Information and Guidance for Blocked Drains

How do I know if my drains are blocked?

There are a number of ways you can tell if your drains are blocked. The most common one is if your toilet does not empty when you flush your toilet. This could be caused by a blocked stack. In some extreme cases you may find effluent coming up through other plumbed devices like sinks and baths etc.

Another tell tell sign is that you may experience some rather nasty smells aminating from your bathrooms and or kitchen in conjunction with strange bubbling sounds. This is where there is a slight blockage and not all waste can flow easily. You may also have effluent leakage from external Man holes covers.

Depending on the age and location of your property you may have a pumping station for your developlment. These are normally green small sheds. If these are faulty these will also cause you to have drainage problems.

What normally causes blocked drains?

Basically anything and everything can cause drains to block up . Here are the usual culprits, they include:

  • Roots from trees and shrubs
  • Cooking Oil and fat
  • Cotton buds
  • Tooth floss
  • Condoms
  • Sanitary Pads and tampons
  • Nappies
  • Baby wipes
  • Cleaning Wipes
  • Make-up removal pads
  • Collapsed drainage collars
  • Calcium Deposits

What do I do if my drains are blocked?

First of all don't panic, call us today and we will send one of our engineers to site immediately. Normally the first thing a drainage engineer will do is try and locate the drain that is blocked. Then they will use specialist rods to try and unblock the drain. If this is not successful the next course of action is to use high pressure water (similar to a jet wash but on a larger scale) to try and force the blockage out to a service area. If this is still not successful a camera will be put down the system to see what is causing the problem. With this information a full survey can be generated.

What can I flush down the toilet?

To ensure you never get blocked drains make sure ONLY human waste and toilet paper gets flushed! Failure to follow this very simple rule can be very damaging and ultimately expensive in the long term.

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