Mains Drainage/Fosse

[Keni]

Just to set the scene: we bought the place in 2003. The acte de vente states that the house is on the village main drainage. Up to yesterday never had any problems, even with the storms we have had in the past.

With the recent rain, it appeared the outside drain soakaway wasn't. It filled up with water, and although the loos and sinks glooped and are a bit slow, there is no problem with sewage overflow.

Our plumber came round last night and as quickly as we are emptying (by bucket) the drain, it is filling up again, quite quickly and overflowing, so the back yard is soggy. There appears to be no blockage and the water removed is 'grey', but clear - the smell is of standing water, not sewage and there is no evidence of soap in the water. It is quite clear. We opened the main drain vent to discover it appears to run down the road, but there is no connection/pipe running from it to the house!

Our neighbour, an immobilier, checked the acte de vente for us, has gone to the Mairie (there is no plan of the drainage services in the village), explained the situation to them and tried to find out if we have another drain. There is no evidence of a fosse in our tiny courtyard. A hole has been dug in my flowerbed(!) to try to find a pipe, this has filled with water during the night, but too is not draining, not even into the soil - it's like swimming pool, clear water!

So, how does one try and find a fosse that you might or might not have, or try to find another drainage pipe? We can't call out a fosse emptier, 'cos we can't find out if we have one or not. I have called the person we bought the house from, she is coming over later, but as a 'woman of a certain age' as my OH says, chances are she will not know about this house, as it was the family home, and I don't think she lived here, except as a child.

Any answers? Thanks in advance

[Val_2]

Several possibilities spring to mind here, do you have adjoining neighbours? If so, could be a run off from them, could be roof drainage as you know you cannot just discharge a downpipe onto someone else's property or it could be a community thing whereby its not coming from you or your neighbour but from another source and only happens with torrential rain. It may well be that the whole ground has to be excavated to find the source of this water but at least you would know and could do something about it.

As an aside issue, when it rains hard here, there is one hell of a lot of water than runs through our village centre because it slopes downwards towards the sea and often the drains become blocked,but one day there was pink loo paper washed through as it was on the road and the village toilets are on the slope but there was no smell nor sewagey lumps.

[Keni]

Thank you Val_2,

The old owner came over with his daughter and he said in the 30+ years they had the house, as far as he knew there was no fosse, just the drainage! (To where one wonders?).

The outside drain is filling, faster than the submersible pump will empty it, but it is still cleanish water. I have worked out the drain from the sink in the sous-sol is taken away by a storm drain and worked out the direction of the water flow, which is front to back of the house, and I feel joins somewhere with the outside drain that keeps refilling. Using the submersible pump, eventually it sarts to empty to drain, and slightly lowers the water sitting in the gulley under the sous-sol sink, so that sorted out the theory. Have tried digging up back garden but found no traps. Tomorrow will purchase a drain rod system and start with that.

Thank you for your help. x[:)]

 

[cooperlola]

We had a cesspit problem in the UK - a neighbour who had her own complained about the smell and it wasn't obvious where the water was coming from either.  To solve the matter, iirc, the council came along and bunged some sort of coloured liquid into all our loos (three houses shared two cesspits) at intervals to find out who the offender was and the source of the - stinky in this case - water.  Is there a way to use some sort of dye in various places to follow the path of the offending water?  Just an idea but it might not be practical in your situation.

[Keni]

Cheers Deb - had thought about that , I have some cochineal used in baking. It def. appears it is storm water flowing front to back under the house in a drain, with our downspout joining. We have purchased today a 'gros deboucheur' and the neighbours are coming over tomorrow to help - swimming pool in back yard getting bigger![blink]