Water in the basement

[cjanker]

Afternoon all

For some weeks now, I've had a small flood in my cellar (I live about 100 yards from the top of Upland Road) from water rising up through a soak-away drain that the previous owners had cut into the floor. After quite a long wait, I finally had Thames Water in on Friday. They deny its their fault as they found no leaks on the pipes running onto/away from the property, and Southwark Council say it's got nothing to do with them either despite there being high water levels in the gullies nearest the house.

So before I get an independent surveyor in, I thought I'd see whether others in the area are having trouble. Any input very gratefully received!!

(PS: the good news is that it's definitely not sewage)

[Miss P]

Might be worth a call to your buildings insurer?

[Pugwash]

ED is full of underground streams. we in Barry Road have streams under the cellar which every so many years make the floor damp. Usually happens after a very long period of rain over several weeks.

[lizbells6]

We had a similar problem. Are you in a Victorian terrace? If so the drains are probably shared in pairs of houses. Ours go across to our neighbour's rear side return, join theirs and go out to the road under their house. Thames Water are responsible for the shared drain from the junction out to the road.

In our case, they checked there was no blockage using dye and then went on about underground streams and London clay. Finally some nice TW man checked the rodding point in the front garden of the neighbour on the other side and found theirs was badly blocked so had been seeping in to our cellar. After that was unblocked we didn't have any more problems.

Don't know if any of this applies in your case though.

[L16579]

The top of Upland Road being the Peckham Rye End? We are at the Lordship Lane end and have been have issues with damp in the cellar all summer...

[Pugwash]

We have a combined sewer which comes across our back garden and down our side return ( we are in a semi detached)

We had sewage (liquid) rise in the cellar many years ago and discovered that building works on other side of Barry Road - builders had let bricks/debris fall into sewer which caused the main sewer in road to block up and liquid sewage seeping into our cellar.

Next time - our neighbours had been flushing nappies down the toilet and this had blocked the combined sewage. As we could prove that we did not have young children, the neighbours had to pay for the bill.

[jollymummy]

We had this on Friern last year. Usually after very heavy rainfall. Several cellars in our Victorian Terrace were using a shared sewer that would flood through the service hatch in the floor as you have. We flooded twice and Thames Water eventually gave us about ?1k for the damaged items in the cellar.

The problem is the storm water and the sewage all goes down the same drain - this is not allowed in new builds. Our shared sewer had a Buchan Trap just out by the pavement, and the heavy rainfall was clogging this up with leaves/twigs etc. Sewage/rain water then backfills up into the cellar - not nice.

Thames Water came out about 100 times, shoved camera's in the sewer, did loads of investigation, denied it was their fault - all the usual rubbish - but eventually sorted it out by replacing all the traps on the road I think. It was a bit of a battle, but no floods since!

[atb01]

as lizbells said it is possible overflow from neighbours blocked gully - or yours - seeping down the side of the house through the brickwork.

[SteveUK1978]

I wouldn't put it on the radar of your insurer till you know a bit more about the issue - once they get wind of things the renewal premiums have a habit of shooting up, even if you don't make a claim.

[cjanker]

Thanks all - sorry for delay, been overseas.

In the days I've been away, the house has shifted (that said, although one door is now sticky, a number of cracks in the wall have closed so it's not all bad!) but all the same I reckon I can't really delay any longer.

Any recommendations for drainage/structural engineers, or otherwise for tanking specialists, would be very gratefully received!!

[Senor Chevalier]

I would not hesitate in recommending Dry Waterproofing. I had bad experiences with the

big waterproofing companies who just want to sell their products whether you need them or

not.

I've seen Dry Waterproofing twice recommended less intervention or alternate

works (improved ventilation) as it is the right solution even if though they make less or no money on it.

[email protected]

07972 896188

good luck.