Sewage smells - Smell from downpipe

ali · Post: # 19531Post **ali** Tue Jun 05, 2007 4:33 pm

Hi There, this is a continuation of a previous saga which you helped me with. Dispute with neighbour over soil pipe drainage...long story short...solution is to cement in their gully in the kitchen which backflooded from the sewer as it is connected underground to our soil pipe!!! And to divert the rainwater pipe which goes into this gully to our soil pipe. Problem...how do we stop smells from coming up the rainwater pipe as it is situated just under the windows of our loft extension. Does any one know of a non return valve which would work in this situation?
Would be grateful for any suggestions.
Thanks
Ali

Post: # 19533Post **IanMelb** Tue Jun 05, 2007 5:13 pm

If I was having a go myself I'd be tempted to try and bodge together some type of U-bend out of downpipe angle joints

Mind you it may not look very elegant, but if mounted near ground level then it may not be too obvious ...

Post: # 19541Post **IanMelb** Tue Jun 05, 2007 7:50 pm

Thinking about it some more, if I built a ubend, I might be tempted to put some sort of overflow relief, just in case the bend got blocked...

ali · Post: # 19544Post **ali** Tue Jun 05, 2007 8:35 pm

Thanks. You don't reckon we should just do nothing and take the risk then?? We are getting professionals to do it, they just ran out of ideas so I will give them your suggestion.
Thanks

flowjoe · Post: # 19545Post **flowjoe** Tue Jun 05, 2007 8:48 pm

Silt, debris and moss off a roof will block any trap you install within a downspout, this is why downspouts discharge into trapped gullies at ground level.

I suspect there will be no quick fix on this one other than disconnecting the connection onto the SVP, let us know how you go on.

Post: # 19556Post **IanMelb** Tue Jun 05, 2007 10:12 pm

Yeah, my idea would be a bit of a kludge/bodge. I'd see if I could get some pushfit or similar so that trap could be easily cleaned and the open vent would be there so that a blockage would overflow there rather than back up the whole pipe

Post: # 19560Post **IanMelb** Tue Jun 05, 2007 10:30 pm

Or maybe use a waterbutt (with some input and output modifications and a reasonably sealed lid) - that way, you could have some use of the rain water as well (just don't let it get too empty).

Bear in mind that these are only 'suck it and see' solutions - they are probably complete rubbish, but if I was in your position I'd be trying a couple of cheap things to see if they had any merit. If they don't work then I guesss I wouldn't have lost much

ali · Post: # 19565Post **ali** Tue Jun 05, 2007 11:24 pm

Thanks, that's a lot of food for thought. Cheers.

Post: # 19623Post **seanandruby** Sat Jun 09, 2007 8:57 am

(solution is to cement in their gully in the kitchen which backflooded from the sewer as it is connected underground to our soil pipe!!!) where will there wase go to when you " cement " there gulley in? why is it your soil pipe underground? and not shared? am i missing summet here?

ali · Post: # 19810Post **ali** Thu Jun 14, 2007 8:59 am

No, not missing something. I was cutting corners in my explanation....It is a shared pipe which carries our soil and their rainwater which also has a historical connection to it. When they built their kitchen extension the gully was capped. When the pipe blocked it backed up into their kitchen through this cap. The only thing from their side that enters this pipe is rainwater. Hence we can divert the rainwater into another pipe and seal off their gully permanently so that it doesn't happen again. That is the plan anyway. To be honest it sounds a simple solution but we have been fighting to get a quote from a drain company for about 3 months now. No-body seems to want to do the job! We have abandoned the idea of joining the downpipe to the SVP thanks to the excellent advice of this forum and will place a new downpipe elsewhere.
Thanks.