for rodding on my property near the gully or where there used to be an outside loo.Especially being council built properties who were usually pretty strict on that kind of thing and has advised me to speak to neighbours to see if they have rodding eye access in their gardens or some kind of inspection chamber.if so at some point in time mine may have been covered over.Apart from that the only other suggestion he said was for me to remove the toilet in the bathroom and rod down that way (dunno if that would work)as this goes into my private pipe. Or dig out where my outside loo was and rod down the old hole for that,which someone filled in with concrete yrs back by look of it .
I have zero money left to start digging up let alone pay an insurance excess of £500 as ive recently become a single mum and currently am not working so money is very tight,i have mortgage to pay and have used more or less the last of my savings trying to get this problem sorted to no avail.
People are telling me why did you pay the camera survey if the problem still remains,and they couldnt fix the problem,should i have refused payment? i dont know. I knew that they couldnt get access from the gully end with rods due to the u bend that would be in the pipe but i had thought the cameras would be flexible to go around the bend from the main sewer and up into my pipe that way,if I had known it wasnt, i would not have wasted £165 to be left in the same position I was before they came.
Surely if a high pressure jetting hose can go down a gully and round a u bend then why is it not possible for a flexible camera to do the same thing?
i feel like im going insane and dont know what to do for the best ,if the drains had collapsed then surely the water when it jetted going into main sewer would have been dirty and gritty?,and also nothing would flow through at all? the original guy says he doesnt think that there is damage but until you physically see anything its impossible to tell.
How much am I looking at by having to dig up down to pipes,and if i do will it be possible for me to put an inspection camber in to stop future issues?
My run of bad luck just keeps coming 2014 can go and do one ,cheers folk
Lived in my property 20yrs mid terrace (ex local authority built mid 40's)and have never had any issues with drains blocking until the last 6 weeks and its happened 3 times! This property has a manhole cover half on my side half on neighbours under the bloody fence! 5 properties share the main line which runs somewhere off the manhole underneath my garden up under neighbouring gardens.And flows out of the property underneath a shared alley between me and my neighbours, my gully and pipe obviously join into this main one at some part in my garden.
the gully below kitchen window was backed up even had poo floating around in it,I called a guy out he came straight away £89 high pressure jetting and the cuplrit was caught in the main manhole in his worm rod attachment, antibacterial wipes!
my 13 year old son admitted he had flushed by accident after wiping the toilet.Thought the problem was solved,then lo and behold 16 days later i look out to see gully overflowing again,and again poop in it.I was going nuts blaming my son for flushing wipes again lol, I got my big heavy duty elbow length glove and started bailing out and tipping into main sewer and then plunging down the gully with an old mop,and also drain rods with the rubber plunger attachment,this did nothing except bring up more poo lol yuk .
Call the drain guy again, and he said to get severn trent out as if its a fault on the main line they will be responsible and do repairs.
they came out did a bit of plunging in the gulley and then said its definitely your private drain that is the issue you will have to get someone in.
call drain guy back ,again high pressure jetted it,he said he felt some resistance upon putting down the jet hose and tried to gauge how much hose had gone down before it snagged,which was around a metre away from my gully,10 mins of jetting and an eruption up the manhole,a tesco bag for life!!
Now how the hell this could have even got into the system is beyond me as my gully has a grate over and also i made a felted sloping cover to hide the drain so it couldnt have blown in and ended up in the pipes.
He was decent not to charge that time as he said it may have been there the first time and hadnt come through.He jetted again threw buckets of water down all was fine.
Now 10 days on the dam thing is backed up again! Seriously im now beyond frustrated how can this keep happening?
Call the plumber again and he advised me it may be best to get a camera in to check once and for all but unfortunately he dont have the kit,he could come and unblock again but may be cheaper to get someone with camera to do both.
In meantime i have called buildings insurance who say that until i have a camera survey and a report given to them they wont know if I am covered for whatever is causing the problem,if its tree roots (i have no trees in my property) then it will be accidental damage and my excess is £100,anything else and the excess is £500 (escape of water)
So i arrange a camera survey,they came last night at a cost of £165 all they did was put the camera down into the main sewer line from the manhole and feed it up to where my pipe obviously joins,they said they couldnt go up into my pipe that way and you cant get into it via the gully so basically the whole thing was pointless as it proved nothing and i am none the wiser as to what the problem is,so that is gonna be completely pointless if I want to use their report for insurance as it was inconclusive,needless to say I may as well have threw £165 down the drain as Im still blocked!
They used rod and plunger down gulley a few times while camera sat in the sewer,at part where my pipe joins,you seen it suddenly start flowing,was told to let kitchen tap run so they could see if it was getting into main drain, again now nothing was coming through,maybe a slight trickle at best
Am now told the only way to find out the problem is to excavate down from the gully to the area where my plumber felt a restriction,
problem being money now i have none left lol , my dad who worked in the building trade said,he cant believe that there is no access for rodding on my property near the gully or where there used to be an outside loo.Especially being council built properties who were usually pretty strict on that kind of thing and has advised me to speak to neighbours to see if they have rodding eye access in their gardens or some kind of inspection chamber.if so at some point in time mine may have been covered over.Apart from that the only other suggestion he said was for me to remove the toilet in the bathroom and rod down that way (dunno if that would work)as this goes into my private pipe. Or dig out where my outside loo was and rod down the old hole for that,which someone filled in with concrete yrs back by look of it .
I have zero money left to start digging up let alone pay an insurance excess of £500 as ive recently become a single mum and currently am not working so money is very tight,i have mortgage to pay and have used more or less the last of my savings trying to get this problem sorted to no avail.
People are telling me why did you pay the camera survey if the problem still remains,and they couldnt fix the problem,should i have refused payment? i dont know. I knew that they couldnt get access from the gully end with rods due to the u bend that would be in the pipe but i had thought the cameras would be flexible to go around the bend from the main sewer and up into my pipe that way,if I had known it wasnt, i would not have wasted £165 to be left in the same position I was before they came.
Surely if a high pressure jetting hose can go down a gully and round a u bend then why is it not possible for a flexible camera to do the same thing?
i feel like im going insane and dont know what to do for the best ,if the drains had collapsed then surely the water when it jetted going into main sewer would have been dirty and gritty?,and also nothing would flow through at all? the original guy says he doesnt think that there is damage but until you physically see anything its impossible to tell.
How much am I looking at by having to dig up down to pipes,and if i do will it be possible for me to put an inspection camber in to stop future issues?
My run of bad luck just keeps coming 2014 can go and do one ,cheers folk