Alan Zoff Posted April 19, 2010 Share Posted April 19, 2010 It would seem that somewhere between the inspection chamber in our cellar and the roadway, our sewer pipe has become partially blocked. Evil stuff backs up into the cellar after a large amount of water is released (e.g. emptying the bath). Not a problem for other use so I assume the blockage is letting through more modest volumes.I can't reach any obstruction with the tools I currently possess (the drain is deep below our drive which slopes to the highway about 30 metres away) and before I go out and buy rods or engage professional help, I wonder what the norm is as far as responsibilty for clearance is concerned. The village has mains drainage but I can't see anything about liability for drains in my deeds or anything I have from the utility company. The blockage only came to light just before I left France for UK at week-end and I didn't get a chance to make local enquiries. Hopefully the effluent - and the stench - will have subsided before I go back, but I will then have to tackle the problem rather urgently.I suspect in the UK liability would rest with me if the blockage was within pipes on my land and I wonder if the same applies in France. I would be very glad to hear from anyone with knowledge of this delightful subject. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardengirl Posted April 19, 2010 Share Posted April 19, 2010 Sorry, can't help about drains in France. However, it seems that in UK distance is key. We had problems twice in UK. The blockages were on our land, and the first time we were quite prepared to pay the bill when the council drain people came out. I had put the whole set of drain rods down, so I knew it was a long way down the garden. The drain people were very surprised, and it was eventually established that because of the distance, we didn't have to pay. Apparently the main drain for the whole of the top half of our hillside road join together under our garden, and disposable nappy liners etc were found, along with tree roots. That was a minor episode.A few years later we were on holiday in France. Our son popped in to check on the house one stormy evening and saw the garden was awash with disgusting mess. He phoned us, and we instructed him to phone the council drain people and agree to pay whatever sum they mentioned. They didn't turn up for hours, as apparently the many hours of pouring rain had caused many smelly problems!Again, a similar story about baby products etc and tree roots. We again didn't have to pay. But after getting home from a wonderful holiday there was a terrible problem with digging out plants festooned with toilet roll etc and many bare patches were left. Our sons had spent ages trying to improve things with shovels, and our neighbour thought they were wonderful (so did we, but we hadn't seen what they had tackled!).A new estate had been built up the road from us, and hopefull ythe drains up there have been re-routed to some extent. Nothing further has occurred (it's difficult typing with crossed fingers!) and the last episode was about 12 years ago.Good luck with your smelly stuff and the solution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted April 19, 2010 Share Posted April 19, 2010 Buerk! You are very lucky not to have been their and to have good sons.I had a similar situation with some previous tenants with teenage children who managed to block the drains with a combination of sanitary towels and polystyrene packaging, no doubt after considerable experimentation [:-))]Alan, I believe that you are responsible up to the point that you drain discharges into the public one although there is some contention where it runs under a trottoir outside of your boundary before joining the main drain, if this part is blocked with waste then I believe it is your responsibility, if it is damaged by utilities, tree roots etc then I think it it will be the communes responsibility, the latter two faults may well of course be cause your waste to block the drain.It is only what I have been told which is often erroneous, one good thing about the commune is that they are usually happy to engage their responsibilities rather than duck them like an utiltie company, I would say that you have nothing to lose by asking at the Mairie.Good luck with sending the sossidges to the seaside [;-)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Zoff Posted April 19, 2010 Author Share Posted April 19, 2010 Yes, Monsieur Maire is usually very helpful but as I didn't get a chance to see him before we left yesterday I thought I would make some enquiries elsewhere to see if I could hit the ground running on our return. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Zoff Posted January 30, 2011 Author Share Posted January 30, 2011 Belated update on this.I found a couple of brothers locally who run a septic tank-emptying business. They also jet blocked drains. They had to apply very high pressure with the powerful water pump on their lorry to dislodge the blockage which was half-way along the drive. The cleverer one fed the large hose in from the road end while his simpler brother stood in the basement with a remote control operating the pump while he stared down the inspection chamber.... I ran for cover!It took longer, and greater pressure than they had expected, producing incredible noise in the process, but it eventually did the trick without blasting too much sewage around the house or over brother number 2.They told me it is a problem with long drives to properties that do not have daily sloshing of reasonable amounts of water through the pipes. Stuff sits in the drain, dries out and sticks like concrete. More then catches on that and eventually builds up to seal the pipe.The sweet smell of success! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardengirl Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 Glad to hear you got it sorted; the clearance sounded like something out of a comedy film! It sounds as though you need to keep putting lots of water through - you won't want that to happen again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Théière Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 I know proper drainage is new to France [:)] but they will have to learn you need intermediate inspection holes on long runs (pun intended) [;-)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Zoff Posted January 30, 2011 Author Share Posted January 30, 2011 Or I have to change my diet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pachapapa Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 Well shaped f(ae)ces float along nicely with a gradient and de l'eau chasse but those sanibroyeur things are the pits; like spraying shotcrete in the drains. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 The science of sending sausages to the seaside is all about maintaining the velocity of the water and what is (we hope) floating in it within an upper and lower limit, too slow and the solids sink and block the pipe, too fast and the water runs away and leaves them high and dry.The victorians were masters of this but the knowledge has gradually been lost and most plumbers think that the fall should be 1:40 for all drainage which is just not true, the smaller the pipe the greater the fall needed due to the flow restrictions, on smaller sizes the fall needed becomes so great most 32 or 40mm sink wastes will need a fall greater than the depth between the floors to operate correctly.I had a situation where I would have had a fall problem and when I eventually found the information it was a reprint from a victorian reference book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Zoff Posted January 31, 2011 Author Share Posted January 31, 2011 Laurel & Hardy did add that if it happened again despite using plenty of water, it could be the result of pipe movement. Nowadays there would be a continuous plastic pipe to the road but when ours was installed they used sections of clay/ceramic pipe. If these move, the joints can become snagging points. The pipe is buried quite a long way down for most of the run but since I bought the house, the drive has had a lot more vehicle use - the old dear before did not have a car.But so far, so good.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pachapapa Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 Seven Wonders of the Industrial World; Victorian Sewers of London.48 minutes documentary, click on arrow.http://video.yandex.ru/users/aplgallery/view/72/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Zoff Posted January 31, 2011 Author Share Posted January 31, 2011 I don't think I K Brunel was responsible for installing my drainage system, somehow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.