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Have you taken the cover off and had a look?
Advice needed please. Water is overflowing from the drain pipe. Not sure how it could have got blocked as it's covered. Do I need to call Dyno-rod?
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Have you taken the cover off and had a look?
Bit dark now but the plastic cover can be removed to reveal any obvious blockage.
Is that the corner showing of the main drain cover bottom right of photo?
If it takes outlet from a kitchen it may just have waste and fats blocking it. Get some drain cleaner down it or get your hands in if you are feeling brave :-)
Remove cover,
Remove metal grate
Get glove or go bareback
Plunge hand in and scoop out blockage
Apply Sanitizer, to hands
If you cant reach plunge hose pipe down on full frape
It's either moss and crud from the roof, blasted by the heavy rains and washed down the pipe, or kitchen crud blocking the grate. I had similar a few weeks back with the patio suddenly under water. I cleared the grate and it was all fine.
I thought those big covers were just to stop rats rather than leaves?
If the hand down the drain doesn't work and you can wait until tomorrow, pop round to Argos and for less than twenty quid buy a set of drain rods and give ita good rodding (ooh err mister). If you aren't getting a good enough seal, securely tie an old kitchen/hand towel round the plunger (seen a plumber do this). Then regularly stick some drain cleaner down it.
Looking at the picture it might have been bubbling up for a while?? Black staining to the wall at the rear. Just get some rods and get stuck in. Dynorod will cost a lot more than a set of rods .
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Try a wet vacuum cleaner
If it's like my kitchen waste there will be a sharp bend and no way will drain rods navigate that.
What I have found works well, if it is fat (and past the bend), is to use steam from a wallpaper stripper. Take the steaming plate off and feed the tube down as far as possible and leave for 30 minutes or as long as it takes.
As onelasttime says, moss from the roof washed off by heavy rains and now clogging the u-bend of the drain which you'll likely find is about 'a bit more then elbow depth' down. I have to do one here yearly. Really stupidly the builder put an air brick right beside the offending rain water drain and if I forget... When I forget, and it rains hard it can flood through the airbrick and under my study floor. Having learnt this, when the first year's summer storm arrives i then have to run outside in a panic and lie in the cold puddle on the drive to shove my arm down the drain. Luckily i wear dive watches 🤣😂🤣🤣
Again. Likely a fatberg, this type of gully will be trapped with a 180 degree bend so rods will probably not shift it. You can try lots of hot water and drain cleaners but from experience only high pressure jetting will shift it. My Karcher wasn’t powerful enough so admitted defeat and got a drainage company in who cleared it in 10 minute for £60.
It might be that a particularly large rat has become stuck in the drain. If so, it's probably quite angry, and you might not want to put your hand down there. Hope this helps.
We had this but luckily I knew my closest acces point so I could rod it from the down stream point being only 4-5 meters back.Originally Posted by yumma
I too would say 99% moss
Mine did it when I moved in, I installed a rolled up ball of wire at the top of the down pipe and some of those gutter hedgehogs
One shot and stand well back
One shot is powerful stuff!
It looks like that drain is right next to a recessed manhole cover, so if the gully drain in the image runs into that manhole (which it may or may not) it might provide better access and explain more about what is going on.
The drain at the back of our house was overflowing regularly. I had a drain clearing company out, their high pressure jet wouldn't clear it. Rods were a no go due to the bends as others have mentioned, further complicated by the fact it goes to a soak away and not the sewage system, so no access from the other direction either.
I ended up digging down to where the pipe becomes horizontal and cut a hole in the top of it (which I later made good of course). It was densely packed with silty mossy roof dirt, I got about two buckets worth out.
Vast improvement, even on all day rainy days, but it still wouldn't cope with those sudden incredibly heavy five minute deluges we get a lot of lately.
So my theory was, fit a water butt with the bottom tap permanently open, draining into the house drain, so the butt will fill up first and then gradually empty, taking the strain off the drain so to speak. Works perfectly so far.
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+1 and use a few lots of boiling water (kettle fills) down there first.
Last time I bought the professional drain cleaner I had to give name address etc given its use now in attacks - acid!!
Jim
Probably no use for moss, but might this help? Self-proplled water jet pressure washer attachment thingy : https://www.amazon.co.uk/perfk-Clean...87&sr=8-1&th=1
For peace of mind I'd get a drain guy out.
