Hello all!
Quick question here. A few months ago we asked a builder to connect our rain water drain pipe to the main sewage drain in our back yard. When we moved into the house there was no drainage at all beneath the drain pipe, the rain water was just splashing onto the patio!
Once he had started to dig, the builder found what he said was an old pipe leading away from the house, so he connected a funnel into that which all our rain water, kitchen sink water and washing machine waste now runs into.
I was a bit dubious about this at the time because we didnt know where the pipe went to, so I ran a hosepipe into the funnel for a good half an hour. You can see the water level if you look down the funnel (it is about a foot below patio level) and the level didnt go up at all, so I thought, OK fine.
It turns out that this builder was a less-than-knowledgable fellow and we ended up having to tear out and re-do most of what he had done for us, and in truth I am STILL worried about where all our kitchen / rain / washing machine water is ending up. I know you're not supposed to run these into a main sewer as I had originally asked but I am also nervous about his solution. The house is 200 yrs old with no DPC and the last thing I want is to be running all this water into an unknown hole in the ground.
What I cant figure out is, why can you see the water level? If it was properly draining, you wouldn't right? Or would you? There can't have been water in the pipe when he found it otherwise the garden would have been flooding, so why is there water staying in there now? The level never gets any higher, so where is the water going? Am I just seeing the 'water table' or something? Seems unlikely. Maybe it is just running into a soakaway but you would think running a hose in there would raise the level a bit. It is mystifying me.
Any help or ideas from plumbers / anyone else would be appreciated!
Cheers all, always a helpful place to ask questions....
Quick question here. A few months ago we asked a builder to connect our rain water drain pipe to the main sewage drain in our back yard. When we moved into the house there was no drainage at all beneath the drain pipe, the rain water was just splashing onto the patio!
Once he had started to dig, the builder found what he said was an old pipe leading away from the house, so he connected a funnel into that which all our rain water, kitchen sink water and washing machine waste now runs into.
I was a bit dubious about this at the time because we didnt know where the pipe went to, so I ran a hosepipe into the funnel for a good half an hour. You can see the water level if you look down the funnel (it is about a foot below patio level) and the level didnt go up at all, so I thought, OK fine.
It turns out that this builder was a less-than-knowledgable fellow and we ended up having to tear out and re-do most of what he had done for us, and in truth I am STILL worried about where all our kitchen / rain / washing machine water is ending up. I know you're not supposed to run these into a main sewer as I had originally asked but I am also nervous about his solution. The house is 200 yrs old with no DPC and the last thing I want is to be running all this water into an unknown hole in the ground.
What I cant figure out is, why can you see the water level? If it was properly draining, you wouldn't right? Or would you? There can't have been water in the pipe when he found it otherwise the garden would have been flooding, so why is there water staying in there now? The level never gets any higher, so where is the water going? Am I just seeing the 'water table' or something? Seems unlikely. Maybe it is just running into a soakaway but you would think running a hose in there would raise the level a bit. It is mystifying me.
Any help or ideas from plumbers / anyone else would be appreciated!
Cheers all, always a helpful place to ask questions....
