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Posted: Sun Sep 26, 2004 9:54 pm
by Hayley
I hope somebody can help, or at least offer advice :;): Am just coming to the end of a self build, and when the new drainage system was put in, all was tested ok. But now for the final test I cannot get air test to work at all. I live in Scotland and Building Regs up here specifiy air test and not water. I cannot see that my drains have suddenly collapsed, so would I be right in thinking that as I have underfloor heating this would be causing my problems (Cannot get anywhere 100mm head) If so I would hopefully have a bargaining tool with Building Control to do a water test (which works fine) otherwise as it stands at the moment it's a fail, and it's never likely to change.
Sorry to waffle on,
Many Thanks
Hayley 
Posted: Mon Sep 27, 2004 12:32 pm
by 84-1093879891
An air test is a lot easier to set up than a water test, that's why it's the preferred testing method.
If your system is failing an air test, first check the condition of the bungs/stoppers - they are very often responsible for test fails simply because they aren't fitted properly. Once you've checked the bungs and satisfied yourself that they're not at fault, you need to find a method of testing separate sections of the drain system in isolation, so that you can determine, for example, that's it's the pipe run between where the bathroom waste comes in and the next IC down that's at fault.
Once you've identified the faulty section, you can decide on what's the best approack to pin-point the problem. Is there some way separate parts of the faulty section can be isoltaed and tested? Will simply exposing the crown of the pipes be enough to reveal a problem? Would cctv be a more economic option?
Air tests are very sensitive, and it only needs a badly-fitting coupling or a bit of grit on a nitrile seal to result in a fail. In most cases, it is something as minor as a badly fitted bung, or a piece of grit that causes the fail - it's rare that it's anything as dramatic as a pipe collapse.