What do I need to know before I call Dyno?

Outside sink drain is overful but clears v slowly never more than just below the cover. Tried the commercial stuff and this morning a bucketful of caustic soda later followed by hot water. Lifted the nearest cover to discover that full to the top also, meaning its now a job beyond me.

Tips to avoid being ripped off, if any?

If you have a jet wash go and buy a rodding attachment for that.

Other than that call out dyno rod and see what they say.

How old is your house? Everything pre about 1950 was adopted by the water co’s a few years back and it’s their problem

is the full chamber on your property? can you find an empty chamber on the same run could be next doors. It will narrow the search down a bit. get some rods from screwfix /hire shop and have ago yourself, cant seen dyno type people being cheap this time of year( we Main contractor pay about £600 per day for visits to site includes cCTV and jetting 2 men and tanker) try a few local companies for ££ check home insurance also. It could be backing up to neighbours upstream have they got same troubles?

How old is your house? Everything pre about 1950 was adopted by the water co’s a few years back and it’s their problem

1903 – seriously? I’d never heard that before…?

is the full chamber on your property?

It is – diagonally from the drain exit, theres the full chamber, then there’s another parallel at the front of the house which I’d assume that runs to, then it runs into the sewer under the street. We are at the end of the road and the chamber etc are on the end not between the houses.

Has anyone been putting baby wipes down the loo?

can you lift the cover on the last chamber on your property before it goes under footpath into highway? If its blocked beyond your property boundary it may be down to water board or LA to unblock, it is still a problem to you but not your problem to fix. if that bottom one is empty get some rods up it and have a poke about wear some long gloves too!! just think what is in there and prepare accordingly. good luck

If it’s direct from your property to the main drain it’s your problem to sort, if anyone else’s waste runs through it the water board are responsible.
If it’s your’s, get some rods, don’t use the attachments and only turn them clockwise as they’re going in or out.

We’ve had no end of problems with our drains. I bought some rods but the bend in the pipes was too extreme to push the rods through.

At one point we had to call the Water Board out to clear a blockage and they used a similar set of rods with a plunger attachment (a stiff rubber disc roughly 5 or 6″ in diameter); it turned out that all you really needed to do was pound up and down with the plunger onto the opening of the pipe to clear the blockage (I think it took a few minutes). I assume that this drives water through the pipe at a higher pressure which eventually shifts the blockage. It turns out that we had said plunger attachment all along (it seems to be a standard part of any drain rod kit). It can be a smelling procedure but does seem to work.

To identify responsibility see diagram in attached link.
Follow the line of chambers, removing cover from each; that will show you where blockage is; use a solid piece of timber to attempt removing anything solid and then poke where the chamber connects to sewer pipe. If you can generate a form of hydraulic movement that will help.
Have a hose pipe to hand and wear rubber gloves.

Transfer of private sewers

As above – it will be aromatic.

And you will never have such a strong itch on your lips that demands scratching.

I have a Karcher drain clearing attachment which works great for minor blockages.

For anything major I’d be speaking to water company. If it’s their problem they will clear for free. If it’s not, they’ll be charging a comparable rate to Dyno-rod anyway.

Well, as I was out the front creaming a fat burg off the top of the water (nearly puked) my elderly neighbour walked past and offered to lend me his rods. A swift lesson and I followed the line all the way back while I was there to clear everything, but the blockage was at the front to the street. 5 mins of twisting, a large gurgle and everything flooded out to main sewer. Spent a bit longer cleaning the whole route.

Gratefully paid my neighbour in Malbec. I’m off to start a “what rods” thread”… 😉

And just had the world soapiest shower!

Good to hear you got sorted. I have ran a hose into mine and chopped the mess with a spade. Eventually it will clear. Just lift the manhole cover every now and then and wash the build away, to stop it causing a problem.

Go and buy a few bottles of caustic soda, then put it down your drains every couple of months. Should stop it happening again.

Good stuff. Tiny fibrous routes caused our down stairs loo to block – two access chambers in the front garden, and one had roots growing into it blocking the ‘loo outlet’ – Chopped them out and a big sausage of gunk flowed through. Fortunately the tree causing it has now gone !

well done kryton it can be a stomach churning job, recently had to repair some foul drains that had been blocked for ages OMG horrendous.

A word of warning about putting nasty stuff down drains and getting it on your skin. It melts your flesh off very well indeed. I did it this year.
A waxy sticky and very painful weeping mess arm, neck and leg after a neighbour tried to clean a drain with it and never told me until i had rodded it and jet washed it out. My arm was the worse as the big rubber gloves leaked and the water got in and just pickled my hands and wrists.
No amount of water stopped the melting mess
A.E where not impressed
My neighbour no longer pours hot oil down the drain.