A few weeks ago we received a call from a very upset customer who had explained that their flat was flooded with raw sewage. After re-assuring the customer that we would attend site straight away, I geared up and jumped in the van. Before even getting to the customers property he had already called back to say it was getting worse!

Arrival

As soon as I arrived on site I could immediately see what caused the customers flat to flood with waste. It was down to them being on the bottom floor of a block of flats that were running on a single soil and vent pipe that was blocked. With the soil and vent pipe being blocked it meant that any waste water that was being flushed through was backing up in the customers toilet, bath and basins.

Discovery

After climbing 5 flights of stairs I then began having conversations with the tenants/owners of the other flats. I managed to get everyone to stop using any appliances that would run through the soil and vent pipe. The fun started with locating the blockage and getting it cleared. I started by looking around outside in the main carpark that was adjacent the the bottom flat. I located a small inspection chamber that was full with waste. My drainage instincts and knowledge kicked in I then located a main man hole about 30 yards away from the small chamber. Upon opening the man hole I could see that there was a pipe run coming from the direction of the inspection chamber. I then used the CCTV camera to investigate the pipework to find the head of the blockage. The camera revealed that 3/4 yards away from the small inspection chamber there was a kids toy!

Now that I’d discovered the cause of the block, I went back to the van and grabbed some drainage rods. I placed a set of gully grabbers on the pipe run that enters into the main man hole so that I would be able to retrieve the item. With 1 push of the drainage rods into the inspection chamber pipe run the blockage cleared and was gushing away! The gully grabbers managed to catch the small item while the rest of the waste flowed away!

Cleared

Once the blockage was cleared and both the manhole and inspection chamber were empty of waste. I asked the other flat owners/tenants to flush through their water appliances. Now the clean up starts! Using the wet vac I managed to clear a lot of waste from the bottom floor flat, 15 wetvacs full to be exact! A flat full of floaters solved with 1 push of a rod. What a job that was!