Manhole blocked

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l have a domestic waste manhole blocked in my back garden and could do with some advice please. My house is a end house on a waste run that goes to the next doors house and so on.. there is no other house before me though there are some flats a bit further up the road. Any l have 2 manhole in the back garden the first one is outside the kitchen window directly below the upstairs toilet and waste stack on the outside wall. This manhole is full to the top of waste yuk, the second manhole is about 16 foot away in my garden near to the neighbours wall this manhole is clear and on inspection notice there is only two pipes one to next door and one coming from manhole one. l also have a outbuilding toilet before the blocked manhole and this is not blocked and flushes ok as does the the upstairs toilet and waste water so where would all the excess water go... l suspect the blockage is somewhere between manhole 1 and 2 but before l get someone out is there something l could try to un block the drain (any ideas/tips).
Does waste water and soiled water go into the same drain .

Also where would be the cheapest place to buy drain rods or can these be hired would this be cheaper , are they easy to use.
 
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Waste from kitchen sink, bathroom, washing machine etc and toilets will go into same system. Maybe worth hiring rods and having a go. You should be able to 'feel' the outlet in the full chamber with the rods, put a corkscrew attachment on the end and push them down the pipes until you feel an obstruction. Screw should turn into the blockage to hook it and allow you to pull it back to the manhole and remove.

Wear heavy duty rubber gloves and keep turning the rods clockwise whilst they're down the pipe otherwise they could come apart and you'll have an even bigger problem....

Manhole 2 is definately connected to manhole 1?? Not rainwater system ??... If unsure, check your neighbours downstream, if they have a full pit blockage is still further on downstream. If you dont fancy doing it yourself, have a look for a local private contractor who does drains, national firms with big names usually have prices to match.
 
It does not sound as if Hugh unblocks many drains.

You should always unblock from downstream of the blockage.

This might well be the clear one but it may not.

When you flush your toilets does the level in the blocked one change?

A set of cheap rods is about £10-£20 and well worth trying first as drain clearing is usually expensive as its messy work.

Tony
 
I used a hose pipe to clear a drain once.
Turned water on pocked pipe down the blocked pipe & it cleared, couldnt do that where I live now, my mains water is little more than a trickle.
 
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It does not sound as if Hugh unblocks many drains.

You should always unblock from downstream of the blockage.

This might well be the clear one but it may not.

Tony

Stick to boilers Tony. :rolleyes:
 
do l go down with the blocked manhole or try clearing it up from the clear manhole.
 
You don't push $hit up hill, because when the tide comes in, you may not want to be there. :LOL:
 
When you have done it, go and see the houses downstream of you and tell the occupants to stop putting sanitary towels or fat down the drains. :rolleyes:
 
I tried to advise on the given circumstances. AFAIK there is no rule of thumb as to whether you rod up or downstream. For the record I have cleared many drains, often working into the small hours to sort out what can often be a dirty and distressing problem for those concerned. Not many jobs have beaten me, out of those which have, most required excavation to repair collapsed and/or broken pipes or root ingress.

Sometimes a good shove with the appropriate size plunger from a full pit is enough to send the blockage on its way. As Doitall said, when you've a head of $hit behind the rods, they can come back out quicker than you intended them too... A former colleague of mine lost several teeth when some Steel Kane rods gave him a nasty backlash.

Any success Ray? If you're struggling and anywhere near me, I may be able to have a look for you.
 
The corkscrew attachment on a set of rods is the work of the devil. Evil things just set to get jammed in a crack between pipes. My favourite for drain clearing is the rubber plunger, you can get a lot of pressure with it. My rule of thumb when clearing drains was to give it a go with the plunger first and then rods with a wheel on. If I couldn't clear it this way it was a call to my mate with the jetting machine.
 
Doing it from downstream means that you can see if you are creating any flow.

Thats apart from the difficulty of getting rods into an invert over 1000 mm down in murky water. There could even be a plugged trap under the water but I can usually recognise the feel of them with my test probe!

For DIA's information, I have 100 feet in total of bendy steel rods as well as about 40 feet of screwed plastic ones.

If all else fails then I have a petrol driven 2000 psi pressure jetter! But I dont usually do any drain cleaning commercially, its too messy. These are just for my own use! ( Mostly on a launderette ).

Tony
 
You soon know if you've achieved anything from upstream Tony, the $hit disappears rather rapidly!! There are occasions where there's no choice, being unable to locate next pit, pits too far apart etc... Also in the case of interceptors, if they're blocked and the pit is full there is no other option.

I didnt think it likely the OP had issues with an interceptor as he described having no other houses before his. I wasn't confident the second pit he described was also foul, times ive found people rodding from a storm manhole in order to try and clear a blocked foul run...
 
You soon know if you've achieved anything from upstream Tony, the $hit disappears rather rapidly!! There are occasions where there's no choice, being unable to locate next pit, pits too far apart etc... Also in the case of interceptors, if they're blocked and the pit is full there is no other option.

I didnt think it likely the OP had issues with an interceptor as he described having no other houses before his. I wasn't confident the second pit he described was also foul, times ive found people rodding from a storm manhole in order to try and clear a blocked foul run...
You are correct Hugh on further inspection while rodding from the blocked manhole up stream it became obvious this was astorm manhole. l used a rubber plunger on rod poles into the full manhole and hosed down. After a few attempts l pulled the rods out and it slowly started to clear. l have now cleared the manhole and the water is flowing freely from the upstairs toilet and going downstream. l also have a outside toilet that is upstream of the manhole and when l flush the outside toilet there's not much water that comes into the manhole , so l'm wondering if there is a junction before my manhole that connects waste from flats 20 yards away and joins up with my outside toilet waste pipe the runs to the manhole where this connects with the up stairs toilet.. :confused: :confused: If there is a junction upstream of the manhole and it was blocked before my house could this cause my manhole to block. Does a manhole need a constant flow from house to house or would l be ok anyway if it was blocked upstream as l have unblocked my waste from the house downstream... :confused: :confused:
 
As long as whatever is discharged into the drains (within reason!) flows away the drain is achieving its aim. If all the sanitary appliances on your property are working ok and the sewage is disappearing downstream from your property I wouldnt worry about whats going on upstream! If your outside toilet is working ok then thats fine. Flow sometimes slows when it gets into the drain, depending on the fall of the pipes.

Would suggest you keep an eye on things for a while now. If the blockage reoccurs its likely indicator something is wrong in the drain, sometimes a CCTV survey is necessary to establish the cause. However, this may have been a one off incident and you will not experience any further problems. Fingers crossed!!
 

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