Blocked external drain

[????]

...anyone know anyone other than Dynorod?

[*Bob*]

Have you had a look yourself, ?????

If its just the rainwater drain and it's close to the gutter downpipe, chances are all you'll have to do if lift the manhole cover and pull out a few handfuls of decomposed leaves n stuff underneath, then chuck a couple of buckets of water down the drain with the cover off so you see it's running clearly. Five minutes.

There are a few dudes around who charge a flat fee to unblock.. ?75 or more - and stress this is a flat fee 'whatever needs doing'.. Though you may feel a pang of irritation when they lift the cover, remove a handful of muck and leave in five minutes with ?75.

[reggie]

It takes 5 minutes and you have the pleasure of seeing the water swirling down the drain hole...but wash your hands afterwards...simples.

[KalamityKel]

I'd just move :-D

[Otta]

Had this last year, and as others have said, defo try yourself.

I got the grate up with a garden hand fork, then just used a plunger and chucked sone boiking water down.

The grate was disgusting though.

[DaveR]

If you do need to call someone I would recommend Don the Drain. Don't have his no. to hand but google will find him

[MrBen]

All good advice...but if you happen to live on say er, Fellbrigg Road, it depends which drain (front or rear) is blocked. On Fellbrigg, you'll have a drain at the rear with a manhole cover that takes your waste water (from drain pipes) and sewage (toilet stack) directly under the house to connect with the main drain on the street. You will probably also have a drain cover in the front yard bit (although some have covered this with "decorative artic pebbles" from Homebase, so you'll have to look under that).

If it's a rear drainpipe then do as Otta and *Bob* say. If you lift that rear manhole and its blocked, chances are its blocked by the pavement (at the front of the house) and backing up because the Victorian builders didn't lay the pipes at enough of a gradient. Quite possibly behind 35 years worth of family turds. Should that be the case, a man with a leaded pressure washer (Dynorod etc) is required.

[*Bob*]

I find the 'fixed price' policy annoying. I believe D t D offers the same. Let's be honest, it's built on the knowledge there are loads of piss-easy jobs which will take no time at all and allow you to fleece your clients for the privilege. The fleeting reassurance you feel - that it's only going to cost you X pounds - turns into irritation when you realise how easy the job is - and that they knew it was going to be a cinch before they arrived.

Personally I'd feel like a bit of a git if that was me.

By contrast, a couple of the plumbers I have used will sometimes say (after a brief description over the phone) 'look, this job's a piece of cake - you could do it yourself really if you wanted to' - before giving me the option to have them come out and charge me ?60 or whatever to do it if I can't be arsed. That's why the work for those people is ongoing - and they get to do the bigger jobs when they arise.

[david_carnell]

You can try to borrow a "plumbers snake" and do the job yourself?

[red devil]

david_carnell Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> You can try to borrow a "plumbers snake" and do

> the job yourself?

You can get one of them on Grindr...

[*Bob*]

That's Plumbr you're thinking of

[woodrot]

feckin baby wipes kill teh drains. I had to extract about a Kg of them from ours some years ago. I did discover a bit fat leech emeshed in the feacal tinged sodden mess, so not all bad