Hi

Has anyone got experience of dealing with a blocked drain? The drain directly under our kitchen window has started to overflow each time we use the kitchen sink now. I’m assuming that seeing as it is so close to our property it is our responsibility.
Does anyone know how much companies roughly charge to clear a drain?

A, do you have kids?
B, is there any gravel near the drain?
If yes to both, hold your nose whilst pulling handfulls of gravel out of the drain.
Hth [it did for me]

get yer arm down it ye wimp.

I’ve always done mine myself, the kitchen sink and the bath / shower both drain into mine so it it’s usually a grim cocktail of hair and food round the grille. Rubber glove and hold your breath.

Only time the drain itself was blocked was donkey’s years ago when I stupidly emptied a chip pan down it. The fat floated to the top and solidified. Again, a rubber glove and a strong stomach was enough to fish it all out.

Usually fats/solids amongst other things , lots of hot water generally works for me to break it down

The last time I did it was when renovating our house and I kept flushing paper kitchen towels down the loo as we were using them to clean paintbrushes etc.

No, I had no idea they wouldn’t break up like toilet paper does, I couldn’t reach the blockage by hand and flushing with a hosepipe didn’t work 🙁

It cost about £120 back in 2002.

If it ever blocked again I would just buy some rods and do it myself.

Most plumbers charge Time & a turd for drain work 😀

This sounds n-a-s-t-y

Making me heave just thinking about it.

I’d have a look (above comment re rods and DIY), however it might be more complicated. Makr sure it’s YOUR (*own personal) drain. Your house is connected to a common drain, which is in turn connected to a bigger common drain (etc etc). When the common drain that my gfs house blocked is connected to they split the charge bewteen all houses (about 8 I think) on the common segment but that was on a council estate.

big long arm length gloves from B&Q (think “all creatures great & small”), and get on with it.

As above. Have a good root around and hold your breath. In my last house we had a communal drain about half way down the garden. The previous occupants had flushed loads of baby wipes down the toilet which backed right back to the drain by the kitchen. Needed a hose, drain rods and about 4 hours to free it all up. Never forget opening up the cover nearest to the main outlet to be confronted by a thigh deep river of shit. There are some things no one should ever have to see. Very satisfying to clear the blockage, hear the gurgle and watch it all drain away.

That’s too much information isn’t it? 🙂

I’ve just assumed that the blockage was in our drain as is was spilling out under the kitchen window, don’t think the neighbours are having any issues, if was a blockage in the common drain they would be all backed up as well wouldn’t they?

How old are the drains?

as old as the house I’m assuming so 1950’s ish

If rods dont work, DO NOT USE DYNOROD!!! Find a local jetting service in the local paper
I was a jetter/vactor unit driver/operator for a local council for eight years, they cause more problems than they solve and rip you a new bumhole with the bill,
If you use rods, only twist clockwise, if you twist anticlockwise they undo and your ****!! BIG MONEY!!!!

If you use rods, only twist clockwise, if you twist anticlockwise they undo and your ****!! BIG MONEY!!!!

Very important this.

We used Dynorod (they were able to come out the most quickly) and didn’t have any issues.

With a 1950s house it could be anyone’s guess as to the drain layout. Is there a drain cover you can lift anywhere to see if water is passing there? I believe you can contact your local water authority to get a layout of the drains to show where it should be.

Never seen a drain cover in the back garden, we’ve been in the property for about 5 years now and never come across one. Hope the previous owner didn’t cover it.

Easy job. Try boiling water/Bleach and pushing a mop down there (if its a straight drop). Check there are no obvious blockages (food/hair/gravel/leaves etc)

If this fails, either buy some drain rods, or use a hose pipe and push it as far as you can (putting the hose on might help, or it might blast stinky water back in your face, your call with that one), if that doesn’t work, go to the road and find a drain cover by your house, open that up, identify the pipe leading to your house and try above, from that end. If that doesn’t shift it, then pay someone else to do it!

