Inspection chamber drainage

[GStewart79]

Hi All,

We are in a lower villa and the neighbours above us have mentioned they have the type smell you get with a blocked drain which they can smell when they are in their bathroom.

Our main bathroom is directly below this, but haven't really noticed the damp smell they mention after from mildly over the past couple of days.

We have both stuck drain unblocker down our sinks and they have reported the smell has improved.

I had a look in the small inspection chamber where I thought the bathroom water drained to and have confirmed it to be the right one by running water from the tap.

What I found in there is two obvious outlets from each residence (seen in the picture, red circle is ours with the running water, green and believe is theirs) and then what looks like an old clay pipe pointing downwards (purple in the picture), which I am assuming has an opening at the bottom somewhere and just drains away keeping the waste water at a set level.

Is this a normal set up (bare in mind the house is over 150 years old)? Should there be standing water in this type of setup?

Thanks,
Gary.

 

[^woody^]

No. There should be no standing water, you have a blockage

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Can you check the next manhole downstream?

Water authorities are often responsible for clearing / maintaining shared drains and if both you and a neighbour discharge into it, that is a shared drain.