BLOCKED DRAINS LIVERPOOL

Some of the telltale signs that may indicate you have a blocked drain.

1. Water level in your toilet rises slightly higher than normal when flushed.

2. Water level in your toilet drops lower than normal when flushed.

3. When flushing your toilet, water rises in your bath waste outlet.

4. When flushing a toilet, water rises and overflows from an external drain.

5. When draining a sink, water overflows from an external drain.

6. Precursor to blocked drains, foul odours inside or outside the property.

7. Gurgling or knocking noises from baths, sinks or toilets traps, or all.

8. Water leaking from manhole, soil pipe or from the back of your toilet.

9. Evidence of toilet paper around an external manhole, or any drain.

Are toilet wipes fine to flush? Advertising and product accreditation would have us believe they are! Why are we so willing to ignore the obvious? Absolutely any sanitary product advertised as flushable or Fine to Flush should never be considered as so. Suffice to say, if you flush these products, you will at some point experience blocked drains, or repeat blockages. And every time this happens, chances are it's going to cost you money! 

With over 11 billion wet wipes alone being sold in the UK every year and with 2.1 to 2.9 billion of them ending up in our waterways, this problem, clearly, isn't going to go away anytime soon. From a cost perspective, these are probably the most difficult of blocked drains to clear, especially if no access points exist on the drainage system. But from the environmental point of view, flushing these wipes is simply destroying the planet! 

So, bad for drains and drainage systems, disastrous for the environment!

To suggest toilet wipes are biodegradable is misleading, disingenuous even. They may well biodegrade, but just how long will this take? 5 years? 10 years? More? It's foolhardy to believe toilet wipes will biodegrade while travelling into and through your drainage system! All the combined water authorities across the UK can probably attest to this fact, having to empty tons of these things every week from our sewers.  So, trust in your instincts, trust in good old common sense, but whatever you do, do not trust in product packaging information. Avoid causing blocked drains. Avoid blocked drain clearing costs!

As an experienced drainage engineer who's been in this business for over 38 years, removing a toilet pan to clear a blockage is seldom necessary. If however a hanging toilet rim block has been accidentally flushed, removal of the toilet pan may well be necessary. But note, removal of a toilet as your first port of call, as so many companies out there do, is simply wrong. If a toilet blockage cannot be easily cleared from the toilet pan, using just standard equipment, chances are that the blockage is probably located outside the property, causing the soil vent pipe and toilet to fill. So, why remove the toilet pan, why create the mess and why stink out the house? And why make the job far more difficult and costly? Although a lack of experience could be to blame for this procedure, the removal of the toilet pan could also be a tactic of the disreputable drainage engineer, implemented simply to increase costs. So take note people, if ever recommended by someone that you need to high-pressure water jet downstream of a removed toilet to clear a blockage, into a soil vent pipe, think twice. This should only ever be seen as a very  last resort procedure, which, for obvious reasons, could have disastrous consequences!

Regular or repeat blockages do not always mean you have damaged, defective, or collapsed underground drains. There are many different reasons which could cause drains to re-block soon after clearing them. Often, the underlying cause can simply be due to misuse, the flushing of toilet wipes for instance, a toilet paper that doesn't break down well, or rods lost in the system due to a bit of home DIY. In most cases of misuse, with a little investigation, the fully trained and experienced operative can determine this during the clearing process. However, where all simple possibilities have been eliminated, an underground drain survey would be recommended. 

There are a myriad of reasons which would cause a drains or drainage systems to block up. In the majority of cases, blocked drains are simply caused by misuse. However, other causes affecting flow and causing blockages include, cement ingress (old clay pipe joints), open pipe joints, displaced pipe joints, root infiltration, foreign objects lodged in drain, rods detached and left in drain, fractured drainage, collapsed drainage, grease, food waste, and leaves. The list of course goes on and on, but, if persistent blockages are a problem for you, the prudent thing would be to have a drain survey carried out.

The vast majority of domestic blockages are resolved within an hour's time frame. But if a drain cannot be cleared within an hour time frame, this does not automatically mean there is serious underlying problem like a collapsed drain. For instance, the drainage system may have been blocked for a considerable length of time, or the system may be full of compacted toilet wipes. There may be a lack of points available to access the drainage system, or maybe a manhole, inspection chamber, Interceptor, or rodding access point has been buried and hidden. And sometimes, due to a spot of D.I.Y., rods and their attachments could have been lost and lodged in an underground drain. All of these scenarios can prolong the drain clearing process, therefore making it more costly. 

Experience is always a factor in determining the cause of a blocked drain, but to suggest an engineer should always be able to detect an underground defect through the drain clearing process, and within an hour time frame, would not be true. Of course, there are certain indicators that help in determining a damaged or defective drain, which an experienced operative could identify, then report and advise on. But if uncertain, and want some peace of mind, an underground drain survey would be recommended.

Blockages cleared from £20.00? Free drain survey! No hidden fees! Fixed prices!! 

Beware of unrealistic gimmicks to draw you in! We all want that blockage cleared for a minimal cost, but we still want the excellent standard of work. It’s ok to want the best of both worlds, but unfortunately, cheap labour invariably leads to a distinct lack of expertise and customer satisfaction. Anyone who has used the so-called cheapest contractor first, taken in by false advertising, and then had to call in a professional drainage contractor afterwards because of some failure to do the work, or unrealistic cost increase, will know the difference. Core promise to provide clear information and total transparency in all things, including pricing, allowing you to decide who you choose.

So, you are in the throes of buying a property and your mortgage company have advised a drain survey. Clearly an excellent idea, but an additional cost you just don't need. How straightforward should the homebuyers drain survey be? For example, any successful drain survey requires access points, manholes, inspection chambers, etc. And in many cases, certainly in older properties, there are few, if any, access points available for a drain camera. A comprehensive homebuyers drainage survey is a must of course, and probably invaluable, but in reality, often impossible to achieve. That’s not to say it can’t be done, but a true fully comprehensive drainage survey will likely involve extensive works, with significant cost implications, which is a hard sell to any prospective homebuyer. And so,  minimal surveillance from available access points is generally the norm, which also helps  keep the costs down. Remember, at Core Drainage you will be absolutely fully informed, allowing you to decide if you use our services or not. However, if a contractor tells you a comprehensive drain survey is easily achievable, Core’s advice would be to think twice.   

In basic terms, any underground drainage, just serving the one property would be deemed as a private drainage system, and so, your sole responsibility. And drainage systems serving two or more properties, would be deemed a shared system and therefore the responsibility of United Utilities. It should also be noted that as a general rule, drainage lines sited beyond a property boundary, below a public footpath or road, would also be the responsibility of United Utilities. N.B. A shared drain, or a United Utilities owned drain, could also be sited inside or outside your property boundary line. 

Now, it’s fair to say that many of us still see blocked toilets as being plumbing issues rather than drainage problems. But whether 100/150mm diameter pipes or 32/40/50mm diameter pipes, internal or external, these are pipes designed to take wastewater away from your property. With all blocked drains, the first priority should be to appoint an experienced drainage engineer. The knowledge and understanding of working drainage systems, combined with drain clearing experience should never be underestimated.