Exterior Drainage Pipe

[ultrakev]

Hi, I need to know what the regulations are regarding pipework that leads from an upstairs bathroom to a (former) exterior drain. We had a new solid roof conservatory built this year. It extends across the back of our house and now covers a pipe and drain that allows the sink, bath and shower to drain from the upstairs bathroom. When the company that installed the new room had finished, the pipework leading to the drain was completely covered by the new plasterboard and nothing was said about what to do in case we ever needed to get access to the drain. We had a burst pipe at the weekend and so had to call a drainage company to find the blockage that had caused the pipe to burst and remove it. They had to cut into the wall to get access to the drainage pipe and said they were very surprised that there wasn't an access panel in place to allow this. Is there a building regulation that the company that built the extension should have followed to put this in place or is it something that I should have been aware of and asked for at the planning stage?
Thanks.

 

[^woody^]

No. The pipes can be accessible from the ends or from connections. You don't need specific access panels.

 

[Ian H]

Is your toilet pipe on the outside?

You might be better off re routing the pipes to join that once it's outside rather than leaving them on the inside of the roof.

It must have been some blockage to burst the pipe rather then back up into the shower.

 

[ultrakev]

Is your toilet pipe on the outside?

You might be better off re routing the pipes to join that once it's outside rather than leaving them on the inside of the roof.

It must have been some blockage to burst the pipe rather then back up into the shower.

The blockage (mostly long dark hair belonging to someone in our house that will remain nameless) had built up over the last year or two. The plumber and drainage guys thought that the pipes coming from the bathroom weren't inclined enough to allow the waste to flow easily and some of it had been sitting in place which caused the build up. Somehow, when emptying the baby's plastic bathtub water into the regular bath the overflow pipe was burst or knocked out of it's position and the backed up water flowed down into the dining room below. Not sure if the toilet waste pipe is also in the same boat, previously on the outside of the back of the house but now covered up by the extension walls.

 

[ultrakev]

No. The pipes can be accessible from the ends or from connections. You don't need specific access panels.

"Accessible from the ends", do you mean that it needs to be accessible from point that it meets the drain at ground level as well as the upper floor? At present it isn't really accessible from anywhere which is why the drain dr chap had to cut a whole in the wall. At any rate I need to have an access panel fitted, I just needed to know if the company that built the extension should have done this or if it's something I needed to ask specifically for (I'm no expert when it comes to these things).