Recent content by northernlights

I have recently double glazed the front of my house and was hoping to wait with the back. The glass is in fairly good nick - but when I went outside to clean the windows today I noticed that the softwood frame beneath is completely rotten in places. Soft sodden wood flaking up from beneath the...

Thanks for replies! There is concrete in places but beside a pipe that runs underneath there are boulders! Plumbers found a leak in the pipe (now sealed) which they told me had been seeping into the bare earth beneath. I am a new owner and can't see signs of damp - but there has been a...

I had my floors up recently and discovered that they are built over many small sleeper walls and suspended over bare earth. My house is around 30 years old. The house is built on a downhill slope with one long narrow room particularly susceptible to waterflow downhill from the driveway. This...

To all - in case this may be of help - or a salutory warning... One of the original plumbers came today and cut a whole through the dining room floor.... to discover - another layer of floor. Cut through this to find - under a stone - an open drain (which must have been outside the house...

Ok - an update. Experts' views welcome. Just had a contractor in because the dining room smell is sour, foul, horrid and I need to leave windows open. He poked a screwdriver through the plasterboard where the extension meets the house at a corresponding point inside to where the sewage...

I had a vent stack fitted in November (at a price!). I also keep the door to the dining room open and use lots of plug in air fresheners, burn scented candles and run an air purifier. The plumber who came said the odour was from the drainage pipe and the vent stack should solve the problem...

A plumber arrived and actually did the work today! I have a vent through the roof at the front of the house leading from the cut off pipe under the stairs. Water drains, washing machine works. So far, so good! No luck with the inspection chamber. The cover is a concrete slab and the...

Thanks. Just back from the boats and getting dark. Will try and lift part of the concrete cover that stands for a manhole when there is some light tomorrow. Plumber just left stating that there should not be a pipe without a trap under the stairs into the drain. :idea: Thank you for...

I know... But by house seems to frighten plumbers away. Two have come so far have simply disappeared without returning my messages. If only I had taken a plumbing course..... (Not such a bad smell in utility with bag over vent, but still pretty putrid in dining room near where pipes...

Thanks. Have read much plumbing over the past few days. The removed manhole appears to be under where my washing machine sits. There is an inspection chamber by the vent and outlet pipe under the stairs. I lifted this last night and noticed smell. I can't tell from the plans what there is...

Ground floor plan below from builders plans. I'm worried that this is beginning to look quite serious. The smell is strongest in the dining room. The upstairs soil pipe is encolosed in the wall then emerges on the outside wall to join the other drainage in the dining room/kitchen corner...

The area affected is the utility and "conservatory" (dining room with bedroom and bathroom above) The drain runs out through the end of the dining room and must link to an outside drain. there is an inspection cover in central to the dining room outside. NB the sink in the utility is...

Nearly! The pipe is contined the full length of the house and under the dining area. The vent (V) is under the stairs flush with the left wall by the utility. The other drain runs at right angles outside from the downstairs bathroom and must link with this drain - though I can't see...