My kids school nerarly flooded the other day. I waded in and removed all the bits the little blighters had poked down the drain covers (can’t blame ’em).

Now I’ve got myself the job of advising the school on a maintenance policy. Google no good so far. My college books are long lost.

Has anyone any tips. I’ve got

-Clear drains, just under grilles, hand down with rubber glove, remove silt etc – each term – get hand down prove clear
-Clear gutters
-Mesh balls in top of downspouts
-Repair damaged covers – is there a better type that resists leaves blocking? got simple grilles at the moment. I was thinking a landscape fabric over the top and gravel where the leaves tend to blow to act as a course filter.
– Understand how all drains interact – in case of blockage. Some willl be soakaways
– Get parents with drain cleaners & leaf blowers rounded up – set up schedule/rota.
– Cut trees back where possible.
– Have list of those who can unblock handy. Maybe they can comeround and quote for a maintenance contract. They may be cheap and may give ideas.
– review success of maintenance.

Any advice – school specific if poss.

Got to present on Wednesday night

Get the people who should be doing it to do it properly. Don’t get involved at all yourself. Are you insured? Qualified? Don’t even givce advice unless you are. Certainly do not do anything other than the most obvious.

I think they will just be glad of the tangible support. You sound like you have got a good ideawhat you are doing.

You might want to try to test that the drains are clear and running freely. You could perhaps get a rodding kit for the school for use in an emergency, but the main thing is keeping gutters and gulleys clear. You can get mesh for guttering which keeps balls and leaves out completely.

I helped a mate replace a run of drainage pipework at the local church a few years ago. Roots has penetrated a joint and had totally blocked the pipe, so we hired a digger and I had a free digger experience day- great fun.

Getting involved is good. I like the feeling i’m giving something back to the community. That’s why I help out at the local school, my cricket club and the church (not that i’m in any way religious).

DO NOT get your hands down drains with rubber gloves on.As someone who’s cleared a few drains on a voluntary basis before, I can assure you that even the most idylic campsite location you can find used needles down there in the sediment. Call in the professionals, the school should have a maintenance contract and it’s the janitors job to do that, not volunteers. If you must do it yourself and feel the need to give back, do it carefully and with your eyes open. If the school floods and your plan is in action, you’re at fault – get it right 🙂

I forgot what a litigious health and safety obsessed country we have become and how un-public sprited some people are!

Don’t lift a finger and leave it for the school to find piles of money for a proper business to carry out this work!

Of course, schools are loaded and it doesn’t matter if a few kids’ education suffers as a result of the dent in the budget!

spongebob. YOu miss the point. Suprise.

Its nothing to do with being un public spirited. its to do with basic safety standards and being insured to carry out the work.

This is the wrong sort of task to get involved with. leptospirosis? Hepatitis?

Spongebob, I’m with you all the way. Schools are skint and I’ll take a chance down a drain at school (thanks for warning ck).
Draining rods good idea.

TJ – I fear you will die sad and lonely (thanks for your opinion btw). Have you ever tried charity work? Try it, its a nice feeling.

lesanita. Are you insured? Do you know what is down those drains?

I do stuff around my community but I wouldn’t mess with drains. All sorts of nasty stuff down them including deadly diseases.

I am only talking rain water drains and flood problems. Although i’d have a go at poo pipes too if need be. Its a good school with dedicated teachers. Calling in the pro’s means less teaching money for kids. We are a teacher down this year and missing him much.

Ask the LA for archive drawings so that you know where the drainage runs are. Try lifting covers (assuming that you know what they are) and do general flushing and cleaning. As TJ says be very careful about sticking your hands in dark holes – if you get a needlestick it’s extremely unpleasant, and also as TJ says be very wary about accruing liability.
Simple monthly maintenance will bring obvious results, just be very thoughtful about what you’re doing.

Lesanita – check leptospirosis.

