What joy I've been having recently.
I live in a terraced house and share a cast iron soil pipe with my neighbour which goes into the ground and sewer on my side.
So since we moved in over 2 years a go we've had a few instances of the pipe becoming blocked so Severn Trent have come out and unblocked it because it's a shared pipe they take responsibility of it. There is a hole in the soil pipe already I presume the previous owners must have had it unblocked and had the pipe cut.
Now Tuesday it blocked up again and because I was off and didn't fancy waiting around for hours for Severn Trent to turn up while **** spewed all over the patio I unblocked it myself. Water was actually coming out of the joins of where my pipe comes out of my wall to the soil pipe so it was pretty blocked up! Power washer drain hose for the win! Any way I thought that sorted it as the water was flowing quite nicely when I looked down the man hole but on Friday it did it again. This time the water level got up to the hole in the soil pipe which is about 5 feet up the pipe. I hadn't tapped it up enough so water was coming out.
So today I started digging out the patio to see where it gets to the sewer pipe. Originally I was thinking that there may not be enough of a bend below ground so waste wouldn't just be piling up and not flowing.
What I've found is that the cast iron soil pipe just goes straight into the clay pipe about 6 inches under ground level. The bend on the clay pipe is minimal before going vertical with the soil pipe joining it.
The clay pipe where soil pipes joins is actually broken and two pieces comes away as I was removing earth. And the hole was completely blocked with **** and earth, so much so that I originally thought it was a plastic insert to fit the soil pipe into the clay pipe. It actually had imprinted lines on from the clay pipe it was that tightly packed! The hole is quite big about 6cm by 6cm or so. So I've unblocked it from there and water is flowing better through the sewer but it's not as quick as I'd expect it to be.
I called Severn Trent and they're going to send out a drain inspection team to look at the drain fully with a camera etc and advice on responsibility.
Because they take responsibility when the soil pipe has been blocked previously does any think they'd fix the clay pipe? Or will they just say it's general wear and tear and be 'our' responsibility?
I live in a terraced house and share a cast iron soil pipe with my neighbour which goes into the ground and sewer on my side.
So since we moved in over 2 years a go we've had a few instances of the pipe becoming blocked so Severn Trent have come out and unblocked it because it's a shared pipe they take responsibility of it. There is a hole in the soil pipe already I presume the previous owners must have had it unblocked and had the pipe cut.
Now Tuesday it blocked up again and because I was off and didn't fancy waiting around for hours for Severn Trent to turn up while **** spewed all over the patio I unblocked it myself. Water was actually coming out of the joins of where my pipe comes out of my wall to the soil pipe so it was pretty blocked up! Power washer drain hose for the win! Any way I thought that sorted it as the water was flowing quite nicely when I looked down the man hole but on Friday it did it again. This time the water level got up to the hole in the soil pipe which is about 5 feet up the pipe. I hadn't tapped it up enough so water was coming out.
So today I started digging out the patio to see where it gets to the sewer pipe. Originally I was thinking that there may not be enough of a bend below ground so waste wouldn't just be piling up and not flowing.
What I've found is that the cast iron soil pipe just goes straight into the clay pipe about 6 inches under ground level. The bend on the clay pipe is minimal before going vertical with the soil pipe joining it.
The clay pipe where soil pipes joins is actually broken and two pieces comes away as I was removing earth. And the hole was completely blocked with **** and earth, so much so that I originally thought it was a plastic insert to fit the soil pipe into the clay pipe. It actually had imprinted lines on from the clay pipe it was that tightly packed! The hole is quite big about 6cm by 6cm or so. So I've unblocked it from there and water is flowing better through the sewer but it's not as quick as I'd expect it to be.
I called Severn Trent and they're going to send out a drain inspection team to look at the drain fully with a camera etc and advice on responsibility.
Because they take responsibility when the soil pipe has been blocked previously does any think they'd fix the clay pipe? Or will they just say it's general wear and tear and be 'our' responsibility?
Given they illegally carried out work on my property a few months a go I'd say they owed me one. 