MF it won’t show private runs, just connections on to the main, also if it’s in the STW (funny that) area you could probably dig the lot up and re lay before you got the info!! Best thing to do is check the manholes up stream and down stream of the offending pipe, if both clear and running then yes it’s glove time. Most sink wAstes will be on a bottle trap or something similar so you’ll have to do a bit of rooting. Screw fix also do the big red gloves!

Forget the manhole scenario then! Where you at??

Never seen a drain cover in the back garden, we’ve been in the property for about 5 years now and never come across one. Hope the previous owner didn’t cover it.

Always a risk. No-one but me knows where our two drain covers are.

MF it won’t show private runs, just connections on to the main,

Yes sorry – that is what I meant – OP was wondering whether it was blocked at his end and if he could check further down the run he might be able to at least rule out other possible blockages.

OP – have you asked neighbours whether they are having problems?

If you use a hosepipe, turn it on at the nozzle and OFF at the tap, push it in as far as it’ll go,stand back, turn the tap on and push/pull/push/pull
Wear gloves, rat urine can carry Lymes disease, not good…..

Also – do any other fall pipes run into the same drain (I assume they do, but it isn’t necessarily the
case).

For example, if you empty a bath does it also overflow or is it ONLY the kitchen sink that causes the overflow?

If it is only the kitchen sink I would guess the blockage will be quite accessible with a hand down the hole.

I cleared mine last autumn. Costco tissue is not as soluble as my drains would like, coupled with kids who think that anything less than 15 sheets is not a handful.
I bought some drain rods from Wickes (£16) and cable tied the hosepipe to the end of the rod. Used LOTS of water to flush the drains out in reverse. Mine were blocked for a full 8metres. You will also probably find bits of gravel and half bricks etc in the system.
Not a nice job, but better than paying Dyno-con.

have you asked neighbours whether they are having problems?

Not had chance yet, took a look over their fence and they don’t have any ponds on their patio like we do at the moment 🙂

As said you’ll struggle to rod a normal trapped sink waste connection due to the bend, hence you need to find m/hole downstream and come up stream, this isn’t always easy as sink wastes were often put on junctions back then. It’s time for the phone or the glove I’m afraid.

Just hope the patio isn’t covering the manhole
Seen that loads of times

Gonna be a messy night in Wigan tonight. Joy.

It’s time for the phone

Surely that will just block it up more? I knew an old lady that swallowed a fly…

Of course you *could* just bung a load of soda crystals down and see if that breaks up the blockage.

If you do, be sure to be very clear in telling anyone that subsequently does try to manually flush it that there are crystals down there. Seen one guy with nasty burns right up to his elbow after trying to help his elderly neighbour out 🙁

We’ve already tried Soda crystals, that didn’t work. I assumed that they would just dissolve.

My parents had problems caused by the stupid woman next door flushing disposable nappies down the loo and causing the drain to overflow on their drive.

They will dissolve but if they just dissolve into standing water it will still cause burns. Of course over time the effect will be diluted as I assume the water is eventually draining away.

My parents had problems caused by the stupid woman next door flushing disposable nappies down the loo and causing the drain to overflow on their drive.

😯

Sounds like a blocked gulley.
Long gloves, a bucket and if your soft and do not like smells extra strong mints in the side of the cheeks.
Or if your near Stafford email me 😀

Doh. Just seen your in Wigan! 😳

Gonna be a messy night in Wigan tonight.

You’re going to Maxime’s?

You’re going to Maxime’s?

Always. You can never have too many “back to the old school” nights 🙂

Think it changed names now though, plus I think it has a “gentleman’s” club attached to it now as well. Pure class. God bless Wigan.

Don’t put a hose down the drain without some kind of check valve.

You could contaminate the local water supply otherwise.

Scoop as much muck out of drain with a ladle, then plenty of clean water and washing up liquid, this makes the water wetter, reduces the surface tension , also the drain runs somewhere off your property, look in road etc, and then trace the line back, to the drain.

You can also use a n aqua vac to suck some of the water out

If it’s caused by soap/oil gunge buildup from the kitchen (dishwasher, washing machine, sink) get some One Shot from B&Q or online.
It’s a sulphuric acid mixture that works when the standard caustic/hypochlorite unblockers don’t.

It’s about £10 a bottle but works brilliantly.