Is this not an LA school? i would be amazed if an LA school would let you do that because of liability both to you and to others as you are not trained nor insured to do the work,

I admire your public spirit but this is the wrong thing to apply it too IMO

[Governor head on]What sort of school is it? If it’s a foundation or academy, or one of Dave’s new ones, the school may be landowner. Catholic or CofE, the diocese more likely. Any other model and LA is the landowner. In any event it’s the duty of the head to keep the place well maintained, and roof, gutters and drains are the very basics of this. There is money delegated to the school for this, annual LA inspection meetings and LA guys paid to advise and oversee contracts. If the buildings and website were awesome but the teaching was crap, and they were looking to parent volunteers to teach and come up with a curriculum plan, you’d say the priorities were wrong, same thing here, the balance has to be struck to cover all the responsibilities. [/gov]

If you’re going to have a go, and the school is clueless or doesn’t have an old plan to work to, a good option would be to talk to a couple of similar schools in the area and pick their brains for what they do, it’s common practice in education. Talk to the LA guy too.

Totally as MLC.

I can’t believe I’m doing this but I agree with TJ. Surely the school has a standard maintenance schedule and a contract with someone who does the repairs to the fabric of the building?
The council, or whoever runs the school, should be sorting this out. The school is not a charity, it’s a necessary public service. The church I attend is a charity, and I help clean it and whatever else I can do, but drainage? Leave it to the experts who are properly qualified, have the right tools and are suitably insured. What happens if someone does something as simple as pulling their back out or breaking an arm? The school would be sued to within an inch of their lives.
I would be asking the school serious questions about how they handle their finances if this sort of thing isn’t being done as part of a standard maintenance routine. They can’t be looking after their expenditure very well at all.
What next, you going to clean inside for free? Unblock the toilets? Clean the windows? Re- roof the gym?

Thanks. You are all right. Risks need to be managed. I can manage this one. I’m awaiting the LA response on best practice and i’ve an action with the governors to gather list of maintainer contacts in other local schools.

I was a drain cleaner/jetter operator for a local authority for 8years, the things you find in grids/drains boggles the mind, as above I have found needles and such while doing schools and also we had to have jabs against wiels disease, lymes disease and hepatitis which are all found in drains and sewers, 99.9% of blockages in schools were crisp bags, coke bottles and leaves, the most useful tools are a grabber for picking stuff out of drains and a STOUT rubber plunger, DO NOT stick your hand down a drain without needle proof gloves or you WILL regret it,

This is a drain grabber,

This and a stout rubber plunger is what you need along with needle proof gloves

lesanita – are you insured to do this?

TJ, I may be insured, but I really don’t care. I accept the risks. I like the grabber. I’ll google it later for a supplier

I may be insured, but I really don’t care. I accept the risks

The problem the school taking the approach;

“Well, we’ve got some well meaning parent with a load of drain rods doing a stirling job having a go and, ‘whoops’ the schools flooded again and our insurers won’t pay up ‘cos they say he created the problem but he’s got no money so how can we fix it?”

nah. Life is full of risks. I can manage them.

Khani – I got a link to the tool. Looks good clicky. £100 well spent. There are so many tools. I never thought this would be so much fun!

Believe me it’s not fun, it’s cold wet and smelly, be very careful using rods, they can get stuck in junctions and can also push the problem further along and you’ll need a jetter to shift it, if it gets stuck in a blind junction nine times out of ten you need to dig it out which costs ££££££’s, And don’t twist the rods as you push them, they unscrew and then your f**ked..

“Well, we’ve got some well meaning parent with a load of drain rods doing a stirling job having a go and, ‘whoops’ the schools flooded again and our insurers won’t pay up ‘cos they say he created the problem but he’s got no money so how can we fix it?”

This is what will happen if you get a rod stuck under a playground and it needs digging out, then the pipe repaired and the Tarmac/concrete relaying,
If you insist on having a go, check for leaves and rubbish and dig out the drain with the grabbers and give it a good plunging with some water, but if it still won’t run then call a jetter, most local authorities offer a jetting service so use that, DO NOT CALL DYNAROD! The amount of times we were called to fix their cockups was astounding