Possible airlocked soil pipe

[Hugh Jaleak]

Wipes keep plenty of Sewermen in business, wretched things!

Given the 'quality' of what passes for drainage on many New Builds these days, anything is possible. Went to a job recently, former Office Block converted into Flats. New 6" sewer that wasn't even on the plans, they'd smashed a hole into a concrete manhole, halfway up, left all the debris inside the chamber, and pushed the incoming pipe so far through, it had hit this wall opposite. Unsurprisingly, it didn't take long to start backing up....

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

If that is/was the case I'd have expected the issue to manifest before now, depending on how much use the section in question has had. CCTV will show more.

My own private section of sewer became blocked 20 years after the house had a major refurb., which I sorted myself. The cause of the blockage was a piece of cast-iron fall pipe, from when they had been replaced with plastic 20 years before.

 

[Tony 1]

Yorkshire water haven't adopted the system yet and the developers are refusing to take ownership Can I ask because I don't know anything about drains. The first photo of the drain is a shallow one on my driveway which is looks like its coming from the bathroom wastes. About 6 meters directly infront is another drain but it is a lot deeper shown in the second photo full of rubble so does that mean these drains are not connected due to the depth difference or is that how it should be for the fall etc?

 

[dilalio]

Yorkshire water haven't adopted the system yet and the developers are refusing to take ownership Can I ask because I don't know anything about drains. The first photo of the drain is a shallow one on my driveway which is looks like its coming from the bathroom wastes. About 6 meters directly infront is another drain but it is a lot deeper shown in the second photo full of rubble so does that mean these drains are not connected due to the depth difference or is that how it should be for the fall etc?

Who knows what developers do on a site at groundwork stage! Stuff gets put in all the wrong places and then just left there when plans change or mistakes are identified.

That deeper shaft looks to have never seen a drop of liquid so possibly not even connected to anything. If it was, you'd have had issues much earlier than this.

Get it CCTVd and any design issues can be used to challenge the developer.

 

[just pumps]

Bright Green food dye is useful for seeing what waste goes where.

 

[Tony 1]

Brilliant thank you all, really appreciate your input. I think I've worked out that the deeper one is the rain water drain from the guttering so that rules that one out

 

[dilalio]

Brilliant thank you all, really appreciate your input. I think I've worked out that the deeper one is the rain water drain from the guttering so that rules that one out

If that's the case then you should be asking developer to clear that one because that is their mess in the bottom of it!

 

[Tony 1]

If that's the case then you should be asking developer to clear that one because that is their mess in the bottom of it!

I have done and they have to me to "prove" it's there mess and they're are not going to entertain it since the development is out of its 2yr warranty.

 

[dilalio]

I have done and they have to me to "prove" it's there mess and they're are not going to entertain it since the development is out of its 2yr warranty.

Looks like cellotex or kingspan insulation from what I can see on a photo... Who else would get that down there, other than site builders?

But, if that's the card they're playing then you'd probably have to go NHBC or small claims!

 

[Hugh Jaleak]

Your defence is, you've had no reason to lift these covers before, only now because you've an issue, have you found the issue. Might also be worth getting local Media involved, at some point the Developer is going to want to get these drain adopted by the Water Co, they are not going to be too keen to take on a shedload of issues, and the Developer isn't going to want the bad publicity.

Water Co's usually insist on a pre adoption survey and clean, but that doesn't help you now. This is not an uncommon issue on Building Sites either!