Blocked Drains

Dr. DRiP Plumbing helps you understand Sydney’s home drainage system for a better understanding of the repercussions of a blockage at home. In order to deal with blocked drains there are overflow gullies. They look like grate drains, but on the outside the building. The purpose of these is to save the property from sewer overflows within. It is mandatory by law to maintain the sewer overflow gullies.

The authorities take full responsibility for the main line. If anything goes wrong with the main sewer line, they fix it and clear it as part of their responsibility. However, the line also has a junction that connects to your home. The ruling on the junction is that it is your responsibility. It could be in the middle of the street.

If there is a problem with the junction or any of the pipe work from the junction to your house, the maintenance becomes your responsibility – which is pretty hard at times if you have a collapsed pipe in the middle of the busy street! It can be very costly.

Depending on the area, your home has either a sewer shaft or a boundary trap. The boundary trap has its own water seal that prevent any sewer odour emitting from the main. If you have a sewer shaft there is no water seal. The sewer shaft uses the venting in the house to help vent the main sewer.

If you have a sewer shaft, the odour from the main will travel through your line and out of the vent on the roof of the house. This happens in the case of most houses in the neighbourhood. Previously, the sewer mains had boundary traps and the Water Board would regulate their own vent line. This is the main difference between a sewer shaft and a boundary trap.

The boundary trap or sewer shaft is usually a metre or two metres within the boundary of your property. It has a BTS on top, which is very handy for access into the sewer line. Looking down the BTS there is a junction that runs up to the house line. Normally, most sewer lines run along the sides of the house and link with different branches within the house and an overflow gully. The idea behind the design of this gully is that if the Water Board’s main actually gets blocked, it does not affect the inside of your house and potentially flood the bathrooms, for example.

If the Water Board’s main blocks and your house is at the lowest point, the sewer is directed towards the lowest point. The gullies are part of a safety mechanism. If the water main clogs, the sewer spillage will come up through your boundary shaft or boundary trap. It will flow up your line and will get to your overflow gully. The sewer will spill from your overflow gully. However, if you didn’t have an overflow gully, the spillage would actually get into the home and come up at the lowest point, which is normally the shower or floor-waste.

In the past, people who did not understand the functionality of the gully, cemented it and put a gnome on top as an ornament. That is certainly not a wise thing to do. These people had a recurring problem with the surcharge in their bathroom and sewer spillage in their living rooms! It is very important to keep the lids free as they can pop off. Some people like to seal the lids down with silicon, which again is wrong. The reason for the lids being maintained loose is for them to be able to pop off in an emergency. This is very, very important.

Suppose you are at home and the toilet shows no signs of blocking, but you hear a gurgling sound. It is an indication that the gurgling sound is something going on within the sewer outside. You might even hear a ‘blub blub’ sound when you allow the bath or floor waste to drain slowly. This is an alarm that there’s a problem in the sewer line and you need to do something about it. The gully outside could be overflowing or blocked.

The best known indications of blockage are when the toilet pan rises or when rinse water from the washing machine or your bath goes down very, very slowly. The problem needs to be sorted. There are a number of things you can do to take care of the problem. Call for Dr. DRiP Plumbing in Sydney. We come out there promptly and help solve the problem. We specialise with blocked drains and have the latest equipment such as a high pressure drain cleaner. We do have electric eels, but the outdated equipment is not in use much these days.

We use sewer cameras and tracking devices to track where exactly the blockage may be, like the middle of your driveway! It would be very difficult to find without this equipment. The sewer camera shows you exactly where the problem lies and what needs to be repaired. But probably one of the best things about the sewer cameras is the tracking device. With the help of the tracking device, wherever the camera head is sitting, the location can be tracked.

Previously, the operation would include knocking up about 4 or 5 metres of the driveway to find the pipe and fix the problem. Today, we cut a hole of a metre square and dig down the precise spot, find the line and repair it. The sewer camera actually saves you a lot of money. We make the technology available to our clients to save money, time and effort. Henceforth, if you identify gurgling noises, excess water or slow draining of rinse water call for Dr DRiP Plumbing in Sydney. Our service team will be out there in no time at all!

About the Author

Andrew Smith has been operating his own successful maintenance plumbing business in Sydney since 2001.
For more how-to information and special offers visit the website at www.drdrip.com.au

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