Surface water drains. - Not sure how the system works.

[Decky Doris]

Hi there, I'm the new girl here so please don't laugh if I don't talk the lingo!! So straight to the point. We have a 7" drain at the front of our house which when it rains moderately, blocks with water, pools, then runs off down the side of our garage, so I'm worried about the foundations. This drain is about 18" deep with a removable plastic sleeve which I take out regularly to clean out any debris. The council won't do anything as they reckon they haven't adopted this area, so we had the drain rods at it. The pipe leads about 15' to a soakaway? (Round concrete hole about 10' deep, 4' round with 3" holes around it and a 14-16" pipe leading off) There is no visible sign that water from the 7" drain goes into it and when we had the rods in, they stopped short of the soakaway. It felt like the rods were hitting something solid. So, can anyone tell me if this sounds like a blockage or would this be the usual behavior of this type of drainage system? We don't want to get anyone in to take a look until we know for certain there is a problem and neighbours won't cough up cos it isn't affecting them!! Any info would be gratefully received.

[Tony McC]

Use drain tracing dye to check whether water poured into the gully (what you call a 7" drain) shows up in the chamber.

The fact that rods will not go all the way may be because they are hitting a knuckle bend (90°) or a baffle plate.

[Decky Doris]

That sounds like a good place to start, thanks.

[Tony McC]

Screwfix can supply the tracing dye but it comes in containers with far more than you will ever need. A couple of tablespoons is usually enough

[dbostrom]

Hello from the USA.

If it's any help or encouragement, we faced a similar problem here w/our home, with a surface drain (non-sanitary). This was after a horrendously expensive remodel; the wallet said that renting a camera or hiring a fellow w/a camera wasn't the preferred option.

Cheap fix that might work for you, depending on what's above the drain line: I ran a fairly stiff hose down and along the drain until it hit the blockage, marked the spot on the hose where it disappeared, measured along the ground the indicated distance, excavated the drain at "X", found the top of the pipe (concrete) collapsed, thus blocked with dirt. Removing/replacing the entire section of pipe was out of scope so I did a repair by wrapping the pipe w/a heavy plastic sheet, some hardware cloth (woven wire) then pouring concrete around the whole affair.

This approach will probably be nauseating to the pros here but it's been five years since I did that fix and the drain is working fine.

[Dave_L]

Yep! Seen that done before with similar success - needs must at times!

[dbostrom]

Ok, that's at least one who is not tossing his cookies. I'm doing well! :p

[lutonlagerlout]

dbostrom I have seen similar fixes to yours over the years,mostly in drains blocked because of similar efforts

the correct way is to remove a section of pipe and replace, with 2 slip collars

however if it works for you thats fab!

cheers LLL

[seanandruby]

Hope the bodge wasn't on the whitehouse drains ???
Would of been easier and cheaper and more professional
cut out a section of pipe and replace it with 2 number slip collars and a piece of pipe.

[Decky Doris]

Thanks dbostrom for the advice. We have I'm afraid tarmac between the two problem areas. Otherwise, good idea....

[seanandruby]

Doris, if you have a blockage then tarmac, or not you will have to dig down and repair the pipe. must be a serious blockage if the water isn't getting away down such a good soakaway. cctv is your first port of call.

[dbostrom]

Advice to "do it right" is better than mine, for sure. As the people who are more informed say, replacing the pipe section is surely preferable to attempting a patch.

Particularly if the thing is under pavement, right? Why take a chance on a failed repair.

My approach is only suitable for when you can see your checkbook (cheque!) on the table in front of you, you've got a pen in hand and money in the bank account but your hand simply refuses to write another cheque. It's a pathology called "Homeowner's Financial Shock Paralysis."

[seanandruby]

There are many people who bodge it but in respect to the boss of this site, it is only fair that i and other ''experts'' recommend the right approach. i can only imagine it going wrong and then someone blaming the information gained from this forum. if money was tight then i'd live with the problem until i was better dressed :;):

[Tony McC]

Bodged drain repairs are a short term and often a costly fix. They rarely work for long and they don't address the problem, what it was that cauiused the failure. They only deal with the symptoms. If you;re going to fix drains, fix them properly then you can sleep without worry and put the check/chequebook or credit card back in the drawer.

The trick with the hosepipe is essentially the same technique used with drain rods. It provides a distance measure to the locationn of the blockage enabling it to be accessed from the surface without having to excavate the entire run.

And regardless to what the surface might be, diiging is usually the cheapest and most effective 'fix'. Very occasionally, and usually with larger diameter pipes, a relining can rectify minor cracks and slippages, but that is nearly always more costly than a repair as described by LLL above. It's in such situations that you realise one of the great benefits of modular paving: you can carry out invisible repairs which are impossible in monolithic surfaces such as concrete, blacktop or resin.

Did you get anywhere with the drain tracing dye?

[Exsparky]

You could use a couple of those little bottles of food colouring that are used for colouring cake icing, as a tracing dye. As they are food quality, they won't do any harm.

If you can prove that the water eventually enters the 'soakaway' as you call it (I was an electrician, so know no more about names than you do) and if the blockage seems close to it, as measured, then you can use a mirror on a stick and a torch to peek up the pipe without climbing down there.

This is an old electrician's trick. You use an old motorcycle mirror and stem. The angle of the mirror can be altered on the stem. Cable tie the stem to a broom stick, point a torch from near where your eyes will be down at the mirror. Once the mirror is at the right angle, the torch will shine up the pipe.

Make sure not to drop the mirror, or fall in.

This won't make the problem go away, but you may be a bit wiser as to what's going on.

A last thought, if this is an unadopted road, are you in a new house? Could the responsibility for this problem then be down to a builder?