[Photo] 3 Years+ Sewage Smells in the house (man hole to fill)

[brooky_agb]

** piff paff poof **

lets see ......................

 

[brooky_agb]

And..... they are back. Coincides with a windy day. Smoke test revealed nothing.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I never told you about how I make a living growing money and that I teach pigs to fly did I?

Some people do indeed grow money.

And may indeed sometimes see flying pigs.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Old Victorian school. Do you own the entire school or was is sub divided into two or more properties. ? Do you own the old playground or was that sold for development. If it was divided then chances are the sewer will be serving the other properties. Even if it was only taking surface water from a maybe now dis-used gulley that is located somewhere other than your property then it is a shared sewer and the responsibility is, by law, for the water company to maintain it.

Water companies are naturally very reluctant to accept a sewer is a shared sewer so they are not going to willing say "Oh yes that could be our responsibility, lets look and see if it is shared" Been there with a manhole repair on my property. but as soon as they saw there was a pipe coming from the direction of next door they started work.

OOI - do they take that attitude, and pick up all the costs, if what has happened is an illegal build over their sewer and manhole?

 

[bernardgreen]

If the sewer serve more than one property it is the water companies responsibility to maintain and where necessary repair it. Full stop no question. ( well there is one, what if the two properties become combined into one ownership )

If there has been an illegal build over the sewer is still the responsibility of the water company. They have to ensure the other properties have working sewers. It is because some land owners did not maintain shared sewers that the law was made that shared sewers under private land would become the "property" of the water company. Illegal build overs are one of the ways that an owner failed to maintain the shared sewer.

Water companies vary in policy, some may go to the person who owned the property when the illegal build over occured to recover costs. If the present owner was the one who did the build over then the water company ( I am informed ) can demand and acquire access to the sewer and if that means removing, at the owners cost, the illegal build over then they can do that under the powers given them in the act pf parliament

 

[theprinceofdarkness]

This windy day thing, reminds me of when we once moved into a house on a very still day. Carrying the furniture up the garden path for 4 hours, I thought I could smell gas. Once ensconsed, never noticed it again. About two years later the gas board came and replaced the pipe under and alongside of the front garden path. The pipe they took out was absolutely rotten, holes in it that amounted to perhaps 10% of its total size.
Sounds like you have the reverse feature. If you have a stack pipe, on a windy day, this will actually suck foul gas out of the sewer. Like the air flow through a carburetor sucks petrol out of the main jet. So have a look at the stack pipe and or put a mica flap valve/ air admittance valve between the stack pipe and the manhole.
Frank

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Water companies vary in policy, some may go to the person who owned the property when the illegal build over occured to recover costs. If the present owner was the one who did the build over then the water company ( I am informed ) can demand and acquire access to the sewer and if that means removing, at the owners cost, the illegal build over then they can do that under the powers given them in the act pf parliament

Can they still make the owner of the property bear the costs, even if he wasn't responsible for the build?

That principle would hardly be without precedent, and it is one of the reasons why buyers ask sellers if they had all the necessary permissions, and complied with all the relevant regulations, for any work they had done.

Basically, even though devellion didn't "do" the illegal build (assuming it was), as he is now the owner of the property is there a chance that should he get the sewerage undertaker involved they will make him pay for the costs of removing whatever needs to be removed for them to get access to fix whatever needs fixing?

Devellion - how long ago was the work done? If it turns out that it was the cause of any damage, or even that it wasn't done properly hence the smells, you could have grounds for going after the seller.

 

[Hugh Jaleak]

Lining it will not work. The liner is flexible, and is filled with water to fill it out and force it against the walls of the pipe, before the water is heated to cure the liner and form a rigid lining. Through that hidden chamber it will distort and swell, possibly causing more problems than you've already got... Likewise bodging it with half channels and concrete would be a recipe for disaster, the chamber has to come out and be replaced with a section of pipe.

If the smoke test hasn't revealed any leaks then I think you have to start looking at other options for the cause of the smell. If the drain is in good condition, and correctly vented then any obnoxious odours should be removed outside anyway. I also note you have indicated the direction of flow on the plans you've posted. If that is correct then no wonder you issues!

 

[brooky_agb]

And..... they are back. Coincides with a windy day. Smoke test revealed nothing.

I think that was in my imagination. I have to say that in the last 10 days we haven't had any smells at all. Still too early to assume this is resolved but so far so good. Maybe I won't burn the house down after all.