I had a blockage that I couldn't rod out and I couldn't life the manholes to get closer access to I called in the pro's.
They freed up the access and cleared the big fatberg that was blocking my spur from the main drain.
We are very careful about what we put down there (we don't use wet wipes and no oils get poured down the sink), so were surprised to be the cause of it, but the guys sorted it in no time.
I think it was £100+vat or thereabouts and was a bargain for what they did.
Wrong thread
Last edited by DMC102; 22nd October 2021 at 11:29. Reason: Wrong thread
It might be that a particularly large rat has become stuck in the drain. If so, it's probably quite angry, and you might not want to put your hand down there. Hope this helps.
You may laugh but Dot was sniffing around our dishwasher etc drain so I lifted the cover and a rat jumped out!
Probably gets a nice feed from the mushed up food bits from the InSinkErator.
Cheers,
Neil.
Thanks all for the advice.
I called out a Plumbing and Drainage engineer and they have now cleared the blockage with a plunger. It was just fats blocking the gully that serves the kitchen and bath.
They charged £96 inc. VAT, which I wasn't so happy about for a 30 minute job. They didn't even use a Jetter because apparently it had broken on the previous job!
So that was an expensive callout but at least I didn't have to get my hands dirty (I wouldn't have had time to do it today anyway) and now my daughter can enjoy her bath without me getting stressed.
Well I never. The title of Engineer now encompasses clearing the blockage of drains with a plunger.
Glad you got it sorted.
Blocked drains are not that complicated that it needs an engineer!
Sorry but I'm in disbelief, my Mrs would have come and sorted it for £50
Yeah, I know - total rip off!
'Engineer' is what they call themselves on their website - racketeer more like! Still, they were cheaper than Dyno-Rod who charge £145 for drain unblocking. It looked pretty gnarly in there and I wouldn't have enjoyed being up to my elbows in that muck, I have to admit.
TBH I'm just glad it's sorted - I had a deadline to meet today and didn't have time to mess around.
Two lessons learned: be very careful with what I put down the kitchen sink and buy some rods and a plunger!
Last edited by Rocket Man; 22nd October 2021 at 19:55.
Have to admit that this was a factor - although peace of mind comes at a cost!
When we a rented flat in London 25+ years ago the boiler packed in. We rang the landlord who said get a fella in.
Guy turned up and changed the fuse. It took him 30 seconds and charged the landlord 90 quid, a load of money 25 years ago, but it was London.
Given our embarrassment he agreed to write some complicated crap on the invoice and the landlord knew no difference.
I am not handy, but ever since then I have worked out it pays to try a few things, or watch a YouTube video before getting a fella out.
You had some sound advice on here. I don’t know why you ask the question and then didn’t try it out before getting a fella in.
That's a funny story!
Well some of the advice was 'get a drain guy in'. I know now that it wasn't necessary but I was stressed out working (with my daughter at home as it's a school inset day) and I wanted to get it sorted before the weekend. I'll be more prepared next time.
Just on balance
I’m a wfh IT person and someone charged me £180 + vat ph including there van, tools etc and no call out charge I’m not sure I’d be quibbling it.
The guy came and resolved your issue, perhaps you could have resolved it your self but you’d were doing other things so surely he’s entitled to earn a living himself?
We get a similar problem probably once a year, I clear it by breaking up with a rod and hose.
Can’t really moan at the cost when people here were giving you advice on what the problem most likely was and how to clear it, seems to be a lot of people posting problems that are easy fixes especially after advice or checking out YouTube but they still call in people at cost.
I guess some of us are more practical than others, if you have never picked a tool up then I imagine a simple job can look daunting..
I'm no stranger to picking up tools but on this occasion I didn't have the necessary tools available, was too busy that day to go and get them and I needed it sorted so that my daughter could have a bath without the garage getting flooded.
I don't mind paying for a service but the price seems steep to me.
Anyway, as I said I will make sure I have the right tools available for next time.
It's not necessarily about having the the "right" tools as much as having a practical outlook. You can solve a problem like a blocked drain with all manner of things, you just need the mindset and guts to get on with it. If you're not practical, getting the man in is the right thing to do, but be aware that some folks here will take it the wrong way if you ask practical advice then don't get your hands dirty.
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