Before I call the drain cleaning company…

External drain started overflowing yesterday, all water waste goes through this one pipe…

Fair to say today has been bloody rank!!! Chucked some rods down with the spikey thing on the end, 5hrs later…it’s grease but I can’t break through it, chucked down a bottle of Zep cleaner, a lot of white wine vinegar and bicarbonate soda, it’s stuck solid

I’m not going back in the rods…is there anything else to try before calling someone out? Caustic soda?
Thing is I think it’s that full any chemical will just get diluted before it gets to the grease

There’s only me here, and we have showers at work so it’s not super mega urgent but will need clearing this week.

I thought it’d be a 10 minute job, think it’s proven to be one of the worst days of my life. Im just glad having kids and all the nappy changing prepared me in a small way…if anything bad happens ever again, first thought will be, at least I’m not rodding out the drains!!!

There’s a certain pleasure to be had from rodding drains – that bug slurp when it frees and runs away is very satisfying!! 🤣🤣💩💩

Is this a shared drain at home? If so it will be your local water companies responsibility.

Or rod it without anything on the end – see if you can poke through.

https://www.southwestwater.co.uk/frequently-asked-questions/waste-water-services/how-has-ownership-changed-since-the-sewer-transfer/

Just call someone out, life is too short.

Nah it’s just mine unfortunately

I know, I was waiting for that slurp noise all bloody afternoon!! Nothing, not even a bubble…

I’ve never had this in 20yrs of home owning, I barely put any fat down the sink bar the leftover washing up water

If rodding is not working then best get the pros out. They’ll likely blast it with water.

Yeah I’ll get someone out, I just didnt want them to be there for 5 minutes with me stood there thinking I could have done that. Think I’ve proved that point to myself at least…

Possibly soda crystals would have been more effective than bicarb.

Pour 500g (half a 1kg Bag) of Soda Crystals directly down the drain and leave it to treat for ten minutes. Then rinse it with very hot water to clear grease and blockages from the waste pipe.

Wash gutters with half a cup of Soda Crystals per litre of water to remove rotting leaves, etc.

*Do not use Soda Crystals on Aluminium

https://www.dri-pak.co.uk/tips/outdoor-cleaning-tips/ then scroll down to Drains, Waste Pipes and Gutters

Your local hardware store/builders merchants may have some more ‘aggressive’ stuff. Not the tame stuff you buy in B&Q.

Your local hardware store/builders merchants may have some more ‘aggressive’ stuff.

and the pro that eventually comes to clear it will just love you even more when you tell them it’s full of caustic chemicals in addition to the usual 🙂

I can confirm watching your skin turn to wall paper paste and keep turning to it even after copious amounts of water and other wonderful liquids applied is slightly terrifying.
Thanks nextdoor neighbour…
Water jets are your friend here even a cheap one on a jet wash will work

Is there another drain cover you can get to down stream of blockage and attack it from the other direction?

Last time I was unblocking drains, COVID has its advantages, I couldn’t smell a thing.

Have you been rodding it from the blocked side on downstream of the blockage? Assuming it’s not a collapsed drain or full of roots then rodding it really should work.

How sure are you it’s fat?

Have you got the screw attachment for your drain rods? Pretty effective but remember to twist clockwise on the rods. Ask me how I know.

check your home insurance doesn’t give you 1/2 free for a call out. Used to work for a drainage company and do plenty of these jobs, could usually phone for an extra 1/2 FOC too. May not give enough time for a complete jetting depending how far it is but should get you moving again. If it is blocked with grease then rods wont do much unfortunately.

I had a similar issue just after moving in to our house with our kitchen sink. Just couldn’t unblock it, tried nasty chemicals, pressure washer attachment, home remedies and eventually got a rod set with a screw hook. Nothing worked, and I mean nothing. So I thought I’ll have to dig it out. The drain exited the house and joined into the main drain in the garden on a 90 degree angle. I knew roughly where so started clearing the gravel to dig. Found a rodding point buried in the gravel with no cover. The drain was completely backed up with gravel, packed so tight it was rock solid.  Took me a whole day with my arm all the way down the hole pulling out handfuls of gravel mixed with kitchen waste. Was utterly foul. Bought a cover the very next day. Never blocked since! We’ve been here close to two years, I just found what looks like the original cover for the rodding point buried in the vegetable garden.

If you’ve got a pressure washer you can get drain cleaning kits that fit them, might be worth a try.

Yeah had the screw on the end most of the afternoon, and was forcing it in the turning, my wrists are shot now! by the end of the afternoon I was a rod length further in and on pulling out you could see big grease deposits on the screw where I’d been twisting it, and down the length of the last rod.

God knows how that much grease got down there unless a lot was the previous owners 2 years ago.

Also, has pretty much cured my nail biting issue. Never again. Got a pro coming tomorrow for a decent flat fee to clear

I’ve never had much luck with the screw on anything decently blocked.

But the rubber plunger end moved vigorously has always cleared them for me. Don’t underestimate the power/momentum of moving water.

The screw, 2 twisted prongs is for pulling out roots, pretty useless. The plunger part as above, is only needed at the head of the pipe and creates movement and the water will do the rest. Jetted out a few sets of rods before with the owners claiming they didn’t know how they got there!!

I did try that thinking it’d act like a big plunger but the bloody end came off the fitting, I think it got wedged half way between me and the blockage in the end as I had to pass the rods past it to get them back down

The external drain, is it a proper sized manhole? and is it full? does it lead next to the main sewer or is there another cover on the way? if so is that one full too? If it goes down to the main and joins in via another manhole then the water company should sort it as they took them on some years ago. If it goes in blind then then it will have to be tackled from the manhole above going downstream and they may argue that, if the blockage is outside of your boundary it’s their responsibility. Is your house the only connection? If it is shared then again I believe it is the water company’s responsibility.

Biological washing liquid/ powder can do wonders on drains in my experience. Have used to to clear loads of blocked sinks too. But as above, if ridding isn’t doing it, best call the pros before you damage something

I think our British gas boiler cover includes drains, I unblocked mine ages ago, horrible job, think I d pay next time.