Outside drains leaking, what to do?

[compact]

Hi

I have two drains close to each other, 1 is from the toilet, the other is from drainpipe and bath.

One of them is leaking, below the ground.

The foundation bricks, that hold up the joists are damp/rotten and crumbling.
The soil under the house in the small 2ft crawl space is damp.
(behind the ventilation holes in the photo)
When you use the bath/sink there is a smell.
When you pull back the vinyl flooring in the kitchen the floorboards are damp
(this is close to the large metal pipe on the left in the photo)

I am absolutely skint but have a pick axe and shovel.

Is this something I can do myself?

I was thinking that I can dig down to see if the pipes are cracked or blocked underground.

What do you think?

All advice welcome

more Pics

 

[Bahco]

I was thinking that I can dig down to see if the pipes are cracked or blocked underground.

Good idea, someone will have to dig down to see what the problem is.
It might as well be you. You may be able to fix it yourself.

 

[compact]

That's what I thought

1) What am I looking for, what will the pipes look like. I am presuming they will be pottery/stone that lead down the a sewer pipe somewhere?
2) Digging so close to the foundations should I be worried?
Will the foundations be a brick wall sunk several feet into the ground?
3) Digging around the large cast iron drain pipe, is there a chance this will collapse, as it may be being supported by the ground?

Has anyone else done this?

 

[JohnD]

yes have done it

be careful not to put your pick through the pipes

depending where you are, you might find a break where the vertical pipe bends to run horizontal. I had a house where they'd all fractured there as the house had settled into the clay and the vertical had tried to push downwards. The yard gulley had snapped at its neck. To work out how deep the bend will be, look at the length of each piece of soil pipe (between joints). The builder will have put the bottom of the first one into the socket of the bend.

in an older house you may find the wall speads out and gets a brick thicker with each course downwards to form wide footings as it goes deeper. if the house is built with lime mortar it may have washed away between the bricks near the leak. You can hose out the mud and push new mortar in if the bricks are still in place.

 

[compact]

Ok, so could be a fair amount of digging involved.

Looking like a good weekends work.

Once I have replace the broken pipe, should I cement anything, or just refill with whatever I have taken out?

 

[JohnD]

if the soil is contaminated with sewage, I'd take it down the tip.

small red worms are a sign of sewage leaks. so are tomato seedlings.

have a good look under the floor in that wet wall with the air bricks, there may be a leak inside or it might be splashing from the gulley, in which case you can now lead the pipe through the grille

you might need to reduce the ground level if it is above dpc

 

[compact]

The soil behind the air bricks is quite wet and there is a whitish mold on top.

I will have a look and maybe take some photos on Friday when I get the chance.

What do you mean by 'lead the pipe through the grille'

 

[JohnD]

the gulley should have a grille over it to prevent leaves, animals and your foot going down it. It used to be required that pipes discharged on top of this grille. You are now allowed (modern ones are plastic) to cut a hole in the grille and lead the waste pipe through it (OK if it's a bath waste, not so good if it's a gutter as it may have leaves).

You will probably need to replace the gulley and pipe with plastic anyway, so you can modify the route to prevent water splashing out.

I would be inclined to shovel out that mouldy wet soil under the floor, especially if it is contaminated. If you feel like it, you can put down a plastic membrane and layer of concrete to prevent damp comig up there.

 

[compact]

Ah right

Cheers for that.

Not sure what I will do with that soil, as that part of the basement, is a room 3 metre square, full of soil/earth. The space between soil and roof is about 2 foot and the only entrance is a small 1foot square hole in the wall from the larger cellar part. So shifting lots of soil could be hard.

I may take a top layer off and see what happens as it dries out.

(these old houses are a pain)

 

[JohnD]

it will make a nice workshop when you dig it out

you can enlarge the hole (vertically) into a doorway

 

[compact]

I have actually thought about that, but as you can see from my other posts.

I have a few 'projects' going on with the house at the moment....

Plus not sure if my pour peugeot estate would take the weight of that many bags of soil being taken to the tip.

 

[denso13]

Plus not sure if my pour peugeot estate would take the weight of that many bags of soil being taken to the tip.

Just make sure you dig a huge hole to fix your drains and then you can put the old stuff from below the house in it as well.

 

[compact]

ha ha

that's an idea.


oh and eats lots of spinach too... haha