Oh no! Not another drainage problem!

[Tapster]

The drain from my outdoor shower is approx 2 inch diameter blue piping, and runs for 30 feet (10m) to exit through the back wall of our garden.

It drains very slowly, so I asked our handyman some months ago to try and clear it. He appeared with 5 litres of fuming hydrochloric acid and some flexible wire/special plumbing stuff and proceeded to try and chemically dissolve the blockage and mechanically remove it.

He was partially successful.

Today I though I'd try and improve on that so I went to the end of the pipe, outside the back wall of our garden, and tried to clear the blockage with 4 metres of 10mm diameter copper pipe.

I had left the shower running so that I could monitor the flow of the drainage water.

I only got my clearing pipe 500mm up the drain when it hit something very solid, with no give. It didn't feel like a soft accumulation of rubbish, nor like a stone. It felt more like hitting hard plastic, but I may well be wrong.

Carefully, I tapped my pipe against the obstruction and it seemed to give a bit and I'm sure the drainage flow increased. At that point I thought I'd better leave it and see what was happening at the shower end.

Unfortunately, at the shower end there was a backing-up of water and after I'd switched off the shower it definitely drained more slowly than before.

Clearly I've made it worse!

Suggestions, please!

I suppose the best thing to do is to excavate the site of the blockage. However, I've never come across a problem like this before, so maybe there's a simpler solution.

Please help.

[Tapster]

OMG, I didn't think of a frog!

Unfortunately, my attempt to unblock would have burst a frog/toad or at least made the poor creature make a sound!

And, when the water continued out of the pipe after my probing, there was no blood and guts!

Any more suggestions?

[sappersrest]

Could possibly a tree or bush root , Easy to do just have to get your shovel and pick out.

[Tapster]

OK, seems like excavation is the only way forward.

Many thanks. ☺

[eyecatcher]

My first thought was where is the outflow? is it open.....................and my thought was actually; has a rat crawled up the pipe.

either way you need to dig and expose the pipe, break apart the joints if you have any and then make sure the end of pipe has a grille to stop anything crawling in.

you may not be surprised to learn that this is how many snakes enter your house

[recycler]

Just push in a garden hose and try to flush while pushing with that, takes time, but works

[maderaroja]

OMG, I didn't think of a frog!

Unfortunately, my attempt to unblock would have burst a frog/toad or at least made the poor creature make a sound!

And, when the water continued out of the pipe after my probing, there was no blood and guts!

Any more suggestions?

When you dig up the pipe, don't forget to add "clean-out" outlets upstream.

[AlQaholic]

Sounds to me like there might be a 90 degr. bend where you pushed with your copper pipe. If that is the case the blockage could be before the bend. The bend might be there to make a water lock preventing smells to enter the bathroom from outside.

[Dublin]

Seems your having lots of problems , did you have a cover to prevent snakes, rats or frogs crawling up the pipe in the first place . Excavate the pipe cut it every 3 meters or so and insert a few Y joints with screw on caps ,, leave them them sticking out of the ground. Next time it blocks unscrew the caps rod the pipe but the cap back on. most importantly get a cover for the end of the pipe.

[Tapster]

Thanks for all the good advice.

When I do this repair I'll put in some extra rodding access, for sure.

And a cover to stop snakes, etc.

[Jonathon]

If you are indeed hitting hard plastic then it might be a bend in the pipe (one of a pair) used to shift the pipe alignment vertically or laterally to avoid some obstruction, Dig it up and have a look. It could even be that your neighbours are connected too.

If that is the case then it needs to be got rid of. For a vertical offset consider replacing that section ( and downstream) with a larger bore pipe extended to ground level with an access cover for cleaning.

Do it yourself and you will certainly get a better job!

[Jonathon]

Sounds to me like there might be a 90 degr. bend where you pushed with your copper pipe. If that is the case the blockage could be before the bend. The bend might be there to make a water lock preventing smells to enter the bathroom from outside.

There should not be a trap in such a location but "TIT", They seem reluctant to have proper traps on the outlets in the house apart from the usual rubbish with a 10mm water seal. If there is a trap there it needs to be relocated.

[cooked]

I had to replace the drainage from our kitchen. 90" turn under concrete, pipe too small, no access to clean. All changed now.

[dotpoom]

Not nice for the animal, but sounds like a frog. Flush the tube with really hot water

He said he hit something very solid.....hardly a frog...... soft and squishy

[joshstiles]

dynamite

[Tapster]

I know this post has been a very long time coming, but TIT, This is Me, and Beer is Good!

Anyway, after much deliberation the problem is solved, by solving a larger problem.

After a flash flood from our adjacent hill I have upgraded our storm drains from a 20cm gulley with 10cm diameter plastic pipes at each end (one of which was completely blocked) to the civil engineering project in the attached photo:

One metre wide by 30cm deep gulley, drained by 25cm diameter concrete piping at each end, with two access manholes along each run of pipe.

In addition to this, the excavations showed the blockage in the shower drain. This has now been remedied by incorporating the shower drain into the adjacent storm drain and now it's working perfectly.

I think I can confidently say, "SORTED!!!"

[eyecatcher]

And to get back some of the expense you can rent it out as a fishing pond

[Tapster]

@eyecatcher

Indeed!

Only, it will never be a fish pond because the drainage is too good!