What uses
the drains
Just about all the liquids
that leave your house go down the drain. This
can be bath water, the outflow from the sink,
the washing machine, your dish washer and
of course the toilet.
Your drains then take the
waste to the public sewers maintained by the
drainage utility or perhaps a cess pit or
septic tank.
Rain water from your roof
will normally go to a soakaway or in town
to the street drains, not normally the sewer.
What do I do if my drain
is blocked?
First of all, just check
to make sure your drain really is blocked.
If the majority of your waste flows as normal,
it is likely that your problem could be isolated
to a sink trap being blocked? see DIY
drain cleaning
What kind of blockages
are there?
Most blockages are a simple
accumulation of detritous that eventually
blocks the drain. This largely depends on
what is being flushed down the drain.
Scale.
This is a term to describe
a build up of material on the side of the
drain pipe that will eventually restrict the
flow of liquid and cause the drain to block.
Scale is often associated
with kitchen waste such as fats that stick
to the side of the drain. This is often best
dealt with through the use of a high pressure
jet cleaning.
High pressure jetting must
be carried out by skilled operatives to ensure
that the very erosive water jets used do not
damage the drains that are being cleaned.
Collapsed Drains
This describes a problem
where:
The ground might have shifted
or settled pulling part of the drain with
it, away from the other parts of the drain.
The drain has been physically
broken, perhaps due to a large and heavy
vehicle driving over it, compressing the
soil and then the drain.
Roots from surrounding
trees have grown alongside and then into
the drains - perhaps as a source of water
and nutrients. The roots have got bigger
over the years, eventually filling or breaking
the drains.
The drain is very very
old and over the years has crumbled.
Though you might not notice,
these problems usually occur over a long period.
Finally the drains are not able to adequetly
flow and clog up very rapidly.
In all of these cases it
is necessary to replace all or part of the
drains. The drains must be replaced to preserve
the correct flow and the surrounding ground
reinstated in such a way that the problem
will not recur. |
