Full fat drains-not for the faint- hearted!
Just before Christmas, while I was away, collecting my mum and her sister, Martin realised we had a major problem with our kitchen sink- the water wouldn't drain away properly. Fortunately, most of the food prep had already been done, and we do have a second sink in the kitchen which we could use.However, over Christmas we couldn't use the dishwasher or new water softener, and still had the worry of what was causing the problem, hanging over us.
Yesterday, while I was on my way home, Martin and a plumber were trying, in vain, to solve the problem, and fearing the worst that we had a broken waste pipe under the kitchen floor.
This morning, in pouring rain, two guys with clever investigative and drain jetting equipment turned up. They examined the drains using CCTV, via the manhole outside the front of the house, but still couldn't find a blockage. Then they realised there was another manhole to the side of the house, and that the waste pipe from the sink might drain away at right angles to most other waste pipes. We still weren't exactly "home and dry" as we were still outdoors and it was still raining hard, but at least probing down the second manhole seemed a more attractive proposition than disconnecting all the pipework under the sink and excavating under the floor. Very soon, Jordan and Ryan had identified we had an embarrassingly large "fat berg" lodged in the pipe, which needed several goes with a high pressure water jet to clear. In the photo you can see Jordan operating the drain jet, before he rechecks the drain using the endoscopic type camera, attached to a computer screen, on the the left . In the centre of the picture you can see the pile of pieces of "fatberg", which he retrieved, representing an accumulation over 30 years! Soon after this, we watched the screen in delight as the camera passed along a clear drain, and the kitchen ceiling came into view through the sink plughole (well nearly!!) and we celebrated fast flowing washing up water once more.
It is a salutary lesson because even though we try not to put fats and oils down the sink, apparently, even soaps will clog the drains. It probably helps if the drain is on a steeper gradient and water falls more quickly than it does in our house.
Call us odd, but J and R made our day for us!
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