I had a CCTV inspection done of the sewer and drains at the back of my house. I have attached a pic and a sketch if the layout. It was all pretty much as expected until he found an unexpected branch. Basically, there are two waste drains that connect into a sewer via a manhole in the garden. The main waste drain that comes from the upstairs bathroom has the unexpected branch coming from the right. The pipe is shown highlighted in orange and the guy had no idea where it was coming from..... but there is a constant trickle of water coming from it. The photo shows the two drains entering the sewer - the arrows show the flow. The green arrow is from the upstairs bathroom that has the unexpected branch in it. I turned my stop clock off and the water continued to flow. My neighbour also turned hers off, and this didn't make any difference. Anyone got an idea what it might be coming from?
Drainage Experts....
- Thread starter williamglossop
- Start date
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How old is the property, and/or have any major remodelling works taken place in the past?
Quite possibly a redundant branch that wasn't capped off properly, and groundwater is finding its way in. If you're on a water meter, make sure everything in the house is shut off, (and you haven't got a WC with an internal overflow that's overflowing....), and check the meter has stopped.
Quite possibly a redundant branch that wasn't capped off properly, and groundwater is finding its way in. If you're on a water meter, make sure everything in the house is shut off, (and you haven't got a WC with an internal overflow that's overflowing....), and check the meter has stopped.
Wasn't raining at the time, but its honked it down for days. Can't understand why surface water would be run into drain though. The only property that it could be coming from (from the direction of the pipe) is the one that turned their water off for me to check and it made no difference.
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I'm not on a water meter, but I turned the water off at the stop clock and the water carried on flowing. Its 1970 house - no major works have been carried out. Im planning an extension and the footing will run perpendicular to this mystery pipe, hence my trying to figure it out. The drains at the back are 6 feet deep, so I'm having to go down quite far at the back, but I planned on stepping the footing up as soon as I'm a meter away from the drains. This rogue pipe may scupper my plans.
Surface water shouldn't be run into a foul sewer, but it happens. Same as some Muppets connect foul into a surface water drain and hope no-one notices.... Likewise, if its redundant or was laid at the time of building, and something changed meaning it was never then utilised, it's possible groundwater is seeping in.
If your pretty confident it's not doing anything, I'd be tempted to dig some trial holes, locate it, and block it off properly where convenient, then just carry on as you were.
If your pretty confident it's not doing anything, I'd be tempted to dig some trial holes, locate it, and block it off properly where convenient, then just carry on as you were.
Thinking about it, there is a pressed concrete path down the side of the house above where this pipe is coming from. I'm wondering if a drain has been covered over and is letting surface water in. There is a small grid in the back garden that the kitchen waste water runs into and this flows through this manhole too. I'm wondering if there might have been something similar down the side of the house b4 this path was done.
The problem was, the junction was 7 meters upstream from the manhole, so he couldn't turn the camera to get it up the pipe
Can you think of anything historically that may have been down that side of the property, that would required discharge into a drain? May have even been a vent pipe, would have been unusual in those days to make a connection on a blind junction if it was carrying water or waste.
In the 70s ?
I don’t know when the they were changed to separate systems, and didn’t know when the house was built when I first stated.
You can use rope any length.
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