Fixing A Blocked Drain

[Me&MrsJones]

Dear all,

My house smells like a sewer and i have had 4 different sets of people over to try and fix the drainage problem. Here is a bit of background about the problem: -

1. There are 3 bathrooms/shower rooms in my house (why, i don't know....the house only needs 1)

2. The upstairs shower water shares the same drainage pipe as the downstairs bathroom.

3. The downstairs bathroom floor is flooded in 2 inches of putrid, probably toxic, stagnant water. This happens everytime one of us has a shower upstairs.

4. I assume that there is a blockage under ground somewhere because the stuff that backs up into the downstairs bathroom contains all kinds of stuff, from food to hair and toe jam etc.

5. The cess pit at the back of the house was emptied last week, so i dont think that is linked to the problem.

6. The toilet water from all bathrooms is working fine - thank god for that at least!

My landlady needs a good kicking because, although she tries to send people around to fix it, they are not what you'd call specialists - and thats why 4 different groups of taxi-motorcyclists have so far failed to solve the problem. Basically, they trapse in with a bamboo pole and have a poke around after taking off their motorcycle-taxi vest. I've decided to take matters into my own hands now by hiring a specialist.

Ok...so now to my point.

I need this fixed asafp.

I live near Don Muang in Bangkok. Do you know of a professional drain company that can unblock drains?

Cheers

Me&mrsjones!!

(weeee got a thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing......goin oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooonnnnnn)

[Soutpeel]

Go to Tesco/Big C/Carrefore and buy some liquid drain cleaner, read instructions and pour down all your drains

[Tod Daniels]

Most hardware shops sell a small packet of what I think is 'caustic soda' (it looks like white corn flakes). It is dumped in the drain and then you pour a bucket of nearly boiling water in after it. It foams up like a big dog!! Believe me DON'T let it get on your skin at all. But it will eat thru the grease and soap scum in your lines.

They also sell something which I believe has copper in it, and is put down the drains to kill tree roots which can sometimes infiltrate the clay drain lines running to a cess pit. The bathroom drain closest to our cess pit at my apartment backed up quite often until they put that copper powder down it. After about 4 days it was flowing fine.

[GungaDin]

I have an unused "drain snake" for sale from HomePro.

Unused, because the toy blocking the toilet (previous Thai Tennant) was found the day I bought the snake.

[StreetCowboy]

Go to Tesco/Big C/Carrefore and buy some liquid drain cleaner, read instructions and pour down all your drains

Will that not kill his septic tank?

I don't know, maybe they are not really septic tanks, here, just big storage sumps...

SC

[dogleg]

Go to Tesco/Big C/Carrefore and buy some liquid drain cleaner, read instructions and pour down all your drains

Will that not kill his septic tank?

I don't know, maybe they are not really septic tanks, here, just big storage sumps...

SC

http://www.theriverdee.org/userfiles/file/...cTanksFINAL.pdf

useful info.

[nam-thip]

If you’ve experienced this problem from day one it may well be a pipe has been broken at the building stage and then filled with concrete.

If that is the case then no amount of unblocking with liquids etc or rodding is going to work.

Pipe renewal might be the only cure.

Good luck.

[chickenslegs]

Found this using Google

servicegenie-bangkok

[Jonny B]

i own some apartment rooms and get this problem all the time, those liquid products or soda stuff from the homeware shops wont help if its really blocked which your must be. Ours gets blocked from tennants always putting food scraps and just about everything else down there and clogs where the pipe bends. Try putting some hosepipe down there as far as it can go and just keep pushing/pulling it, also works well if you can attach some wire into the end of the hose which will get down the pipe further and should be enough to dislodge whatever is blocking it. if the pips runs outside and is visible you can cut it where it bends and do it from there and then just fix the pipe. If neither of those work your only option will be to get a proper plumbing service {if they exist here} with an electric eel. have fun with it, i know i do.

[Crossy]

Moving to DIY.

Hope someone there has a solution

[lopburi3]

Normally gray water goes into the storm drains that run around most homes, normally into one of the covered clean points which when it gets full needs to be cleaned out. Folks with bamboo or now rolls of pipe will do the job or, if you pay them extra, the septic tank cleaners will run there suction truck (although government trucks are not supposed to do that). If it is just dirt higher than the pipe you may be able to dig it out yourself.

If you do not have open (semi-open drains) may not be as easy.

[noise]

Normally gray water goes into the storm drains that run around most homes, normally into one of the covered clean points which when it gets full needs to be cleaned out. Folks with bamboo or now rolls of pipe will do the job or, if you pay them extra, the septic tank cleaners will run there suction truck (although government trucks are not supposed to do that). If it is just dirt higher than the pipe you may be able to dig it out yourself.

If you do not have open (semi-open drains) may not be as easy.

My house is like Lopburi3 described. All gray water (kitchen & bathroom sinks, floor drains, and showers) runs out to a concrete pipe that runs along the property line. In my case, it starts at the right rear corner, runs to the left rear corner and then down the left side to the front where it empties into the gray water sewer under the sidewalk outside our wall.

I have 3 access points, one at each rear corner and one at the wall. I have other access points where the different drains from the kitchens and bathrooms dump into that trough.

Using those access points, I could, in a similar situation, track down what section is not draining and start looking for failures from there.

I found my line is not buried very deeply, so I am guessing yours would not be, either. It should not be too hard to just dig along the line to find if pipe cracked and collapsed (though I would expect you should see wet ground outside).

[slapout]

Check the floor drains which are normally put in bathrooms, in addition to shower drains. Sounds like the shower upstairs could be connected to the floor drain pipe, downstairs, check if water backs up thru that drain, I understand the downstairs shower drains when in use. Just another place to look, put chemical, or run a snake.