Broken Sewage Pipe under concrete - Plumber, Engineer or Builder?

WLSM

Looks like the waste pipe under the house is broken. The downstairs toilet overflows and goes down eventually, the other seems to work but neither of them are flowing into the sewage pipe 12m away in the yard. I've put rods up to see if blocked but just seem to hit a wall, some big stones came out the last time but no toilet waste. There is a bad smell around the house so I'm guessing the pipe is broken and the waste seeping into the ground, don't know how and worse, don't know exactly where, it is around the back door but the broken pipe could be in a 6 foot radius.

Any tips on how to go about finding and fixing this problem?
Is there anyway of pinpointing the break without digging up back yard and taking the tiles and concrete up from 2 rooms?
Would a plumber be the best person to look at it or is it more a bilder or engineers field? The house is 40 years old and I don't have the plans.

Martron

get the rod you used and go to where the pipe would drain intop. push the rod up until it hits the blockage. put a bit of tape on the rod. then pull the rod out and put the tape mark at the edge of the manhole. poin the rod toward the toilet and where ever the rod ends is where your blockage is.

dynarod could do a survey and if its just a small section i believe they can now repair it without having to dig it up.

but wait and see what some of the other guys here have to say. ...... they are quite ingenius sometimes....... not all the times but sometimes

gazelec

Drain Doctor are a very good company, they can send a camera up to see exactly were and what the problem is, they also do civil works too if your ground needs to be dug up and repaired

ccsolar

Martron wrote: »

get the rod you used and go to where the pipe would drain intop. push the rod up until it hits the blockage. put a bit of tape on the rod. then pull the rod out and put the tape mark at the edge of the manhole. poin the rod toward the toilet and where ever the rod ends is where your blockage is.

Good advice Martron.
Is there any water flowing down the pipe into the manhole when you flush the toilet?
If it is a new house some of the workers might have knocked some rubble into the pipe during construction and this might be causing the blockage.
Try using the rods with wire claw on the end to dislodge the rubble.

CC

antoinolachtnai

Good advice re locating the break. try to figure out what might have caused the problem - a wall or tree interfering with the pipe, for instance. That might give you an idea of the place.

You will probably need to get a survey done to find out what is going on. Will cost you a couple of hundred and is done with a rigid cable with a camera and a light on it. The key here is if if you can get someone who knows a bit about drains rather than just a camera-monkey. I think AJ Drains are good if you're in Dublin city but any of the companies who clear drains will do it. It will cost you about 200 or 300 euros.

I am thinking this is an old property with clay pipes for drains.

If it is a new house, good chance it is rubble in the pipe. Plastic pipes don't collapse too easy.

mad m

Get it fixed as soon as possible, you will get rats tunnelling in. The Camera is probably your best bet. I was using one from job last week and its great and simple to use. Maybe check a hire shop to see if you can hire one?

On the camera it has a distance calculator to tell you how far you've gone in...If there is a bad smell then the pipe is broke/collasped and not blocked....

WLSM

Yip, it's an old house with clay pipes, the smell has been around for a bit, thought it was a general problem in the estate as others have had the same problem but now that the toilets are blocked (the upstairs one went today) I know it's definitely my own pipes that are broken.

Only a small trickle of water comes out the manhole from one of the toilets, nothing from the other - I think the break must be around where both pipes join because of this.
I've used the rod with the claw but it just gets stuck in a load of stones.

A good few years ago we had an extension put on right where the pipes meet. I think that a small hole was made back then as we have had a rodent problem since in the wall cavities, the rest of it must have collapsed lately.

Hopefully Dyno Rod will be out 2moro to look at it with the camera to give me an exact location before we go at it with the sledge to find it.

mad m

Forgot to say, if the pipes are full of water the camera is useless...He should be able to record and playback for you also if its an up to date one...Goodluck...

Martron

he will come from the other side if the pipe is full of water. I doubt he will suggest it but you dont want to jet it. Could cause a nasty mess in your house.

WLSM

Problem partly solved. Dyno rod came out with the camera and tracer. Pipe hadn't broken at all. There is a part under the ground which is open, it is where the pipes come from the house and drop the waste into the sewer pipe, this part was walled with a stone/concrete mix but it looks like there wasn't enough concrete, rats or other rodents had buried into the wall and had knocked all the stone into the sewer pipe blocking it up. He managed to get all the stone out but it is still going to be a dig up the ground job and reinforce the wall again, it is under a wall too which doesn't help.

mad m

WLSM wrote: »

Problem partly solved. Dyno rod came out with the camera and tracer. Pipe hadn't broken at all. There is a part under the ground which is open, it is where the pipes come from the house and drop the waste into the sewer pipe, this part was walled with a stone/concrete mix but it looks like there wasn't enough concrete, rats or other rodents had buried into the wall and had knocked all the stone into the sewer pipe blocking it up. He managed to get all the stone out but it is still going to be a dig up the ground job and reinforce the wall again, it is under a wall too which doesn't help.

Ba$tards....Bloody rats......I know what your going through....caught 7 in house before I found out they tunnelled in through a part of pipe that wasnt blocked off in man hole....They actually tunnelled under the shale and into house where I put a downstairs loo......

Gangu

How much did it cost you to fix it in the end?