How do drains work?!

[Chuckles1066]

We had a problem about a year ago with our drain which eventually got sorted.

Our next door neighbour has just had to call someone out because hers were bunged up (with what the guy said was "cotton wool buds, wet wipes and nappy liners").

Anyone got a quick dummies overview of how drains work for terraced houses built in the 1930s?

I assumed one main sewer which was "fed" by individual gullies from each of the houses? But the guy yesterday said to my neighbour the gullies can all be joined (WTF?) so that you have shared gullies?

I'm just curious because it seems unfair that my neighbour has had to cough up for her drains to be cleared by a blockage that was caused by someone further up the line.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Terraced houses often have a communal drain running along the row picking everyone up along way the joining the main sewer at the end.

Your neighbour should have called the water board and they'd have sorted communal problems FOC.

 

[Hugh Jaleak]

Sh!t flows downhill is about the size of it. Drains work on a self cleansing velocity, fall (slope) of the pipe depending on size. There is no such thing as a 'standard' layout unfortunately, although the general rules of drainage construction have changed little over the years.

Depending on where the drains were blocked depends on who is responsible for sorting it out. If the problem lies with a drain serving an individual property then it is the responsibility of the property owner to sort it out. However, once the pipe is taking effluent from two or more properties it becomes a shared drain, and now usually falls under the remit of the water authority.
More info: http://www.ccwater.org.uk/server.php?show=nav.1278

 

[HERTS P&D]

Sh1t runs down hill and only put toilet paper and what comes out of us into it.

Andy

 

[Chuckles1066]

Thanks for the replies