Removal of solidified tile cement from inside main drain pipe

beer enigma

I know this is an odd one, but I figure if anyone knows the answer its in this forum.

Ill set the scene first if I may.

A couple of years ago we had a major extension completed on our house, we were out of it for some time during the work, so drains etc were hardly used. Some time after the builders had left, we noticed the main drain from the house to the party drain was backing up. We rodded it and eventually got out a chunk of breeze block that had obviously fallen into the drain while the builders were working. Subsequent to getting the block out, the drain periodically kept blocking, so we put a camera down.

Transpires that the builders had obviously put a load of either cement or tile cement down the drain and where the drain was blocked, the cement has solidified around the inside of the pipe. I guess with only builders using the loos, there wasn't much water to flush it through.

We are occasionally getting curved pieces of what looks like tile cement coming out when we rod it ( every 4 weeks now)

I'm just wondering if anyone in the building community either knows of something that I could flood the pipe with to dissolve the solidified cement ( I can probably block the bottom) or has any other ideas.

The distance between the house and the party sewer is 250ft and the sideway isn't big enough for a mini digger, so digging out the pipe by hand isn't really an option.

Any thoughts gratefully received

Cheers

Andi

A fella called fish

There are companies who can cut the concrete out using a small remote controlled saw (similar to the vehicle used for drain CCTV). I can't recall who does this but Dynorod or similar will point you in the right direction.

Max Moment

I would be careful with one. I have seen a similar scenario where the entire pipe was destroyed when using one of these 'specialists' to cut out the concrete blockage. Yes there are some good contractors out there who will do it, but there are others who will chance their arm and you could end up in a worse position of having to dig up and relay a pipe / floor should the concrete cutting not work out.

The first thing I would do is get a CCTV survey completed to see the extent of exactly what you are dealing with. As mentioned below, Dynorod or equivalent would be a good option. These guys have high pressure jetting equipment also which might be enough to dislodge the blockage.

Have you any idea what pipe material you have? I would be against pouring any solvents or similar down the pipes as this could potentially eat away at the pipe wall depending on the material.

beer enigma

Max Moment wrote: »

I would be careful with one. I have seen a similar scenario where the entire pipe was destroyed when using one of these 'specialists' to cut out the concrete blockage. Yes there are some good contractors out there who will do it, but there are others who will chance their arm and you could end up in a worse position of having to dig up and relay a pipe / floor should the concrete cutting not work out.

The first thing I would do is get a CCTV survey completed to see the extent of exactly what you are dealing with. As mentioned below, Dynorod or equivalent would be a good option. These guys have high pressure jetting equipment also which might be enough to dislodge the blockage.

Have you any idea what pipe material you have? I would be against pouring any solvents or similar down the pipes as this could potentially eat away at the pipe wall depending on the material.

The pipe is one of the old ones, house was built in 1950's and I've isolated the main blockage to an 8 ft section, its been suggested to dig this part up and slice the top of the pipe off for inspection